Does HR Technology Reinforce Classism at Work?

Classism at work isn’t an easy conversation to have even when you’d agree that it lurks beneath the surface of many corporate strategies. In all this time within the HR tech sector, I’ve had the opportunity to examine how the inner workings of workforce segmentation inevitably play up in the way HR technology is bought, implemented, and adopted. And some of what I’ve found can be pretty unsettling.

Organizations often segment their workforce into distinct categories: permanent employees, contractors, labor, and specialized roles for operational and legal reasons. This makes sense. It’s an efficient structure. However, there’s an unintended consequence to this segmentation: it adds layers of complexity in managing human resources, and more critically, it risks reinforcing a kind of digital classism.

As HR tech advances, it should ideally bridge gaps between these categories. Yet, what I’ve noticed is that enterprise-level tools are frequently designed with permanent, non-labor employees in mind. The rest, contract staff and laborers, often find themselves with less sophisticated, poorly integrated systems, if they have access at all.

This imbalance raises an important question: Could HR tech, unintentionally, be deepening the class divide within the workplace?

The answer depends on the strategic decisions companies make. If you can acknowledge and address this bias, HR technology has the potential to be a great equalizer, ensuring that all employees, regardless of their role, receive the same level of attention, care, and innovation. It’s time for an approach that breaks down digital barriers, not reinforces them.

Classism at Work: The Unspoken Divide Created By HR Tech Solutions

Let’s take a closer look at what’s really happening when it comes to HR technology and digital classism.

Classism in HR technology starts right at the beginning when companies design or buy HR tools that cater mainly to permanent, non-labor employees. The assumption often is that these employees need more advanced systems for talent management, learning, and engagement. Meanwhile, the labor workforce and contract employees are often left with basic applications or even manual processes.

This automatically creates a gap in how different employee groups experience work.

Permanent non-labor employees might use enterprise-level tools with performance management, 360-degree feedback, and AI insights. In contrast, labor workers often get only the essentials like payroll and attendance tracking, missing out on career development, learning, or engagement features.

While the nature of work is different for each group, outrightly dismissing the tech needs of labor employees can have real consequences. A factory worker might be just as eager for growth and learning as an office worker. But if the systems don’t provide for that, it reinforces a sense of being undervalued within the organization.

When you look closely into your HR tech ecosystem, you’ll most likely notice three distinct categories of tools often working in silos.

1. Enterprise-Level HRMS for Permanent Non-Labor 

Enterprise-level HRMS solutions are typically deployed for permanent employees in non-labor categories. These platforms offer a wide array of functionalities, including talent management, recruitment, learning and development, and payroll. Since this category includes high-ranking and skilled employees, organizations often prioritize these systems to ensure a robust and feature-rich experience.

2. HR Tech Solutions for Permanent Labor 

The permanent labor workforce has some additional needs above and beyond what you see among the permanent, non-labor workforce. While payroll and time tracking are important, labor-centric systems must also account for compliance with labor laws, occupational health and safety tracking, and skills certification. 

3. Managing Contractual Labor with Specialized Applications 

The management of contractual labor usually happens through specialized applications (or even manually) designed to handle the unique challenges of temporary staffing, such as project-based assignments, varying pay structures, and compliance with temporary labor laws. 

While each of these systems may make sense from an operational and legal standpoint, they create vastly different employee experiences. The permanent, non-labor workforce is offered an environment of growth, learning, and engagement, while labor and contract workers are often left with basic tools that meet compliance but little else. This digital classism reinforces a hierarchy where some employees are seen as more valuable than others, simply because of the tools they are given access to.

To truly break down these digital walls, HR technology must evolve to offer an equitable experience across all employee groups, regardless of their job title or contract type. Only then can companies create a more inclusive, engaged, and productive workforce.

Overcoming Classism in HR Tech. This Matters!

To avoid classism in HR tech, organizations should adopt a holistic approach to the design and deployment of HR solutions.

Each workforce category requires specialized tools, but they also need to be interconnected to form a unified HRMS. 

The key to overcoming classism in HR tech is to ensure that the various HR systems for each workforce category are not operating in silos. Instead, these systems should feed into a unified, central HRMS that provides a 360-degree view of the organization’s talent landscape.

Integrating all the above solutions with the company’s HRMS ensures that temporary workers are still tracked in the larger talent pool, enabling data-driven decisions about re-engagement and future hiring. Additionally, the tools can feed talent data back into the HRMS for permanent employees, creating a comprehensive overview of available talent and aiding workforce planning.

HR tech strategies must evolve to address the specific needs of different employee categories while ensuring an equitable approach. 

Designing your HR system for each workforce segment requires choosing the right solutions and ensuring their interplay. Integration across categories is essential to eliminate classism, allowing for a seamless flow of data and more effective management of the entire workforce. 

That’s also where Nuest Consulting can make a difference. We help organizations gain full control of their HR landscape and address these design elements to foster a more inclusive HR tech strategy that respects the contributions of all worker categories.

You can book a strategy call with us today!