101: Hot Takes on the Future of HR Tech

[00:00:00] Join us on a journey where we unravel the latest trends, tackle your burning questions and explore innovative strategies that are shaping the future of compensation, all with a coffee in hand.

[00:00:14] Hello everybody and welcome to this episode of Comp and Coffee. I am back via a very long route due to the hurricane in the US last week from Las Vegas and from HR Tech.

[00:00:26] The HR Tech Conference took place last week and it's when many HR tech vendors, top industry analysts and thought leaders as well as senior HR and IT execs all come together to catch up on the latest developments in HR technology, not surprising, and transformation.

[00:00:43] It's a huge event. There are normally about 10,000 folks there and there's a lot to learn and absorb.

[00:00:49] It's a very loud event, come away very highly stimulated most of the time. And I thought it would be maybe nice just to share some of the takeaways from the time at HR Tech last week.

[00:01:03] And joining me at conference last week, I had two of my colleagues. I had Katie Harmon, who is director of channels here at Payscale, and Sarah Hillemeyer, who's senior director of data science.

[00:01:13] And they both joined me in Vegas. We were all there to learn and to listen, and we had a great time. So very happy to welcome both of you to the podcast today.

[00:01:23] So Sarah and Katie, do you want to first of all just say hi and introduce yourselves to the audience and give some background to your role here at Payscale?

[00:01:31] Who's going first? Sarah.

[00:01:32] I'll go first. Thanks for inviting me today, Ruth. I'm Sarah. I lead the data and AI teams within Payscale's R&D division.

[00:01:39] I've been at Payscale for about three years. My education and previous experience is in big data and artificial intelligence, various domains, including medicine, consumer electronics, kind of the whole gamut.

[00:01:54] Thank you. Katie, over to you.

[00:01:56] And I'm Katie Harmon. I have the honor of heading the channels and all things partnerships team here at Payscale.

[00:02:04] Thank you. Right. So we had fun in Vegas. I think for both of you, it was your first time at HR Tech.

[00:02:12] So what was your overall impression? I think, Katie, you're going to start us off here.

[00:02:17] Yeah, absolutely. So I knew this going in, but we don't deserve HR professionals.

[00:02:22] I think what made such an impression on me at this event was that people in HR Tech are really genuinely excited, not only about the work that they're doing, but the challenges that they're solving for.

[00:02:33] I think you could see it on the floor. You could feel it in the sessions.

[00:02:36] People were really engaged. They were excited to learn.

[00:02:39] I think a lot of times HR professionals get this reputation that everything they do is very, you know, buttoned up and by the bug.

[00:02:44] And I think what struck me there is that what I overwhelmingly saw was really creative disruptors that are really reimagining the world of HR.

[00:02:53] So just a very electric environment.

[00:02:57] And Sarah, what was your takeaway?

[00:02:59] Really similar. Yeah, I'm a builder.

[00:03:02] So I love going to conferences like HR Tech where vendors are showing off exciting things that they've built.

[00:03:08] The Expo Hall had what I think of as science fair energy, really neat ideas, creative approaches, and both like incremental and disruptive value adds for HR professional.

[00:03:20] I was also impressed, deeply impressed with the analyst sessions that took a higher level approach to describing the key trends in our field.

[00:03:28] I got a lot of value out of those.

[00:03:30] Great.

[00:03:30] Well, if I reflect on the week, there are probably several key themes I saw emerging, and I thought it'd be good for us to chat about some of those.

[00:03:40] So no one's going to be surprised in the audience when I say AI was one of the key themes.

[00:03:46] It has been probably for the last two to three years at HR Tech.

[00:03:50] I think back in 2022, it seemed like there was a lot of hype about AI, and there wasn't actually a lot of people doing anything without AI, or we weren't really able to see it within the solutions that were in market at the time.

[00:04:06] 23 flipped a bit.

[00:04:08] It became more of a cautionary tale.

[00:04:09] I think it was maybe when we're beginning to see some of the emerging legislation governing AI.

[00:04:13] And it became somewhat of a fear of going in, FOGO.

[00:04:18] That was a new term I heard at HR Tech.

[00:04:21] Charlene Lee, one of the keynote speakers, talked about that.

[00:04:23] So it's not FOMO, it's FOGO.

[00:04:25] So last year, everyone was very cautious about AI, and maybe we shouldn't be doing this total different field this year.

[00:04:32] It was all about agentic AI, and I'm going to get Sarah to explain what that is in a minute.

[00:04:38] And actually starting to see some pretty significant transformations in some of the HR solutions out there, and many use cases now coming to the forefront in terms of utilizing AI.

[00:04:51] So Sarah, I always describe you as our AI queen here at Payscale.

[00:04:55] What were your observations about AI, and can you explain to the audience what agentic AI is?

[00:05:01] Sure, sure.

[00:05:02] So I think your observation was spot on.

[00:05:06] The AI presence this year was real.

[00:05:08] What I was seeing there wasn't vaporware.

[00:05:11] It was real features and products coming to the market that have shown, at least with early adopters, big impact on professionals working in the HR domain and their ability to be efficient and do a great job.

[00:05:24] So I think it's real.

[00:05:25] I don't think it's all hype at this point and all excitement with no substance.

[00:05:31] The substance is there, too.

[00:05:34] Agentic AI refers to systems that can act on behalf of a user to take a series of actions that accomplish a bigger task.

[00:05:44] Usually, unlike, say, a chatbot, an agentic AI system is hooked up to tools that they need in order to actually do something on that user's behalf, rather than just respond with a text or a suggestion.

[00:05:58] So, for instance, if you built an agentic AI system that schedules appointments for you, it would be like hiring an admin assistant to do that job.

[00:06:07] You could tell the agent that you have a toothache, and the agent would access your calendar and your dentist's contact information and would interact with your dentist's office to schedule an appointment at a time that you're available, and then put that appointment on your calendar, rather than just saying, hey, you should go to the dentist, which a chatbot might do.

[00:06:26] Most of the agentic AI systems that we saw at HR tech and that we're seeing in this domain are designed to have a human in the loop.

[00:06:35] This means that they expect to be interacting with a user that accepts the suggested actions before those actions are taken.

[00:06:42] So, for instance, with the agent that I just described, it might prompt the user, you know, I can make a regular dentist appointment for you at a time when you're free.

[00:06:52] Is that the right action to take?

[00:06:53] And if you say yes, then it takes that action.

[00:06:55] And if you say no, I need to go, it's an emergency or something else, then the agent would either take a different action or just cede control and say, all right, lady, you go figure it out on your own.

[00:07:07] I can't help you anymore here.

[00:07:10] The power of an agentic AI, thinking over a single automated workflow that walks you through these steps, is that the AI can learn from your response over time and learn from other users of the system's response over time.

[00:07:23] So it should get smarter and smarter, leading to improved outcomes the more you use the system with less and less intervention.

[00:07:30] So I'm super excited about the buzz about agentic AI in HR tech.

[00:07:35] In our domain, we know that there are just many, many edge case situations where experience and expertise helps drive us to the best and most fair solution.

[00:07:47] Computers are really great at processing tons of data.

[00:07:50] And a computer can see way more edge cases than any single human being ever will, even with that experience.

[00:07:56] So these agentic AI systems can help us learn which best practices against these edge cases lead to really good outcomes.

[00:08:05] And that makes it easier for less experienced folks to follow those really best practice steps in situations that they have never seen before or that maybe everyone's only going to see once in their life.

[00:08:17] But taken together, we can learn a lot.

[00:08:19] So I think it's really promising as a way to certainly reduce unfulfilling work, but also as a way to improve the quality of our work and increase the fairness in our actions.

[00:08:30] And kind of analogous to evidence-based medicine in the medical field, like we should learn from how the outcomes of the things that we do and inform our practices using those learnings.

[00:08:44] And agentic AI will help us get there.

[00:08:47] Great.

[00:08:47] Well, thanks for explaining that.

[00:08:48] I think, you know, we're all going to need to understand, you know, what these agents are because many of the solutions that you use today, you know, are introducing agents.

[00:08:57] So they're going to become very real for you.

[00:08:59] Now, Katie, there have been accusations over the last 12 months about vendors whitewashing HR with AI and it really just being a marketing tactic without much substance.

[00:09:10] Through your role, you know, as channels partner, you were meeting with many vendors there.

[00:09:16] Do you feel AI is more of a reality now?

[00:09:19] Yeah.

[00:09:20] So I actually see a lot of parallels between AI and pay transparency.

[00:09:24] So when we think about more pay transparency laws being passed each day, the general consensus is that it's not going away, right?

[00:09:31] And it's eventually going to impact all businesses.

[00:09:34] I think there's sort of a similar mindset when it comes to AI.

[00:09:37] So if your product doesn't have AI, you're perceived as a company that isn't adapting or innovating.

[00:09:42] So the majority of companies will say that they offer AI or they have a pay transparency strategy.

[00:09:48] But the way that this actually shows up can really vary.

[00:09:51] So, for example, a company posts a job range that's 100 to 500K.

[00:09:57] Did they technically check a box?

[00:09:58] Did they post a rate?

[00:09:59] Yes.

[00:09:59] Yes.

[00:10:00] But is it helpful?

[00:10:01] Probably not.

[00:10:02] And I think, to me, that's the same thing as having AI just to check a box versus kind of solve a problem.

[00:10:08] And what that essentially does is create a situation where everyone's doing it, but not everyone's doing it well.

[00:10:15] And I think in the world of HR tech, where it's really, really different, is that when it comes to AI, by the nature of the function, right,

[00:10:22] we don't really have the luxury of not being thoughtful in our approach because there's serious repercussions that we get wrong.

[00:10:28] So what stood out to me in the sessions that I attended is really that there's so much rigor that goes into the methodology concerning AI and HR.

[00:10:36] So, you know, vendors are starting to see really, really meaningful traction.

[00:10:41] So in things like, you know, reviewing performance, career development, job descriptions.

[00:10:46] So where maybe in other spaces, AI might be a marketing tactic.

[00:10:51] What I saw with the companies that are using AI to empower their HR teams is that it's really to better support their HR people.

[00:11:00] And so very much, to me, felt like a reality.

[00:11:05] Great.

[00:11:06] Thank you.

[00:11:07] So vendors clearly doing a lot of work in terms of leaning into AI and trying to bring, you know, valuable use cases to HR.

[00:11:15] So the other focus related to that, and there's quite a few sessions on it, was how can HR prepare themselves for this AI transformation?

[00:11:25] Because this is not about just a new feature adoption.

[00:11:30] You know, it's not some fancy new feature.

[00:11:31] This is really about understanding how AI will enable HR transformation in your organizations and change not only how we do work, but the work that we do.

[00:11:42] And the reality, probably for many of us, is that some of the processes that we have in our organizations today are not designed for a world that's going to be powered by AI.

[00:11:52] So, Sarah, what are your thoughts there?

[00:11:57] Sure.

[00:11:58] In the United States, the growth of the labor force has slowed, and it's expected to continue slowing down due to our aging population and decreasing birth rate.

[00:12:06] At the national level, very aggregate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects that this will lead to slower GDP growth, which makes total sense.

[00:12:16] It also means that businesses who can do more with fewer employees are going to have an increasingly competitive advantage in the economy.

[00:12:26] So, in this labor context, AI is a super valuable tool.

[00:12:31] An analyst in the Syncpia Insights session at HR Tech cited that HR teams using AI or ML are seeing a 7% to 9% uplift in business outcome, which is 90% higher than the same people polled last year.

[00:12:46] That's huge.

[00:13:16] There are some levers that are hard to get to if you have to do all of the paperwork to get to that decision point.

[00:13:21] So, AI tools are improving at a rapid clip.

[00:13:24] Right now, the tools are getting better and better at understanding human language input, finding relevant text in a knowledge base, and summarizing that text back to the user or comparing text from a couple of sources.

[00:13:36] For any role across the company, not just in HR, where those tasks take up a significant amount of time, AI can help employees be more efficient.

[00:13:47] So, I wanted to note that whether you buy an AI tool from a vendor or build something custom, the quality of the AI really, really matters.

[00:13:57] Utilizing a poorly constructed AI isn't going to save you time.

[00:14:00] It's just going to be a pain in the butt, and you'll get your checkbox.

[00:14:02] But otherwise, you're not gaining anything from that use.

[00:14:06] So, as you evaluate solutions, look for systems that are set up to learn in an ongoing way from user interactions.

[00:14:14] Even if they aren't quite as helpful, as you hope, right out of the box, the best tools will be learning over time, leading to those bigger efficiency gains one year from now than they do when you first buy them.

[00:14:29] Thanks, Sarah.

[00:14:30] I do love your very clear explanations of AI for the audience.

[00:14:36] I think I kind of need to get you on AI 101 for the audience.

[00:14:42] So, Katie, on this topic, did you get any insights about HR adapting to a new world powered by AI and how they should do that?

[00:14:51] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:14:53] Aside from learning from the queen of AI, Sarah, there was Brian Sommer, who is really like a thought leader in HR ERP.

[00:15:00] He kind of expanded on this in a session where he talked about Poobin's Law, which I thought was really interesting.

[00:15:05] So, essentially, the idea that people are initially using technology to do what they do now, but do it faster or do it better.

[00:15:12] And they gradually begin to use it to do new things.

[00:15:16] Those new things change, you know, your work style, your lifestyle.

[00:15:20] These new lifestyles and work styles end up changing society and then eventually end up really changing technology.

[00:15:26] So, for me, this captures the real transformation we're seeing.

[00:15:29] Technology and AI is improving, you know, today's talent management processes.

[00:15:33] It's giving HR more time to focus on other activities.

[00:15:36] So, really kind of reforming that job.

[00:15:38] I think what a really big takeaway for me was that in every session you've heard people talk about how the aim of AI is not to take the humans out of human resources.

[00:15:48] But the goal is really to make those humans a better resource.

[00:15:51] I think, like, that's the future of HR that people are going to be really excited about.

[00:15:57] Yeah, I think I did find, you know, some of those sessions, there were some great tips and the things that we should be thinking about.

[00:16:04] I think there's some key questions as HR or compensation professionals that we need to be prepared to answer right now.

[00:16:12] And that's kind of like, what is my role in leading the generative AI transformation?

[00:16:17] If you don't know the answer to that question, you need to probably start thinking about that, reaching out within your organization and finding out what the AI strategy is in your organization.

[00:16:28] And then start to think about how you can serve as a role model and then how you will assure stakeholders as a leader about the coming changes.

[00:16:37] So a lot of prep work I think we need to do basically as HR to get ready for this transformation that's going to happen into the workplace.

[00:16:44] So another hot topic at HR tech over the last few years has been skills and the transition to skills-based talent management.

[00:16:52] Again, if I look back to 2021 and 2022, there was a lot of hype around skills tech.

[00:16:59] It was the next big thing.

[00:17:01] But I think we're now seeing a much more leveled view.

[00:17:05] Adoption hasn't been at the levels that we expected.

[00:17:09] Josh Burson, one of the kind of key HR analysts in his keynote said that this was because very few vendors have been able to build AI-fueled global skills databases that can effectively drive skills matching.

[00:17:22] And he kind of described it as saying the skills market probably got a little ahead of itself.

[00:17:27] And many people tried to boil the ocean by building these very extensive skills taxonomies only to realize little value from them because they weren't really focused on specific challenges.

[00:17:39] So skills, still a problem to be solved at scale.

[00:17:43] You know, still, I think it was about Sapient Insights talked about maybe about 50% adoption of people in terms of thinking about moving towards skills-based talent management.

[00:17:54] Sarah, if we take this kind of topic and how do you see skills and the transition towards skills-based talent management impacting compensating data benchmarking?

[00:18:06] Because that's what we do here at Payscale.

[00:18:08] What do you see the impact being there?

[00:18:10] Sure.

[00:18:11] So this is probably my hottest take of this podcast, but I was relieved to hear Josh, who I deeply, deeply respect, describe having the market needs to reset our expectation around skills.

[00:18:23] Skills-based talent management covers a wide variety of applications, job posting, hiring, pay, talent mobility, upskilling and reskilling your workforce.

[00:18:33] And he's right.

[00:18:35] We have tried to boil the ocean, but skills are really nuanced and difficult to measure in a standardized, scalable, unbiased way, which has made it impossible so far to develop universal solutions that work against all of those different use cases.

[00:18:52] However, we are seeing places where a skills-based approach is leading to real value when we narrow the field.

[00:18:59] So two really big things are happening in job postings right now, given the legislation around pay transparency and also the tight competition for talent in several sectors.

[00:19:10] One is that more and more job postings include pay ranges, which taken in aggregate are fairly consistent with other sources of pay information, like surveys and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

[00:19:24] That doesn't mean every posting has an accurate pay range, but when you look at them in aggregate, they're pretty consistent with other data we've seen.

[00:19:32] The second thing is that employers are spending more time and more energy writing compelling, descriptive job postings to attract the right kinds of candidates.

[00:19:44] These postings have increasingly rich, although not increasingly, not completely reliable, information about which skills they're hiring for in these roles.

[00:19:53] So taken together, the mostly reliable skills from rich job descriptions and the mostly reliable pay ranges will enable us to see how posted pay ranges vary by required skill set.

[00:20:07] That's super valuable information.

[00:20:10] Within pay scale research and development, we're exploring ways to use those job postings alongside more reliable sources of compensation data to provide general but still meaningful insights about how particular skills, how much particular skills are worth from that recruitment perspective.

[00:20:28] Great.

[00:20:29] So I think we're kind of all chasing this panacea of skills-based pay.

[00:20:34] And as you say, I think the more meaningful skills data we see associated with job descriptions, and that will help us kind of on that path.

[00:20:43] So I think the other thing I learned about, which I knew about, but it was good to hear, was how skills-based talent management can really drive diversity.

[00:20:52] It can be quite a leveler in terms of diversity.

[00:20:55] And Katie, I know you're a pay equity and equality fan like myself, and it's important to you.

[00:21:01] So how does a skills-based approach help from a diversity, inclusion, equity perspective?

[00:21:08] Yeah, so you're absolutely right.

[00:21:10] I've always had this crazy idea that the world can and should be a better place.

[00:21:15] I think a big way that we can be an agent for change, specifically in the workplace, is supporting these underrepresented groups that have, you know, maybe even overlooked just to lack of access to educational resources, professional networks,

[00:21:28] and making sure that they really do have the opportunity to shine based on their abilities.

[00:21:32] I think a lot like pay transparency, companies that are going to be adopting these practices earlier on are going to be at a huge advantage when it comes to attracting talent,

[00:21:42] and especially like growing a diverse workforce.

[00:21:45] I think when we look at how we structure the workforce, if the only things that we're focused on is what degree, what previous employer, what title you had,

[00:21:54] you are really narrowing down your pool to only those that have a very specific traditional career path.

[00:22:01] And by the way, that may not equate to success in the world.

[00:22:06] Whereas when we take kind of a skills-based approach, I think we're not only reducing the bias from what we think of as kind of a more traditional credentials,

[00:22:14] but we're prioritizing what truly matters in the hiring process, which is does the candidate have skills and the competence to succeed in the role?

[00:22:21] And can they help us grow the organization?

[00:22:24] I think when we focus on competence by doing things like prioritizing proven skills over, you know, kind of the subjective criteria,

[00:22:32] we're really helping to level the playing field.

[00:22:34] So, you know, I want to think about, we know our customers don't all come from the same background.

[00:22:39] They don't all have the same career path.

[00:22:40] So why would we not want our organization to be a reflection of our clients?

[00:22:45] I think, you know, if your approach is to exclude a significant portion of the population that's very capable of performing these jobs,

[00:22:54] you're not just missing out on a large talent, but you're missing out on diversity of thought, problem-solving approaches, creativity.

[00:23:01] And I think these are all things that are really essential to the company growth.

[00:23:06] So not having the perspective of a large population of the talent pool because you're only focused on credentials and not skill,

[00:23:15] you know, briefly just kind of seems like a bad business decision to me.

[00:23:19] So I am glad that we're starting to see change there.

[00:23:21] I think it's really important.

[00:23:24] Yeah, we've definitely seen a trend of increase in skills-based hiring through 2024.

[00:23:30] It's been a big news story.

[00:23:32] And maybe it's something that you're doing, you know, audience listening in.

[00:23:35] There's a lot to take in about skills.

[00:23:37] But I think, you know, if you've not been focused on it, it is an area that we need to start thinking about.

[00:23:43] So the other thing we do when we're there is keep an eye out for new trends and new features in tech.

[00:23:50] It's a huge expo hall there.

[00:23:52] I mean, you could probably get lost for about five hours on the expo hall, I think.

[00:23:58] You were busy, Katie, networking with our partners.

[00:24:01] Anything new or exciting that you want to highlight?

[00:24:04] Yeah.

[00:24:05] So we have so many amazing partners that are doing really exciting things.

[00:24:08] I'll touch on a few that stood out to me.

[00:24:10] One, UKG launched an AI ESG page, which is really like a comprehensive resource answering questions around ethical AI, which I thought was really impressive.

[00:24:21] Our partners over at PayCore have a new feature that they showcased called Paths, which is, you know, it's a really slick talent management and development feature that guides employees through kind of short courses to enhance specific skills that have, you know, maybe been identified as career growth opportunities.

[00:24:40] So I thought, especially when we're thinking about people with skills based, you know, hiring that may not have some of the more traditional education, like Excel for assisting, but that could be really impactful to run through that course.

[00:24:53] And then I think Jason Everbrook from Mercer had really great content around how we approach digital transformation, which I think really kind of tied the event together for me.

[00:25:05] So he talks about how, you know, we get to Vegas.

[00:25:07] It's really exciting.

[00:25:08] Everyone's excited.

[00:25:09] You see a demo.

[00:25:10] You think it's great, but you're not really planning post-implementation and you're not really focused on the why.

[00:25:16] So talking about what is your measure of success beyond Go Live.

[00:25:21] And he recorded a lot of this in Vegas on the Edge of Work podcast.

[00:25:26] So for anyone that wasn't able to make the conference, I think he brings a lot of like the key takeaways there in that resource.

[00:25:33] So I think I might need to listen to that podcast then.

[00:25:37] And Sarah, you were on the floor for quite a bit.

[00:25:39] What stood out for you?

[00:25:41] So I thoroughly enjoyed talking to some of the startups that joined the conference.

[00:25:46] In particular, I'm really excited about this startup called Parita and what they're doing in workforce analytics.

[00:25:52] They've built an AI-first platform and they're tackling the problem integrating the data from disparate HR data sources in a new and really promising way.

[00:26:04] That was fun to see.

[00:26:06] So, so much to see, basically.

[00:26:08] And I think you can tell that we all learned a lot from our time there at HR Tech.

[00:26:14] We do sound like complete tech geeks at this point, I would suggest to the audience.

[00:26:18] So we are complete tech geeks.

[00:26:20] We are tech geeks.

[00:26:21] We'll just own it.

[00:26:21] Own it.

[00:26:22] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:26:23] I'm owning it.

[00:26:23] I'm owning it.

[00:26:24] Okay.

[00:26:25] Well, it wasn't all work and no play because, of course, we were in Vegas after all.

[00:26:29] And we did get to do some fun things as well.

[00:26:32] You can't go to Vegas and not do a show.

[00:26:34] So the three of us took the opportunity to go to one of the Cirque du Soleil shows.

[00:26:38] One, which is the Michael Jackson tribute.

[00:26:41] That was in the Mandalay Bay hotel complex where the conference was.

[00:26:46] What else do we get up to, Katie?

[00:26:48] Okay.

[00:26:49] So I fully realize this is not going to make me sound not like a tech dork.

[00:26:52] But a real highlight for me was that we were actually lucky enough to watch the first live

[00:26:58] podcast recording of HR Besties.

[00:27:01] Anyone who has not listened to their podcast, it's these three HR professionals and influencers

[00:27:06] who are like exactly what you want in an HR team.

[00:27:09] They're approachable.

[00:27:11] They're transparent.

[00:27:11] They're empathetic.

[00:27:12] They're hilarious.

[00:27:13] They're a lot like our HR team.

[00:27:15] So maybe that's why I love them so much.

[00:27:17] But the podcast really blends together like humor, HR expertise, or what they call business

[00:27:23] and BS.

[00:27:24] And they do just a really good job of writing insights on workplace issues, management strategies,

[00:27:31] professional growth.

[00:27:32] So being able to, you know, not only watch these women that I so admire in our space record

[00:27:36] live, but also get to, you know, have time to talk to them one-on-one thanks to our partners

[00:27:42] over at UKG was pretty incredible experience for me.

[00:27:46] Yeah, I discovered them on Instagram and then have been listening to their podcasts.

[00:27:50] It's Lee, Jamie, and Ashley, I think they are.

[00:27:52] And they're HR besties if you haven't listened to them, search up their podcast.

[00:27:56] So Sarah, what about you?

[00:27:57] What else?

[00:27:58] What did we get up to as well that was fun?

[00:28:00] The vendors this year really raised the bar on offering engaging ways to learn about their

[00:28:06] teams and their products.

[00:28:07] Ruth, Katie, and I spent a very chilly 25 minutes having a cocktail in an ice bar and

[00:28:13] chatting with our partners at KCOR while we sat on a brick of ice.

[00:28:18] I also loved making AI-generated superhero trading cards that make me look like the Disney

[00:28:24] princess version of myself at Phenom's booth on the expo floor.

[00:28:29] Those are some highlights for me.

[00:28:30] Yep, I have mine too.

[00:28:32] Woo!

[00:28:33] Have you got yours, Katie?

[00:28:35] Yes, I do.

[00:28:36] We're all just showing our pictures to camera.

[00:28:38] I know you won't necessarily hear that on the podcast, but maybe they'll pick it up on LinkedIn

[00:28:42] and you'll see those pictures on LinkedIn.

[00:28:45] Yeah, so we did have fun.

[00:28:46] None of us woke up with a tiger in the bath, so that was a good thing.

[00:28:50] Even.

[00:28:52] But hopefully we've given you a little flavor of what went down in Vegas at HR Tech.

[00:28:57] Really was a great show.

[00:28:59] So thank you both so much for giving your time and coming to share your thoughts and observations

[00:29:05] with the audience.

[00:29:06] Great having you and look forward to having you back soon on the podcast.

[00:29:10] I'll let you say goodbye to the audience.

[00:29:13] Thanks for having me.

[00:29:16] And if you've enjoyed this, let us know.

[00:29:19] You can email us at coffee at payscale.com.

[00:29:22] If you were at HR Tech, what did you learn?

[00:29:24] If you weren't at HR Tech, what did you find interesting in this episode today?

[00:29:28] Thank you all very much and goodbye from all of us.

[00:29:31] Thank you.

[00:29:31] Thank you.