Keeping up with HR & Talent Technology

Keeping up with the latest in HR and Talent Technology should be easy – there is a lot of information available. But – Who do you listen to? What do you read? What do you believe after you have read, listened to and spoken to everybody? 

I wish I could gather all the information for you, put it all into a giant mixer, add some colour, a bit of flavouring maybe some ice-cream and serve it up in a gorgeous glass with a cherry on top. Sometimes dreams do come true – but not this one. We need to keep ourselves educated and informed on the latest trends and projections in our industry. With some help (if you would like it), you adapt that thinking – along with thoughtful actions and relevant outcomes – to your situation and organisation. 

You are in luck because it is the season to read the new surveys and reports that get released at this time each year. The ones I read every single year are linked to below – these are agnostic, have a number of years combined data behind them and are easy to read. There are also many high quality reports published by the large consulting firms, you can search them out yourself. 

Some of the top influencers in this field are in the process of producing their own research at the moment, you can subscribe to their email to keep informed. 

Navigo 7th Australian HR Tech Survey

Focused on the Australian market, an easy to read and digest report. The overall trends and market shifts documented, give you a good foundation on which to continue your own research. With SME’s forming a large portion of the respondents, you see a good picture of the slice of the market that is catered to by point solutions and 2nd tier providers. It is interesting to see Workday appearing in this sector of the market (according to the survey). Navigo have included team collaboration tools this time round. 

Sierra-Cedar 2019-2020 HR Systems Survey 22nd Edition

This is solid research that reaches out globally, but most respondents are from North America – this is changing though! As with Navigo, Sierra-Cedar are seeing an increase in spending sentiment for Talent and Core HR systems. Also analysed are the types of HR jobs that are expected to increase – we see analytics appearing at the top here. This trend is expected to continue globally as HR teams continue to expand their analytics capabilities.

A final report, that is used to inform the HR Innovation & Tech Fest each year is also worth reading. It is an interesting read and again you can read each year and track the overall sentiment of HR Tech professionals over the past 6 years. 

Full disclosure, I am involved with this year’s HR Innovation & Tech Fest, as I have been since the beginning. 

Image: Unsplash, Lidya Nada

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Thank you for reading. Here at LinkedIn I write about HR, Employee Experience and the digital workplace. Connect with me to talk about what you need to know as an HR professional in the digital world, HR technology, my time in New York or dogs. Find me on email sarah@mooreatwork.com and on twitter @SaraMooreatWork.

Invest, don’t Divest – 5 reasons why you should keep investing in your HR transformation

Irene Kredenets @Unsplash

As Australia (and the world) goes through market and economic challenges, let’s talk about the reasons why you should keep investing in your people and technology. 

If you are like me, and have been around the block a few times, or as I like to say ‘seen a few economic cycles’ – your antennae will already be tuned to the current economic talk. You will be getting yourself and your business ready to weather any potential storms. 

If the economy slows down, what can you do to get ready? Answer – You need to be smart about what you do to get your organisation ready for possible turbulence ahead. Take stock of your current projects and organisational priorities. Take the time to understand them on a deeper level, and the contribution they are making. This is the time to adjust your course, if you need to, keeping in mind the bottom line, employee experience and client loyalty. 

What will happen when the economy picks up again? Answer – Hopefully, you will be able to pick up the pace of your transformation and projects. You may have slowed down your activities and reprioritized them, but you didn’t stop them. 

What can you do during these times while keeping your costs low(er)? In my experience, I have done the following:

  1. Keep progressing with transformation projects. Slow down slightly if you must, but do not cancel them or put them on hold. Your teams need to see progress and positive actions during uncertain times. 
  2. Upskill your people. Now is the time to help people identify gaps in their skill base. Help them make a plan to address this. It gives you better skilled employees, and makes them more marketable. You will also keep them motivated for when your transformation project comes on line. Implementing an on-line learning platform with preloaded content is a cost effective way to start. 
  3. Get your project business case in order. If you slow-down slightly, make sure you have your business case in top shape so you can definitely get those approvals. Include the benefits and cost savings – tangible and intangible. You can refine this in-house with assistance from external experts to guide you. 
  4. Stakeholder management and engagement. Engage on a deeper level with your senior stakeholders. You will have more time and not be rushed. There is time to take them through the project and the benefits to the organisation. Particularly during more difficult times. 
  5. Invest in mindset changes. This is a perfect time to work with your core teams and work on their mindset towards transformation. 

In any downturn it’s your people that will help you get through to the other side, so by continuing to invest and giving them a great employee experience it sets you up nicely for future stability and growth.

 

Found this useful? Please share amongst your connections.

Thank you for reading. I write about HR, Employee Experience and the digital workplace. Connect with me to talk about what you need to know as an HR professional in the digital world, HR technology, my time in New York or dogs. Find me on email sarah@mooreatwork.com and on twitter @SaraMooreatWork or Sarah Moore on LinkedIn

 

Podcasts to Drink Coffee by

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

One of life’s great pleasures is a cup of coffee and good conversation. It was during one of these conversations that I had the honour of explaining ‘what is a podcast’ to one of my dear friends. I had a similar conversation a year ago with another friend as she explained the world of podcasts to me! Like books and reading, podcasts are a spark of joy, wonder and escapism in this crazy world.

Keeping on top of everything in this content heavy world that is vying for our ever decreasing attention span, takes creativity – podcasts are no different. New research from March 2019 states there are over 660,000 podcasts worldwide.

In my industry – work and HR technology – listening to podcasts keeps me up to date with the latest trends and injects new voices and opinions into my thinking. It is heartening to see specific series that focus on work and work related issues. Here are my favourites:

Let’s Fix Work – Laurie Ruettimann

The Pineapple Project – Claire Hooper

This Working Life – ABC RN (Australia)

Work Life – Adam Grant

Humans of HR – Dave Guazzaroto, Jared Cameron, Matt Smith and Michelle Farrar-Eagles

Check them out and add them to your next conversation instead of talking about how awful the commute to work was.

Looking at a new HR system? Slow down, take a few deep breaths first!

Buying HR software is a huge, disruptive series of events that changes your work life and that of those around you. The cost financially is huge, the potential for blown budgets, high stress, and poor decision making infinite. The change impacts can be immense. The direction you take in buying HR Technology will have different paths – one with gentle hills, wide roads and just the odd speed bump to navigate. The other, a steep winding track up a mountain where you constantly teeter on the edge of the sheer drop below!

The impulse is to talk to vendors too early, so take a deep breath, and assess what you need first:

Know what your organisation needs

Knowing what you (or your executive team) want, and what the organisation needs, might be two different things. Talk to your employees, HR team, marketing team, IT team and finance team. Dig deep into what they need to do their jobs and make the experience better for employees.

Know where you and the project are heading

Develop your roadmap. Include the process re-alignment, service delivery model, data design, implementation and optimisation activities. All these activities are large projects in themselves.

No mention of software yet. No vendor conversations.

Get the right people on your team

It’s not rocket science, but make sure you have experienced and smart people on your team. At the risk of sounding like an HR nerd, you want a mix of capability, competence and capacity with people who have been there and done that, and those that want to learn. Have the guts to hire consultants to get it right the first time and guide you in your thinking. It is a false economy to scrimp and save on good resources.

Work out how much it will cost

Do your business case for the overall project which includes your internal costs, not just the software or subscription purchase. I know it sounds crazy saying ‘Don’t talk to vendors yet’, but there are other ways you can go about obtaining estimated costs without fully engaging with vendors at this stage. Remember, all that glitters is not gold.

Talk to vendors LAST (still no mention of the actual software)

Yes, that’s right. Do your demonstrations last. Once you know what you need, what the project looks like, who you need to help you and how much it will cost – THEN, do a scan of the market to see what products might work for your organisation. Have conversations with the sales people, customers and look at online reviews. Vendors will actually appreciate that you’ve done your research and know what you want as it helps them to better understand your needs and find a suitable solution.

This all sounds scary, and it can be, but with good planning and by involving people that can help you along the way, you can achieve a great outcome for the business and for you personally.

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If this article resonates with you, and you need some help and guidance, feel free to contact me.

Thank you for reading. I write about HR, Employee Experience and the digital workplace. Connect with me to talk about what you need to know as a HR professional in the digital world, HR technology, my year in New York or dogs. Find me on email sarah@mooreatwork.com and on twitter @SaraMooreatWork.

HR Tech Fest 2018 Review

HR Tech Fest 2018 cranked it up a notch, thanks to the self deprecating humour of Master of Ceremonies(this may or may not be a throwback YouTube clip). As he said, if you are under 30 (and Australian) you will probably ask ‘who?’ and if you are over 30 you will say ‘what happened to you?’. Anyway, it set the tone for a fun, fast paced and relaxed conference.

Running through the conference were 3 meta-themes – Happiness, Diversity and Inclusion and HR in the Flow of Work. Ok, the last one, is a term Josh Bersin has been speaking about this last conference season, but regulars to the conference circuit will see that that this idea has been percolating around the edges for a number of years – we just didn’t know what to call it! Thanks Josh!

HR Technology and Innovation Festival 2018 was jam packed with amazing speakers, great exhibitors and terrific networking. I cannot possibly mention everyone, but here is what inspired me the most.

Alexander Kjerulf kicked us off in fine style giving us his take on happiness at work and how it is THE most important thing we should consider. Who doesn’t want to be happy? At work OR at home? The Happiness theme appeared in a number of presentations under the guise of ‘employee engagement’ and ‘employee experience’. It is great to see Happiness being elevated to a keynote speech, supported by science and data.

Not normally a topic consider at a Technology conference, but I was super pleased to hear so many people (both on and off stage) talking about Diversity and Inclusion. And not in a tokenistic ‘we need to do this to hit our numbers’ way. The conversations were real, heartfelt and accompanied by actionable takeaways. My favourite was Carin Taylor, Chief Diversity Officer at Workday. She moved me to to tears with her stories and the way in which D & I is lived and breathed at Workday. I am cynical about these things, but if Workday are doing even a tenth of what they say they are – then there is hope for us all yet. She showed this video, grab a tissue. Good job!

Bill Boorman, a regular speaker in Australia (and the rest of the world) on all things Talent Acquisition, also spoke about Diversity & Inclusion and how it is time for HR to take the ball and run with it.

Now on to the Flavour of the Month (year perhaps). Productivity with Purpose or HR in the Flow of Work is not a new concept, we have known about it for a while (indeed Jason Averbook has been skirting around the edges of this in his own way – ‘frictionless experience’). Josh and his team have articulated it brilliantly – backing the ideas up with easy to understand graphics and explanations. If you were not at the conference, you can go to his website (link below) and you will find the presentation. You will need a few cups of tea (or glasses of champagne) to read it, digest it and read it again.

And the  presentations that inspired me the most:

Dr Amantha Amber from Inventium had us all wanting to implement Innovation Teams and strategies NOW! I have been a regular reader and fan of Amantha’s for a number of years. Innovation Thinking is the Next Big Thing. Start reading about it, and practicing it now – you will be glad you did in 10 years time (you are welcome).

Andrew Culleton and Dom Price are both doing fabulous things for HR and Innovation in Australia. They are world class professionals with amazing stories to tell of the work in their respective organisations CBA and Atlassian.

Andrew gave us an update on HR Sidekick which we first saw at TechFest 3 years ago. Andrew manages to finance this amazing bespoke technology from within his own budget, by demonstrating the cost savings of the technology. I loved his work then, and I still love it.

Dom Price regularly speaks (hilariously and peppered with the F word) and writes about the Future of Work. Unlike some, he is actually practicing what he is preaching. The great thing about Atlassian and what Dom showcased, is the Team Rater is all open source. Thanks Atlassian!

One of the great things about The Eventful Group shows, is they have speakers that operate on the fringes of the industry the conference is marketed to. Natalie Peters from Telstra is one of those people. She spoke about a massive change program she is leading. She is dynamic, smart and willing to try something different to get the job done. Look out for some changes coming your way from Telstra!

In conversation with Bill Boorman, we agreed that those of us who are lucky enough (privileged even) to attend the conferences that we do – it is our job to keep pushing the conversations into areas such as D & I, Happiness and HR in the Flow of Work. It is our job to pass on information, thoughts and knowledge to our friends and colleagues who are not able to get along to Tech Fest – to keep educating our community and raising the bar. Thanks again to The Eventful Group for a brilliant conference. We look forward to next year!

Find out more (or do your own google search):

Andrew Daddo (his real website)

Josh Bersin

Carin Taylor

Alexander Kjerulf

Natalie Peters

Dom Price

Dr Amantha Amber

HR Tech Fest 2018. Best Conference You Will Ever Attend.

Trust me.  I am in HR!

Starting a new job in HR technology about 5 years ago, I found out that it was lonely, hard and there were not that many people around I could talk to that understood what I was trying to do. God knows I tried, (large software company, I am looking at you) but no one would listen. Frustrating, right?

So I convinced my (very new) boss, that I had to go to HR Tech Fest to find out all the things we needed to know. 

HR Tech and Innovation Fest is now in it’s 5th year in Australia. This conference has something for everyone in HR, HR Technology, Talent Acquisition and now Learning!

Things I said yes to because 5 years ago I took a chance on a new conference in town.

  • Yes, I will speak at Tech Fest next year (did I just agree to that?)
  • Yes, I will speak at a conference in a different country (Best.Thing.Ever)
  • Yes, I would love to work in your start-up in the USA (A-maaazing experience)
  • Yes, let’s live in a beachside town and work remotely in HR Tech (True story!)

The world of HR Technology (and therefore HR) is maturing, particularly in Australia. The calibre of speakers and people you have the opportunity to speak to is of the highest quality (Have a chat with Bill Boorman, one of my speaking mentors).

One of the best things I ever did for my career, was attending the first HR Tech Fest. The people I met have been instrumental in advising me on my career. It was the best money and 2 days of my professional career I have ever spent. The opportunities it opened up were (and still are) endless.

If you want to come along, drop me a note so I can give you the code for a preferential rate, or email adam.beer@theeventfulgroup.com and mention me!

Hope to see you there. Get in touch if you want to connect or catch up at the conference.

We can swap HR war stories.

Photo by Simon Rae on Unsplash

What on earth is EX, and why do organisations need to embrace it?

Working in the United States for 12 months was an eye opener as there is virtually no protection for employees. With the most complex labour and tax laws, and benefits systems and processes I have worked with, the Employee Experience (EX) is a way for HR departments to design customer centric processes.

What is Employee Experience?

Employee Experience is essentially what individual employees encounter, good or bad, through their work journey. It’s everything from being a candidate, to On-boarding, the interaction with colleagues and managers, to the systems and processes they use. It is an holistic and inclusive view of the employee journey that organisations should embed into their everyday business and management of employees. Using the concepts of design thinking, you can use this to build a digitally enabled experience for your employees.

Out of necessity, the Employee Experience, based on the Customer Experience, has been evolving as a point of difference for HR to improve the lives of their employees. Done well, a thoughtful, custom-designed and realistic Employee Experience can most definitely help to increase engagement, reduce turnover and generally make everyone’s work lives more enjoyable.

The US is typically 5 to 7 years ahead of Australia when it comes to trends and practices in technology and sometimes the edgier side of Human Resources. Designing your Employee Experience is one of the trends we need to get behind in Australia.

Before you launch headlong into it, here are some questions to get you thinking:

Bespoke or Cookie Cutter?

Design the Employee Experience to suit your organisation. You will hear about wonderful, amazing and innovative Experiences in On-boarding, for example. These companies may have spent lots of time and money on implementation. But, this may not be the case for you; your high value Experience focus may be ‘seamlessly recording CPD points for accountants’. So, design what works for you. It might mean that you start with one experience – the one that you know can do better – CPD points. Once you have this under your belt, you have the confidence to tackle a more complex Experience, such as On-boarding.

How many employees do I need to have?

There are no minimum numbers. Of course, the more scale you have, the bigger the return on investment. But think about this, if you are a company of 100 people, and you have 5 people in your critical areas leave each year because their Experience at your company doesn’t meet their expectations, wouldn’t it make sense to redesign processes so employees want to stay? Even for an SME this is a lot of money and time saved.

I’ll be posting some more information on this in the coming weeks, but would love to chat in the meantime if you need some help or guidance.

Photo credit: Kevin Laminto at Unsplash

The Balance of Work Life

Recently my husband and I made a massive decision about our personal and professional lives. All based on the pretext of Work Life Balance. Although Work Life was the main driver.

Why? We’d both spent a number of years following the rule book about working in an office, for a corporate, with the 30min desk-based lunch break. But you know what? Rules are meant to be broken. So we did.

We have worked with some amazingly talented people who became friends, mentors, and future collaborators. Then there were the ‘challenging personalities’. And of course the Figjammers! Fortunately, these people were in the minority, but it’s amazing the way your thinking changes when you get damaged by a few of these people. You have a choice to make – stay on the corporate bus or ding the bell and get off at the next stop.

We recently spent time working in the US. The business model our respective employers had set up was a ‘remote’ one. It was good to work from home, but I missed the day to day interaction with people. I enjoyed not being exposed to the daily political cut and thrust of the office, but on the other hand, I missed having cake for no reason and a ready made social group.

We were living, and working in an apartment in Manhattan. Yes, both of us. Wife and husband, and two energetic dogs, 24/7 in a 2 bedroom apartment. Miraculously, we survived without killing each other!  We were ‘living the dream’. Literally.

When our time came to return to Australia, we took this experience and morphed it into something we wanted, not what the rule book said we should do. And we changed big time! The incessant noise of NYC (which we loved, by the way) was replaced with the constant crashing of waves as we moved to a small coastal town in Queensland. 2,500 people, 9 kilometres of beach at our back door and not even a set of traffic lights.

Friends and ex-colleagues challenged us – why, was the first thing everyone asked. The truth is, you cannot compete with New York. It’s an amazing, eclectic mix of fun and chaos. Working remotely in NY is far from remote work. If you need a break, you can grab the elevator to the lobby, and within 2 minutes have an array of distractions available to you. If the truth be known, probably too many distractions. To  get my fix of people watching, I would disappear into the city for a few hours at a time, coming home when I was too cold to go any further.

Could the major business centres in Australia offer us the life we craved? We felt they couldn’t, which pushed us into another major decision. What do we do for work? So we combined our collective experience and invented our own Work Life Balance.

It’s a risk, but apparently fortune favours the brave. Let’s hope it favours true balance of work and the life we hope to enjoy.

We should add, we are fortunate to be in the position of having flexibility in where we live and work. Many don’t have that option. But people can influence their own destiny, and we hope we can inspire friends and colleagues to break the rules!

Moving to the US was a 5 year plan in the making – so start planning now!

Photo credit: Sarah