Nearly a third (31%) of companies are to increase their spending on HR technology in the coming year as change in HR department grows, finds a survey of 628 global organisations from professional services company Towers Watson.

Overall, the majority (53%) expect to keep their HR technology spend level with last year’s, while 44% indicate they are likely to change the structure of their HR team, an increase from 26% last year.

Among companies about to make changes, 39% will move or revert to a shared services environment, while 31% will increase the number of shared services and 26% are likely to outsource functions.

The survey also finds that having one central HR function for the entire organisation is most common in single country organisations, at three-quarters of such organisations, compared to under a third in global organisations.

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