Over the past decade, HR technology has exploded. What began as a handful of core systems has evolved into sprawling ecosystems of point solutions, bolt-ons, analytics tools, automation platforms, and "must-have" AI products.
The result? Many HR teams now operate bloated, overlapping, and fragile tech stacks that are expensive to maintain, hard to govern, and confusing for employees and managers alike.
Yet simplification often feels risky. Leaders worry that removing tools will mean losing functionality, upsetting stakeholders, or setting HR back years.
The good news: simplification does not have to mean compromise. With the right approach, HR teams can reduce complexity and improve capability.
Most HR tech sprawl isn't caused by poor decision-making. It's usually the result of perfectly reasonable choices made over time:
Each tool solves a problem. But collectively, they create new ones.
Common symptoms of tool sprawl include:
At a certain point, the stack becomes the problem it was meant to solve.
A critical misconception in HR technology is equating capability with tool count.
In reality, capability comes from clarity of design, clean data flows, clear ownership, and tools working together rather than simply existing in parallel.
When HR stacks grow organically without an architectural view, the consequences are predictable:
In many organisations, less than 40 to 60% of available functionality in core systems is actively used while new tools are purchased to fill perceived gaps.
The path to simplification starts with a mindset shift.
Instead of asking "Which tools do we need?", HR leaders should ask: "Which capabilities must HR deliver, now and in the future?"
Examples of capabilities include:
Once capabilities are defined, tools can be assessed as enablers, not heroes.
This often reveals multiple tools supporting the same capability, core platforms already capable of more than expected, customisations masking standard functionality, and legacy tools kept "just in case."
Many HR teams believe they understand their tech stack until they map it properly.
A meaningful stack map should include:
This exercise alone often uncovers tools with no clear owner, redundant integrations, licences paid for unused modules, and critical dependencies no one realised existed.
You can't simplify what you can't see clearly.
One of the hardest parts of rationalisation is emotional attachment.
Tools often have internal champions, history and sunk cost, perceived political importance, and fear attached to removing them.
To move forward objectively, HR teams should evaluate tools against consistent criteria:
In many cases, the answer is not "remove everything," but rather to consolidate functionality into fewer platforms, retire tools that solved yesterday's problems, and reduce reliance on workaround systems.
Simplification should not be reactive. It should be architectural.
A strong HR tech architecture clearly defines:
Key principles of intentional design include one source of truth per data type, minimal duplication of functionality, clear integration ownership, configurable before custom, and global where possible with local where necessary.
This approach allows HR teams to say "no" to new tools without blocking innovation.
One of the strongest arguments for rationalisation is experience.
From an employee's perspective:
From a manager's perspective:
Often, removing one tool and improving another delivers a better experience than adding something new.
Technology should fade into the background, not demand attention.
Simplification without governance is temporary.
To avoid repeating the same cycle, HR teams need:
This does not mean slowing HR down. It means ensuring every new tool earns its place.
In an era of AI, skills-based organisations, and real-time workforce insights, clarity beats complexity.
HR teams with simpler, well-designed stacks move faster, adopt innovation more effectively, spend less on maintenance, deliver better employee experiences, and build trust in HR data and insights.
Simplification isn't about doing less. It's about doing the right things, intentionally, with the right tools.