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Traditional approaches to HR automation are decades old and require significant IT involvement (at least in large companies). This leads to the need to find a common language, learn to formulate tasks and go in an iterative way - imho rarely when IT solutions for personnel management "take off" immediately. A couple of years ago, everyone started talking about low code solutions as a new effective tool for self-automation, including in HR. Let's try to figure out how promising it is.
Low code or No code solutions are usually called programs for creating applications (most often for a computer and / or mobile platforms) that allow you to "assemble" the program you need from "bricks" without the need to write program code, sometimes using minimal formulas like in Excel or a few teams. This opportunity is advertised for ordinary users, and not for programmers by education. Although, in my opinion, it is not quite as convenient and rosy as their manufacturers say.
Low code programs are usually built on the basis of existing or newly created tables with data, or existing databases, and are also connected to standard HR systems such as SAP, Oracle, Salesforce. It is also usually possible to connect existing Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets - many HR processes are still conducted in simple table.
So, it is the capabilities described above that seem to be a big plus - instead of buying a cumbersome program and a long painful "implementation" and reworking it "for yourself", a citizen developer ("non-programming developer") can create a small application in 1 day for specific task, and then develop it themselves, without resorting to IT help. Even more:
You can change the interface several times a day to make an application really convenient for you and employees / managers - here it is, instant Employee Experience Management! You immediately connect all your old heavy Excels without migrating data. You do not need to discuss with IT the implementation of new features, you add them yourself. The application looks modern and does not require special skills; the cloud provider or the platform itself installed on your server is responsible for the reliability and uninterrupted operation.
A cloud-based subscription solution is not very expensive (compared to boxed HR systems), and you can often make as many applications as you want for a fixed price. After completing training on three leading low code platforms - Mendix, Microsoft PowerApps, Google AppSheet, and trying to create simple HR applications in each of them, but there are also disadvantages:
As soon as you try to create a complex workflow, or add calculations that are more complicated than arithmetic, you start to run into platform limitations, some of which are fundamentally insurmountable.
Low code is great for data collection tasks during linear HR processes - OKR, performance management, instant feedback communication, surveys, adaptation, interaction between the employee and the personnel service on documentary issues (hello to electronic document flow). But it is not very convenient to create content-rich and complex processes such as microlearning, event tracking, bonus management, budgeting and the like.
In the end, my opinion is this: yes, lowcode will be extremely useful for use in HR automation and analytics, but only in the hands of power users (users who understand IT) and not for all tasks. In my opinion, there was no magic pill for a typical HR employee.
