On this episode, Pete and Julie are back from the fall HR tech conference trail with a long list of HCM vendor event recaps and product updates! They share POV’s and insights gained from UKG Aspire, Dayforce Discover in Las Vegas and the HR Shared Services & Outsourcing Week 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Plus, a rundown of recent news and announcements from across the global EOR marketplace. Vendor updates mentioned in the episode include UKG, Dayforce, iSolved, Deel, Remote, Oyster, GP, and Service Now.
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[00:00:09] Welcome everyone to another episode of HR & Payroll 2.0. I'm Pete Tiliakis and as always, I'm joined by the legendary Julie Fernandez. Welcome Julie.
[00:00:17] Julie Fernandez Thanks Pete. I think we both landed back to our home grounds yesterday after some traveling so we got some news to share.
[00:00:23] Yeah, yeah. We got a lot of news to share. I don't know if we can even get it. We almost need two episodes for this but we're gonna try to get it into one. And yeah, I'm gonna apologize in advance if I fall asleep during this one. I'm pretty tired. I gotta be honest with you. I'm pretty tired.
[00:00:36] So well you still do the red eyes. I cut those out at 50. Yeah, no way man. I'm a glutton. Yeah, I did take a 5am flight out though and I felt like dog do the whole rest of the next day. Yeah, sure it was any better.
[00:00:50] Yeah, I feel like I can still I managed to still work so it works out good for me. I feel more productive and I got to stick around and I don't know if you remember this last year, but I made or no not last year. I guess it would have been
[00:01:03] 2023 yeah two years ago maybe not this not no no not this HR tech the HR tech before that I made friends with the gentleman that was protecting us. I guess the door
[00:01:14] liaison guy the security guard and we and I have become really good friends and I went over to his house last night. We had dinner. I met his family. It was great
[00:01:22] point here is shout out to my boy Alvonzo in Vegas. Great guy best dude ever
[00:01:28] you make friends in the strangest places and HR tech brought us together. So just without I bring that up way to go
[00:01:34] I know right? So that was what I was sticking around for was to hang out with my boy Alvonzo
[00:01:38] but hey, I want to tell I want to point this out Julie. So I was done that I was in Vegas this week as most of the analysts were
[00:01:44] for two events. We had UKG Aspire at one end in the Mandalay Bay and we had Dayforce
[00:01:52] Discover. They changed it. Yes, Dayforce Discover over in the wind, the beautiful wind and so we got to get
[00:01:58] two contrasting updates. So that's one of the things we're going to share this week. I've also got some
[00:02:02] some EOR news that just flurried out here in the last few weeks, but I wanted to highlight something
[00:02:07] that I noticed. I want your opinion of this. I really love the mainstream nature of HR now, right?
[00:02:15] We've seen Workday with their Rockstar commercials, right? We've got like plenty of tennis now, golf with
[00:02:22] with HR technology companies. We've got Paycore on the Cincinnati Bengals Stadium, right? I mean,
[00:02:28] I love that and I thought it was really cool and I'm sure others have done this, but Dayforce had kind
[00:02:33] of taken over the sphere during the week and had their stuff on there up there and I thought that was
[00:02:37] really cool to just sort of look at that and think like, you know, 20 years ago that would have been
[00:02:41] unheard of, right? For a golfer to have Workday, right? Or Dayforce to be on the most, you know,
[00:02:48] optical thing in Vegas, the hottest ticket for a concert, you know, is in the sphere. So yeah.
[00:02:53] You're feeling like we're a little bit more mainstream, huh?
[00:02:56] It is, right? I mean, look, we have a podcast that people, you know, thankfully, we're blessed. A lot
[00:03:02] of people listen to and in 30 plus countries, which always blows my mind. And I just think like,
[00:03:07] wow, you know, it's kind of cliche, but HR has come a long way, you know?
[00:03:11] Oh yeah, for sure. And payroll within that.
[00:03:13] Yeah.
[00:03:14] And you know, as we're sharing today, I know you, I normally would be, would have been in the same
[00:03:18] place you were, but instead I stripped off and I went to Atlanta.
[00:03:22] Yeah.
[00:03:22] So we were crossing ships in the night and now that's your home base. And normally we would have
[00:03:26] hooked up there a little bit, but did a shared services conference in Atlanta as well. And
[00:03:32] I'm going to be excited to talk about what kind of participation we got out of that.
[00:03:36] Yeah. Yeah. So what do you want to do? You want to do events and updates first, or should
[00:03:40] we do the news a little bit and then get into those?
[00:03:43] Your choice.
[00:03:43] All right. Let's do the news. Cause we can, we can go through those kind of quickly.
[00:03:47] If you will, but I'm excited to hear about the SSO win. I'm jealous. I've never,
[00:03:50] I've never been to one of their events.
[00:03:51] We've talked about, yeah, we've talked about both being there.
[00:03:53] I have pointed more clients towards that just from what I've heard of those events than I have ever
[00:03:58] been to. So SSO win needs to get with me as one of their ambassadors.
[00:04:02] All right. Well, we'll save that for the last, why don't you jump us into news? I think you're
[00:04:06] going to start with EOR providers, right? Employer of record.
[00:04:09] Yep. The employer of record space is, has heated up. There was just a bevy of a flurry of news that
[00:04:15] came out. I thought we could share those. I guess starting off globalization partners, GP,
[00:04:20] as they're known now, has introduced a deeper set of use cases for GIA, their global compliance
[00:04:28] advisor, right? Their AI enabled advisor. Now they're calling it the world's first AI based
[00:04:32] global HR compliance advisor. I think there's probably debate on that. I know there's some
[00:04:37] solutions out there that might claim some of this. We've even had some podcast guests who have
[00:04:41] talked about what they're doing. Yes. Compliance too, right? Yeah. Everybody's doing it,
[00:04:45] but no, but really I think what you're seeing here is just the activation of, you know, their rich,
[00:04:52] rich data and expertise, you know, being contextualized and, and providing, you know,
[00:04:58] surfacing support back to customers, whether that be, and generative too, right? I mean,
[00:05:02] giving the capability to help with editing documents like policies and contracts and handbooks and
[00:05:07] really automating tasks around everything from talent acquisition to just the HR administrivia of,
[00:05:14] of, you know, administering a global workforce, immigration guidance, right? Giving you, you know,
[00:05:19] good, good insights on making decisions about, you know, this country or that country. And then of
[00:05:23] course something that I'm seeing more and more of, I don't know if you've seen this, Julie, but some of
[00:05:28] my EOR providers are starting to do offboarding services, right? There's a compliance element that
[00:05:32] can be rich to that and angst to that when you're in certain countries. And so again, here, GIA is going
[00:05:38] to help you with, with that as well. So a step in that generative direction for, for what I think is
[00:05:44] the power of EOR and that is their insights, their speed, the speed to market and the ability to help
[00:05:49] you access talent fast. So all of what we would expect to see. Awesome stuff from GP. And of course
[00:05:55] they got the, they, they've been in the market a while and they got, they got what it takes to start
[00:05:59] to make some of that happen. Yeah. Yeah. They're aggressive over there. So coming along the lines of,
[00:06:04] of aggressive innovators deal back in the news again, I feel like every episode when we have a
[00:06:08] news where we've got a list of stuff to go through, but I'm really, really excited for this. This I
[00:06:13] think is unique. I'm going to call it the first, I don't know who else is doing this yet. Embedded EOR.
[00:06:18] So, you know, the embedded concept, I just came back from, from money, 2020 and embedded payments,
[00:06:23] embedded finance, embedded payroll, all these things are incredibly the norm, if you will,
[00:06:29] over on the FinTech world. So it makes total sense to be bringing EOR to systems that it
[00:06:34] could, you know, could, could support and help and enhance, right. Business systems that
[00:06:38] aren't necessarily enabled with HR type capabilities. I think this is just a really nice
[00:06:43] enabler and fit to that, to that, you know, sort of trend, right. Of global payroll becoming
[00:06:49] embedded. Do you have an example of what you would embed EOR into? Are we talking about like a finance,
[00:06:55] you know, an ERP tool or, you know, yeah, you could, I think more immediately. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:07:01] More immediately. I think you're going to see this in the staffing industry. You'll probably see this
[00:07:04] in the recruiting world where they're, they're very much, you know, EORs are largely coming at this
[00:07:10] from a, let us take, be the vehicle to employ, but not necessarily saying, Hey, let us help you
[00:07:16] find the talent. Not all of them will do that. Now deal has some services for that. And there are
[00:07:19] others who have come at EOR from that angle saying, look, we were a contingent workforce solution,
[00:07:24] or we were a long time IC provider. And now we're turning on EOR with that. Whereas I think in this
[00:07:31] case, deal is taking their infrastructure and embedding it and creating also a reseller program,
[00:07:35] a white label program around that. So that companies that may be, again, I would say this
[00:07:40] would be really ideal for your staffing agencies, your, you know, contingent workforce kind of MSP
[00:07:45] providers could now embed really an EOR and payroll capability in their, you know, marketplace solution
[00:07:52] and their VMS type solutions and extend their business, right. And extend the value to their
[00:07:56] customers. So I think that's just the beginning, but, but all these same use cases for maybe
[00:08:01] other HR embedded, maybe even workforce planning, right. Where you have really a people intensive
[00:08:05] business and you have some intense workforce planning. Cool. Yeah. Totally. Awesome. Yeah.
[00:08:10] I'm not surprised you have deal in your list. Let's keep going. Yeah. Yeah. Now, now going away
[00:08:14] from maybe an innovation topic here, but a funding topic. And I think this is one that's really
[00:08:18] interesting is Oyster, right. Who is right in there with, uh, with deal and remote and, and,
[00:08:23] and some of the, uh, rising stars in the space got an investment from service now, which is really
[00:08:28] intriguing because you're thinking, you know, service now obviously has a ventures portfolio
[00:08:32] where they're making investments, but I think they're saying, Hey, uh, obviously their technology
[00:08:37] is all about the work, uh, experience, right. The worker experience when you're dealing with many
[00:08:42] systems and tickets and that sort of thing. Um, and now bringing fundamentally some, uh, more HR into
[00:08:49] their world. So interesting there. You are in particular. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. You
[00:08:54] know, I think we've seen a bit of that, right. Big tech has inched its way over into HR, right.
[00:08:59] Facebook has a little bit of a play. Microsoft absolutely has a play. So why not service now?
[00:09:04] The adjacencies they have, they have are just. Well, and just even from an experience perspective,
[00:09:09] I mean, service now has been front and center for so long, you know, even eking over from its
[00:09:15] it roots, right. It's wide chain roots, um, on into HR modules and, you know, a lot of large
[00:09:22] organizations that's their go-to. So yeah. Yeah. And now it's a, you know, I mean, in recent years,
[00:09:27] they've really just blasted through the, uh, HR space. They, you know, for so long service now was
[00:09:32] an it solution, right. It was it ticketing solution. Now it's almost unheard of not to find it in an
[00:09:37] enterprise organization when it comes to the HR side. So yeah. Yeah. And many of the, many of the
[00:09:43] outsourcers have used that as a foundation for some of their workflow enablement, right? So yeah,
[00:09:48] yeah, totally. No surprise. Okay. All right. Cool for Oyster. What else you got? Uh, and yeah,
[00:09:53] I guess the, to round this out, this little pop of, uh, EOR news, uh, congratulations is in order
[00:09:58] to remote and I solved. So, uh, as we've probably know, or we've talked about, you know, I solved has
[00:10:04] been looking to really, um, extend their, uh, HCM capability beyond just the U S uh, in, in the ability
[00:10:11] to support customers with a multi-country need. Now I solved has no ambitions right now of storming
[00:10:17] off into other countries, but they do want to support their customers that have a compliance
[00:10:21] need, a payroll need, maybe an employment EOR type need in different locations, right? Especially, uh,
[00:10:27] I think they've seen some rise in Mexico. I know they've even got their own footprint in Columbia.
[00:10:31] So there's some, there's some near shore and even offshore. I think UK is big. That was a gap for
[00:10:36] them, right? It was limiting them in a lot of ways and creating a situation where they couldn't compete
[00:10:40] for certain customers that had that multi-country footprint. So, uh, I was really proud to work
[00:10:45] very closely with them on this and they came to, uh, the first step of that. Uh, I think they're
[00:10:49] going to be creating a little bit of a marketplace here for customers, but they've announced their first
[00:10:54] partner will be remote. Um, which I think is huge, right? The global, global EOR provider,
[00:10:58] very much a darling of, of the industry like Oyster or deal, very fast rising, innovative group.
[00:11:04] What I think really pushed them over the edge here was their global payroll capability. A lot of
[00:11:08] people don't know this, but they brought in, uh, Jonathan Goldsmith, a shout out to him. He came
[00:11:12] in from Sage, the former fair sale platform, Sage people, and has really brought a lot of vision to
[00:11:18] their global payroll capability. He and I've stayed close. I've been watching what they were doing. And I
[00:11:22] think they really brought that along. I saw the product at, at HR tech and it was beautiful.
[00:11:28] That's a, that's a big win, right? To, to bubble up as one of the first providers. And I think it's a,
[00:11:32] it's indicative of that leadership and vision and what they've put into their product. So
[00:11:36] definitely keep an eye on that. Yeah. So, so just to be clear, the shout out is
[00:11:41] I solved pairing up with remote in order to extend some of its, uh, to some of the,
[00:11:47] yeah, my shout out is to remote for, as I think they really rose to the top, um, in this, in,
[00:11:51] in terms of just their tech, their vision, where they're going, um, what they could offer. And so,
[00:11:55] yeah, I just think it's a nice, a nice win for EOR and a nice, nice boost for the,
[00:12:00] I solved ecosystem and ecosystem that's already rich with maturity, uh, just rabid clients for
[00:12:06] the product. They love that product. They remind me so much of, of the ultimate software days,
[00:12:11] you know, eight, eight, eight years ago when they were in their youth. Um, and there's a lot
[00:12:15] of that similar vibe. And I think I solve has got everything they need to be a very, very formidable
[00:12:19] solution. And now this just, just, just plugs a gap that they, that they, that they had.
[00:12:23] So, yeah, I think at some future time, maybe we'll talk a little bit about, uh, you know,
[00:12:27] with, uh, some of that success and robustness, how, you know, are they growing up market and
[00:12:32] Yeah, not, not, not so much. I think they're, you know, they're sticking in that mid-market
[00:12:36] small, small, small employer, but, um, yeah, no, they're doing very well. And I think it's,
[00:12:40] uh, it's a, it's a great, great product. So, yeah.
[00:12:43] Okay. Well, congrats. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:12:45] Great. I know. Congrats to both, man. And Hey, look, congrats to the EOR space. Right. I mean,
[00:12:50] it's, it's, it's, you know, I think it's entering a new phase, right. Of where now, uh, it's kind
[00:12:55] of gotten away from that. Oh, the work from home panic from COVID to now being a strategic,
[00:13:01] more of a strategic talent enabler and, and organizational agility enabler. So I'm excited
[00:13:06] for it. And I think you're going to see more of this automation, activation of insights,
[00:13:10] APIs, you know, that sort of thing. So more to come.
[00:13:13] All right, let's move on to the big ones. Right. And the kind of the focus of last week,
[00:13:18] which is these, um, these, uh, clients who are, have adopted an HCM and are kind of bought in. And
[00:13:25] so they're, they're spending more, less of their time in the HR techs and more of their time in the
[00:13:30] big client conferences for the product that is. Yeah. Yeah. So I got the privilege of,
[00:13:35] of going to UKG aspire again. Um, we had a nice private session or a nice private day,
[00:13:40] I guess you could say, uh, in addition to keynotes with them, I thought it was kind of cool,
[00:13:43] Julie at their keynote, they kicked off with like, almost like a, uh, a use case, uh, a few use case
[00:13:50] portrayals, uh, somewhat, I guess they were actors, but they were acting out kind of a day in the life,
[00:13:55] um, you know, in an office scene and, uh, you know, whatever, uh, around hiring and, and, and,
[00:14:00] and surfacing, you know, people ready for promotion. And I thought it was pretty cool,
[00:14:04] just a different way of, of kind of presenting and bringing to life what they're trying to solve
[00:14:07] and it seemed to resonate. So that was really cool. It's very engaging, right? It's far more
[00:14:12] engaging than some of, you know, the usual ways to open up. Yeah. So look, let's talk, let's talk
[00:14:17] UKG and I'm going to go really slow here because I'll be honest with you. I, there is all a ton,
[00:14:22] they packed. I mean, it really, we, we did this in a day. This is normally a day and a half. I think
[00:14:27] it could have taken to the roadmap alone. Um, you know, the product discussions alone could have been
[00:14:32] a full day. Um, so I'm going to do my best to do this really slowly and hopefully answer every
[00:14:37] question you have, Julie, but let, let's just start off with what I think was glaringly apparent,
[00:14:42] uh, and different about this aspire from others. And that is the new leadership, right? You've
[00:14:47] probably seen it. Um, we've got Jennifer Morgan, uh, CEO, we've got a new president and Rachel Barger,
[00:14:53] both from big tech SAP and Cisco, I think it was. Um, and announced just while we were there,
[00:15:00] Julie, uh, a new CFO also from tech, uh, Arlen Shankman, who is, uh, a notable CFO in the space,
[00:15:06] uh, from coming over from Boomi. So, you know, you just look at that right there and you say,
[00:15:11] like many HCM and, and, and, and many, many, many HR tech or any, any sector really solutions or,
[00:15:18] uh, uh, uh, companies that are going to scale, you know, what takes you to one level of one level
[00:15:24] of leadership takes you to one level of, uh, revenues doesn't take you to the next. Right.
[00:15:28] Um, and so I think that's what you're seeing. I think you're seeing a big tech infusion of
[00:15:32] leadership. There's a ton of energy around that. There's a ton of focus. I think, uh, we, you know,
[00:15:38] we heard from Jennifer Morgan, the CEO, that she feels very confident about what they have. She
[00:15:41] doesn't see burning problems. She sees more of a, a need to really just accelerate the good that's
[00:15:47] already there. So I think that was, and I would agree. I think, I think UKG, you know, they've had
[00:15:52] a little bit of some hiccups, right. With the ransomware thing. I was just going to say that,
[00:15:56] that kind of implies a set, you know, the two of those organizations coming together. Yeah. Because
[00:16:00] that was no small affair and it's taken quite a while to, you know, just kind of smooth out how
[00:16:06] everything, the interoperability of everything. So ultimate plus Kronos, you know, was a big thing
[00:16:11] and, um, you know, they've done a lot to bring clients, products, services together. And, uh,
[00:16:17] and so that's something that the new leadership, that's not the main focus for them, right.
[00:16:22] They'll be able to move forward.
[00:16:23] Yeah. Yeah. And I, yeah. And I think one of the things that was, uh, you know, look,
[00:16:26] the business is healthy. Uh, they've got about 80,000 clients now, 150 countries,
[00:16:31] arguably one of the most global, if not the most global workforce management capability,
[00:16:36] uh, around yeah. 4.7 billion in revenues now. Um, that's incredible. And, and Julie processing
[00:16:41] UKG is processing. I think I wrote this down, right? 200 billion in payroll. Um, so they're a
[00:16:46] formidable payroll product that I don't know that everyone realizes, um, in that way. So yeah,
[00:16:52] good stuff. But look, I I'll tell you one thing I think is very refreshing. Cause I, I, and I'd be
[00:16:57] curious to hear what you, you think about this. I mean, I know customer experience has been a bit
[00:17:01] of a challenge. I've seen it from, from some folks, obviously, again, the ransomware thing might've
[00:17:05] been part of it, the merger, the angst of that, but you know, they are very, very focused on,
[00:17:10] you know, uh, all in for the customer was the, was the, the moniker used. Um, there's a new,
[00:17:16] they're taking some new approaches to how they're addressing that. Um, you know,
[00:17:20] they've got their partners for life, uh, capability or excuse me, uh, mantra, and they've
[00:17:25] really customized, I think the customer service and layered it for each of their product sets
[00:17:31] and markets, right? So your smaller companies, your larger companies, uh, I think down market,
[00:17:36] you're going to see more, a little bit more of a, uh, an automated sort of experience. Whereas
[00:17:39] upmarket, it might be a little bit more hands-on, um, just given the complexities, but,
[00:17:44] so that's a big, big piece, you know, but what are your thoughts on that? I mean, what,
[00:17:47] what are your thoughts on just customer experience on that side and what you're seeing?
[00:17:51] Well, I think, um, largely because some of the things that have been happening, right.
[00:17:55] Whether you go to the, the combination of, uh, the two companies and, or just sheer growth,
[00:18:01] right. Turnover. So hard to be all in for the customer and also kind of shift resourcing and,
[00:18:08] you know, sales territories and sales sizes and, you know, like things,
[00:18:12] things shift and change sometimes annually, sometimes in between. And, and so that's,
[00:18:17] um, that I think is just a natural challenge that comes with growth and success. And, you know,
[00:18:22] some of the ways that UKG has not only come together, um, but is building now together forward,
[00:18:28] right? So, so I'm much for that.
[00:18:31] You know, the thing is, I think we, we have to remember too is, and they pointed this out,
[00:18:35] right. They were largely still operating as two separate support systems, right. And I think that
[00:18:40] was part of it. So that's been brought together, um, and harmonized under Bob Del Ponte, which by
[00:18:45] the way, been there, right. He's a long time chronos guy, uh, leading, leading that side and
[00:18:49] also using some AI now, uh, on the backend for COE type capabilities and, and, and supporting their
[00:18:55] customers, especially in implementation, which is huge for data movement, uh, data migration.
[00:19:00] You know, obviously partners are going to be a big part. This is something they pointed out
[00:19:03] heavily in this customer experience is that partners are going to be very critical to helping with
[00:19:08] the change management element of all this, but also again, just very, very focused on being
[00:19:13] customer led. Uh, like I said, they've, they've sort of segmented out that, you know, service focus
[00:19:18] for each, each level, um, and just doing, you know, everything they can to get their CSAT, um, you know,
[00:19:24] coming up and it, and it, it is trending upward, which I thought was really, really good. So
[00:19:27] kudos to them.
[00:19:28] Yeah. And I love all of that. And the fact that they've, they've really emphasized and brought ready
[00:19:32] together. We spoke about that in our last, um, news update, uh, for the down market and then up market,
[00:19:38] uh, so there are different buyers and different needs. I also would say there's always folks that
[00:19:42] hang in the middle, right? So when I'm advising, you know, there are a lot of folks that, you know,
[00:19:48] you just kind of wait and see much like other of their competitors that have multiple, you know,
[00:19:52] choices and, in solution, you know, some, it's going to be very clear and for others, it's not clear at
[00:19:58] all. You know, like you can go either way. And so, so there's a challenge that comes with that and
[00:20:04] figuring out what is that in between space and, and how clear is it, you know, which side of the
[00:20:09] fence you go to for a ready or for a pro. Yeah, absolutely. I'll tell you, they have sharpened
[00:20:13] that. That was actually a key slide in, in the deck they showed us. Uh, and, and you're right.
[00:20:17] They do have, um, you know, they, they expect that that, again, that down market segment is going to be
[00:20:22] a bit more centered around technology and self-service. Whereas the enterprise, they're going to be
[00:20:26] leaning a lot, uh, or, or partnering closely with their partners to enable vertical solutions and fill
[00:20:32] gaps and address things. And the mid market obviously is going to be a bit of a blend. So
[00:20:36] yeah, just a very renewed focus here. So. Yeah. Not sure if they gave any, um, renewed or updated,
[00:20:42] you know, kind of like how big. Uh, the market sizes. Yeah. The market sizes.
[00:20:46] So SMB. It's often a realignment of that. Yeah. SMB is generally going to be 200 and below. No,
[00:20:51] that didn't really change. Mid is two to two to 2,500. And then they've got enterprise at 2,500 and
[00:20:57] above. So I think that's still the same pretty much. So were they fairly clear and allowing,
[00:21:01] like a ready with one or both of those segments or is that middle?
[00:21:05] Well, ready, ready could play. Yeah. I mean, I think it depends on the company ready could
[00:21:08] probably play in that middle segment too. No problem. I mean, as strong as it is right. And
[00:21:13] all the bright stuff and the, and the great places to work now integrated. We talked about that a few
[00:21:17] months ago. I think they announced that at a HR tech. Um, yeah, it's, it's maturing and it's,
[00:21:21] it's got a huge, uh, footprint of adoption, um, and just a gaining, uh, a gaining satisfaction
[00:21:27] and retention rate too. So yeah. Yeah. I think it's that mid space where you get into,
[00:21:32] you know, more choices and, uh, you know, even North of 2,500 where potentially ready could
[00:21:38] could be the right thing. It probably still could. Yeah. I think so. And I think that,
[00:21:42] you know, as, as mature as it's getting, I wonder when it, they blend, you know what I mean?
[00:21:46] That's, that's exactly my point. Yeah. So, okay. Sorry. I don't want to belabor this. I know you got
[00:21:51] tons. No, no, no, no, no. It's okay. So now let's kind of, let's kind of get into product. And there was
[00:21:55] a lot, so I'm not going to go over all of it. We'll never have enough time, but just suffice it
[00:21:59] to say that bright is, is absolutely an action and UKG bright is their AI agents, their connected
[00:22:04] agents, their, uh, you know, I would argue, uh, or no, I mean, they are agentic, right? I don't
[00:22:10] know if everyone is familiar with agentic AI, uh, agentic AI is more of the AI sort of, you know,
[00:22:16] think of, think of like when you're in, in HR and payroll, you know, you're processing various
[00:22:21] different processes and steps and checklists and there's handoffs. And, uh, you know,
[00:22:26] sometimes there are things that have to happen in one system or another. I think agentic is
[00:22:30] going to be that AI that is going to bring together those things and string that reasoning
[00:22:34] together to know, to take that action autonomously, one step to the next handoff to the next.
[00:22:40] There's other examples you can find out there that are real world. I think, uh, uh, I think
[00:22:45] I read one time that an autonomous driving car would be a good example of agentic, right?
[00:22:48] It's, it's assessing a lot of data and making decisions based on what it knows and what it's
[00:22:54] been taught. So I think you're going to see that, right? And when you think about the lanes that UKG
[00:22:58] can play in with workforce management, with, uh, you know, human capital management, both
[00:23:02] operationally and strategically and talent wise, there's a lot of that, that, that needs to be
[00:23:07] connected and brought together to string data and string experiences together across. Like we talk
[00:23:13] about leaves all the time, right? There's so much opportunity for agentic here. So you're going to see a lot
[00:23:18] of that theme, I think in, in what's coming from them and the use cases that they're solving.
[00:23:22] So let's just maybe break down a few things that I thought was really cool. So starting out with,
[00:23:27] and these are some of the ones you can go and see publicly, uh, as far as, uh, announcements,
[00:23:31] but like they have a new AI enabled talent marketplace. Um, it's going to drive things like, uh,
[00:23:37] AI driven skills development. It's going to support internal mobility and help people,
[00:23:42] you know, path their careers and the, and the learning they need to, to get to that path or whatever
[00:23:46] that destination is. Um, it's going to be, uh, create much more of a, a kind of a gig style and
[00:23:52] experience for people to pull frontline knowledge and workers into diverse roles and maybe, um, you know,
[00:23:58] uh, projects on the fly, as well as give you sort of that, um, you know, talent development and
[00:24:04] internal mobility pro support, um, that companies need to be developing people. So that's a key one.
[00:24:10] Let's talk about, uh, you know, the agents, right? They've got a number of bright AI agents. Now this is
[00:24:16] going to be your think co-pilot think agentic, right? These are going to be autonomous agents
[00:24:21] that are able to go out there and take multi multi-step complex processes and string them
[00:24:26] together with decision-making across the suite. Um, so again, any sort of use case that you can
[00:24:32] imagine where there's a handoff, right? Recruiting would be a good one, right? Because recruiting
[00:24:36] becomes onboarding at some point onboarding becomes, you know, day one planning and, and, and so on,
[00:24:42] right? You know, meeting your team and beginning to do things as a manager or an employee,
[00:24:45] um, so there's lots of, lots of processes that can be strung together. And then of course,
[00:24:50] obviously surfing, surfacing data back to the users, you know, great places to work data,
[00:24:54] which is super unique about their platform is just getting sprinkled in everywhere and, and
[00:24:58] really bringing it back to the surface for, for, you know, users and especially those frontline
[00:25:02] managers to make decisions. Uh, what else? You know, the other thing I thought was cool,
[00:25:07] Julie, they do have a new addition to, they will have a new addition to the global payroll solution,
[00:25:11] which, uh, is going to be, I'm going to, I want to make sure I, I read these correctly.
[00:25:16] So they've got already got, um, one view connect, right? Right. Which is fundamentally,
[00:25:22] yeah, it's fundamentally allowing you to bring in all of your data from wherever you're processing
[00:25:26] it, wherever you're in country partners or whatever, maybe it's a mix of your, of your UKG
[00:25:31] system and, or it may just, uh, presumably, I guess now UKG, uh, and your external partners,
[00:25:37] you could bring that data in, you can validate that data, automate the flow of information
[00:25:41] and have that harmonized view. That's connect, uh, managed obviously was a fully, was there
[00:25:47] fully managed capability, but now they also have one view direct and one view direct is saying,
[00:25:52] look, we can go a step further now. And you can not only integrate those ICPs and bring their
[00:25:57] data in, but we will actually, uh, be able to process from within our system, regardless of
[00:26:02] whether it's your ICP or ours. So they're calling it a bring your own partner sort of solution.
[00:26:06] Um, so it just takes the level of, uh, the layers of, of engagement, I think up from,
[00:26:12] you know, just connecting and bringing data into now orchestrating payroll or going fully managed.
[00:26:18] So direct one, one view direct will be that new solution fitting in there in between the fully
[00:26:23] outsourced and, uh, just bringing data in. Yeah. And it sounds like, it sounds like in that,
[00:26:29] the intent of that is to bring any of your existing partners that there's not, they're not limited.
[00:26:33] Yeah. Um, I'm sure there are requirements, right. That they have to pass data back and forth in
[00:26:39] certain ways or follow certain protocols, um, to be able to do that. But, uh, it's something that
[00:26:44] has been a differentiator for others in the market for a little while. And so that, that is always
[00:26:50] helpful because it's really not realistic to move every single one of your countries.
[00:26:54] Yeah. Doing a brand new model, you know, right away at least if ever. And so I got to believe
[00:27:01] that'll be really, uh, really well received. Hey everybody. I'm Lori Rudiman. What are you doing?
[00:27:07] Working? Nah, you're listening to a podcast about work and that barely counts. So while you're at it,
[00:27:13] check out my show, punk rock HR now on the work defined network. We chat with smart people about
[00:27:19] work, power, politics, and money. Are we succeeding? Are we fixing work? Probably not work still sucks,
[00:27:25] but tune in for some fun, a little nonsense and a fresh take on how to fix work once and for all.
[00:27:32] Yeah, no, I think it will too. And I think it's just indicative of the options people want and
[00:27:36] the flexibility and agility that they want in solving, uh, you know, for, for global payroll. So,
[00:27:42] um, and look, this is, uh, you know, a very beautiful compliment to their WFM and to their HCM. So yeah,
[00:27:49] this is, I mean, they're, they're in great shape and listen, I did clarify. Um, I was curious to see
[00:27:54] if they were still selling to not, excuse me, to non UKG customers. Um, and they said, yeah, they can.
[00:28:00] Um, and they do from time to time. There are customers who are using that. So, Hey, look, if you're,
[00:28:05] if you're a workday customer, you can still use, you know, you could, you could use one view,
[00:28:08] uh, apparently. And, and I think that that's, that's good, right? You want to keep that open
[00:28:12] and I'm sure they still have tons of customers in different, different pockets of HCM. So.
[00:28:16] Yeah. I think as always, it's a little bit on the hush hush, right? No matter who it is,
[00:28:20] but when it can, when push comes to shove, a lot of times, you know, you can do a little bit of mix
[00:28:24] and match. Yeah. Look in the, in this world with everything is integrated as it obviously is.
[00:28:28] Um, I think that, um, yeah, that this sort of extensibility and flexibility is,
[00:28:34] is basically the, the, you know, part of the benefits of that. Right. And why not? Why
[00:28:38] shouldn't you be able to shape what you, what you need for your business, right? Or your needs. So
[00:28:42] yeah, I love it. It's good stuff. All right. All right. What else we, Oh, I tell you what else we
[00:28:46] did there too. So obviously, uh, let me, let me give you some bits on ready. So ready is getting
[00:28:50] stronger. Like I said, obviously integrated with, um, you know, uh, bright it's got integrations now to
[00:28:56] the data for, uh, are obviously for one view. And, um, also you've got your, uh, integration to
[00:29:03] an infusion of the great places to work data. So back to our point about ready being incredibly
[00:29:08] strong. Uh, I think it's, um, yeah, I think it's, I think it's got all the pieces and parts it needs
[00:29:14] to mature. And I, I kind of wonder when they're going to, when they're going to meet in the middle,
[00:29:17] right. Uh, at some point. And, um, yeah. And so, yeah, I think you're going to see more stuff,
[00:29:22] more things like that, more, more use cases. Um, some of the key things I thought was pretty cool.
[00:29:26] Um, they did introduce this one thing, uh, called the, um, search and act, right. It's the ability to
[00:29:32] kind of bridge contextual requests with the next best action, uh, is the way I would describe it.
[00:29:39] And, and again, using all that rich data they have helping managers, uh, those frontline managers
[00:29:43] and frontline workers will be most effective and productive, I think is what, what the goal here is.
[00:29:49] Yeah. But lots of that, you know, lots of this man, just, you know, big emphasis on data.
[00:29:53] We, we talked about data a lot and also Julie, you'll appreciate this. I think, um, you know,
[00:29:58] there's, there's also a very big push by UKG on sectors and, and, and, and industry. Um, that's
[00:30:04] where I think the partners are going to help, but don't forget, you know, they have a big part of
[00:30:08] that covered already in the WFM side. So, you know, they're able to accommodate a lot of, uh, sticky,
[00:30:15] you know, gnarly sectors, right. The manufacturing, the healthcare, um, all of those challenging
[00:30:21] spaces where we're scheduling and such are, are, are problems. So, so let's talk roadmap maybe for a
[00:30:27] second. Here's a couple of things I think you might get excited about. Um, the first is going to be a
[00:30:31] new one view compliance hub. It's going to be a command center, um, for customers to actually
[00:30:35] manage, um, exceptions, compliance types of exceptions in real time and sort and deal with
[00:30:41] changes at the country, the country level. So, um, yeah, that's going to be nice. And I think you
[00:30:46] could see, um, you know, maybe there's a compliance as a service type thing coming out of these types
[00:30:51] of solutions at some point, you know, maybe. Or even just a calendar, right. When I think of a
[00:30:55] payroll calendar, uh, you know, I, I'm sure it was cloud. I don't remember who was kind of focused on
[00:31:01] a compliance calendar, you know, once upon a day. Uh, but when you do these kinds of focusing and you
[00:31:07] have a hub, then all of a sudden, you know, you're bringing great visibility to things that have been
[00:31:12] just embedded in other processes before. So I think buyers are really interested in that.
[00:31:17] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, along that lines, they've also got, uh, a continuous compliance agent,
[00:31:23] uh, that is going to be introduced as well, uh, later in 2025. These are 2025 items, by the way,
[00:31:28] uh, you've got that agent and now that's, that's cool, right? I mean, that's going to help with your
[00:31:32] continuous compliance, uh, for payroll administrators to quickly get, you know, tax compliance, um,
[00:31:39] analysis and, and, and updates and also answers to questions, right. Instead of having to kind of
[00:31:43] track that down and research it. So, uh, again, along that agentic, uh, kind of autonomous support,
[00:31:49] that's the type of thing I think you're seeing come in. And then another thing that I think is kind
[00:31:52] of interesting, Julie, they're, they're offering something now, uh, that's going to come again in
[00:31:56] 2025, uh, what they call multi multi-byte support in, uh, Ulti pro or excuse me, UKG pro,
[00:32:02] um, which basically simplifies the process of supporting. I'm reading this now global
[00:32:06] employees with multi-byte languages and localization formats for global profile data,
[00:32:12] ensuring that data accuracy and entry and compliance across regions. So I would argue that is a deeper
[00:32:17] localization support, um, uh, within Ulti pro that, or excuse me, I keep saying that, uh, UKG pro and,
[00:32:24] and going to bring, you know, just, just round out all that compliance emphasis that they're putting
[00:32:28] on here. So I love that. All right. So that's a lot, right? I mean, we could, I could keep going
[00:32:33] on and on, right? I won't, we got to keep it moving. Um, leave it into other conversations.
[00:32:38] I do want to, I do want to end on this though, about, about the conference. One of the things
[00:32:42] we got to do was at the end, we got to talk to, I think it was like eight of the UKG labs, uh,
[00:32:48] cohort of founders. Uh, so these are, uh, incubated, uh, solutions that UKG is engaging with. And in this
[00:32:56] case, they were all financial wellness. And I thought it was really interesting that they all had
[00:32:59] very unique use cases. They were supporting our good friend, Jason Lee was up there with salt. Um,
[00:33:04] I thought the team from Muse MUSE was interesting. Um, they have a, a solution, Julie, that will help
[00:33:10] you maximize your tax return, uh, sort of refund during the year. So almost taking it as you go by
[00:33:18] recalculating and making sure you're optimizing your deductions so that you're getting that money sooner
[00:33:22] than later. Um, so almost like a, a earned wage access for tax refund at the end of the year. So I
[00:33:28] what I found, what I found fascinating when I was sitting there was is, you know, I think I've shown
[00:33:32] you, or maybe I I've, I've, you've seen me present my payroll everywhere concept a few years ago.
[00:33:37] I actually think every, every one of these use cases are somewhat leaning into that concept,
[00:33:43] um, and need to come together as a super app. So, uh, they liked that idea, but I don't know how
[00:33:49] feasible that is, but, um, but yeah, I thought it was a good, interesting viewpoint of how each of
[00:33:54] these young firms are tackling financial wellness. Uh, and I'm going to do something separate of my
[00:33:59] own. I don't know if I'm going to write this or I'm, if I'm going to do a video on it, but I want
[00:34:02] to talk my payroll everywhere, uh, point of view. And I want to talk it in context with what these
[00:34:06] guys are doing and try to, uh, you know, bring some thoughts to that. So I thought it was really
[00:34:10] interesting. All right, let's move on. Cause I know you got a whole other, a whole other end of the
[00:34:16] strip, right? Yes. Let me, uh, let me grab my notes here on day force, right? So obviously a big,
[00:34:21] big part of this year's event is the fact that they're not Ceridian anymore, right? They're,
[00:34:25] they spent a good 20 minutes, uh, actually updating us on, on how that was going. Um, and I think, um,
[00:34:31] you know, I, I'll say this, Julian, I, I'm, and you tell me what you think. I thought that, um,
[00:34:36] you know, I feel like Ceridian had, you know, and obviously now they're day force,
[00:34:41] their flagship solution. I think that they have more so than any vendor really stayed true to their core,
[00:34:48] um, in, in a, in a, in a, in a very protective way and a very smart way in such that I think they
[00:34:54] have gone and, and made a lot of really smart, keen investments. Um, a lot of keen structuring of
[00:35:01] their, of their platform and their stack and their data model to where that foundational element of
[00:35:07] their core solution. Um, the localizations, the, uh, the way the data is structured and the way it
[00:35:13] flows across the applications is now setting up that ability for them to really go off and,
[00:35:18] and, and, you know, they blocked and tackled really well to where now they can set up their
[00:35:22] touchdowns over on the talent side with that data, uh, and just take, you know, day force intelligence
[00:35:27] to a whole other level in each of their apps. So, um, yeah, I think they've done a lot of really good
[00:35:32] work, um, in that regard. I think they've stayed very, very aggressive on that operational side where
[00:35:37] a lot of some of their peers have gone and kind of chased the squirrel, if you will,
[00:35:41] or the shiny bug with talent and maybe neglected some of the core side, I think day force never
[00:35:46] left their eye, took their eye off that ball, uh, in a lot, a lot of the same way that UKG did,
[00:35:50] um, and have really leaned into that. So, and it's, it shows, I think so. Yeah.
[00:35:55] Yeah, I agree. I think that's a really fair, I think that's a really fair thing to say.
[00:35:59] And in a, in a world where senior leaders, you know, have a tendency to want to talk about talent
[00:36:05] and of course, recruiting is such a critical item, right? So there's, there's a lot of
[00:36:09] conversation that leads toward some of those, um, you know, strategic, talented, peopley stuff.
[00:36:16] But if you don't have the core, right, you know, how do you build on something where the core is
[00:36:21] not as robust as it needs to be? Right. And, and I, I'm not sure that it's hard to remember
[00:36:26] because day force has come so far that they really started with the nuts and bolts of, you know,
[00:36:32] of workforce management or time, you know, all the hard sticky time and payroll stuff.
[00:36:35] Yeah. Right. And, uh, and so that has been solid. It's remained solid. It's been very,
[00:36:40] you know, it's been very, um, robust and, uh, and that's the heart, that's the hard stuff. So I,
[00:36:47] I feel like that's pretty fair. Yeah. It gives them a good foundation to, you know, really ratchet
[00:36:51] up and grow, which is, I think where their mindset is right now. Yeah. Um, you know, and they're,
[00:36:56] they're, you know, targets and ambitions and they, they think they're ready to, you know,
[00:37:00] kind of hyperscale this and make their moves and it's rock solid. Yeah. Well, and the good,
[00:37:06] the best part is right. The data is there, uh, for them to really start action. I hate to use this
[00:37:11] word, but action of realizing that against their large language models and their AI. And again,
[00:37:15] you know, like you would expect, uh, agents and co-pilots were, were very much front and center
[00:37:20] at the show. Um, you know, they, they offered up a number or mentioned a number of them that they put
[00:37:25] out there for productivity and automation, um, for, you know, simplifying complexity,
[00:37:30] you know, their, their moniker is making the, the, I think it's making the simple or hard simple.
[00:37:34] Um, and I think they're doing that, right. They're really surfacing a lot of insights in the flow,
[00:37:38] um, to help you make good actions, uh, and get things quickly and really personalize, um,
[00:37:43] the experiences obviously. So a lot of, a lot of emphasis there, Julie, you'll appreciate this.
[00:37:48] Um, they're bringing out Dave, you gotta say like their, their moniker is really like
[00:37:52] makes work life better. Sorry. Is that, did I get it wrong? Yeah. Oh, my bad. Sorry. Am I saying
[00:37:59] the wrong one? They're making, they, but don't they always talk about? I don't know. New,
[00:38:03] new, new year, new name. Now the conference is now discovered. So maybe they snuck a new one in
[00:38:08] and I was, yeah, my bad. I apologize. I apologize. The bottom line is they're trying to make,
[00:38:12] make this stuff a lot easier. You, you, you know, you shouldn't have to be an HR genius to get,
[00:38:16] you know, to go and take a day off. Um, which has historically been the way systems were right.
[00:38:21] You had to be an expert at the system and I just love the way they're augmenting. Um, but I want
[00:38:25] to go back to this piece that I think you're going to be really hyped about. And that is the new day
[00:38:28] for strategic workforce planning. Um, I know a number of other of us were really excited to see
[00:38:33] that. Uh, it's going to have forecasting capabilities, obviously going to give you a,
[00:38:38] you know, a view of your complete workforce and be able to hone in on skill shortages, labor demand,
[00:38:43] scheduling. Um, so a lot of good stuff here, I think, um, very strategic type, uh, capabilities for,
[00:38:49] for, you know, a much more larger enterprise type customer, right. Which they're aiming for.
[00:38:54] You know, it could be very right thing at the very right time, because as we've noted in other
[00:38:58] podcast episodes where we're chatting, like the focus on hourly workforce and some of the grit
[00:39:03] that is needed in order to, you know, handle that, handle unions, handle, you know, um, schedules,
[00:39:10] scheduling, uh, tools and so forth is, uh, has become an area of focus by clients. And,
[00:39:17] you know, it's not where everybody started. Everybody started with the salary workforce
[00:39:20] is everybody has, you know, they all have access to internet and devices and everything else. And,
[00:39:25] and we're seeing so much more focus on the hourly workforce that, um, workforce planning and building
[00:39:31] on that, you know, great robust complexity that you have is, uh, feels like a natural.
[00:39:36] Yeah, no, I would agree. Totally agree with that. It's, uh, yeah, it's exciting times. I mean,
[00:39:41] this stuff is, uh, it's, it's great, man. It's nice to see these things coming online and
[00:39:44] employers getting these really strong capabilities, you know? And then also another one they announced
[00:39:49] was the day force communications, which is a sort of a centralized location for, uh, scaling your
[00:39:55] communications outward to your employees. Um, you know, it's obviously going to help you with,
[00:40:00] um, you know, staying in touch with folks, making sure obviously that you are, you know,
[00:40:05] communicating effectively, keeping your teams informed, bringing messages to your, you know,
[00:40:10] your organization and certainly, um, doing that maybe within, you know, AI tools and enhanced,
[00:40:15] uh, you know, augmentative capabilities there as well. So we're seeing a little bit more of these,
[00:40:20] right? These, these capabilities coming online. I think, um, I can't remember if it's UKG or someone
[00:40:24] else showed us one of these two as well. So. Well, you know, it's really super interesting to me
[00:40:30] because in advisory, we often get, you know, we often end up in the middle of conversations.
[00:40:34] Everybody wants to think about experience and, and, uh, boost these things up. And, uh, when more
[00:40:41] and more products or even sections of the market start to think about things like communications,
[00:40:47] then you start to have some questions about where, where do I put that functionality? Do I put it in my
[00:40:53] core HR system? If that's the core for me, do I put it in my total rewards solution? Because I need,
[00:40:58] you know, I need pushing and things to happen there. Do I put it in, you know, benefits? It's kind of
[00:41:03] like the service, you know, service now and figuring out where do I need to put workflow
[00:41:07] and portal and escalations and what are the advantages of doing it, you know, in a, uh,
[00:41:13] one tool versus doing it in my native integrated suite. And the answer is not the same for everybody.
[00:41:19] Right. So, um, so that's, that's always been front and center in, um, in the advisory conversations
[00:41:25] with clients is, you know, well, there's not just one way to do it and which things do you have
[00:41:30] and how do you want to put them together? Agreed. Yeah, I would agree. And I think, I think things
[00:41:34] like this too, like are really slanted towards that frontline worker, right? Because you've got
[00:41:38] so many folks that are deskless, um, you know, they're not necessarily going to get a memorandum,
[00:41:44] right? I mean, maybe they're a better way to reach them is to pop up something on a mobile app,
[00:41:48] um, or, you know, have a community that I think that's another thing that this supports as well.
[00:41:53] Um, if I'm not mistaken, I can't remember if it was, I think it's communities,
[00:41:56] maybe not ERGs, but it will allow you to communicate around groups of people, maybe
[00:42:02] a certain shift or a certain, um, you know, skillset group or something like that. So just
[00:42:07] getting smarter about how, how we put disseminate, you know, communications to and from employees and,
[00:42:12] and, and, uh, keep everyone informed, right. And keep everyone on the set, especially as we got more
[00:42:17] remote work, right. We've been doing some talking about remote work. These things are going to be more
[00:42:21] more valid, um, in their use cases. So, but, um, yeah, look, I think you're going to see a lot more
[00:42:27] agents coming from, um, uh, more, more of the UCS is around connected agents and co-pilots coming
[00:42:33] from day force. Uh, I think they said they're doing a Mexico, um, uh, template to a calc engine for
[00:42:40] payroll. I think, yeah, that has been in the works for a little while. Germany as well. Germany as well.
[00:42:45] So I think they'll give them 10, right? 10 native or maybe more.
[00:42:48] Uh, that sounds about right. Something like that. Maybe 12.
[00:42:50] That's the US speaking now. Um, yeah. Yep. So, yeah. So I think that's good. Um,
[00:42:55] and then obviously there, you know, one of the things I did poke around on Julia with a little
[00:42:58] bit was the, um, day force flex work. I don't know if you remember them launching that last year.
[00:43:03] It's think of it as a VMS style, uh, direct sourcing, um, gig type talent pool capability,
[00:43:12] but they would also comes with the services for that worker. So not quite PEO, there's not a transfer
[00:43:20] of liability or employment. Um, but it is a care and feeding, so to speak of their administrivia.
[00:43:25] Um, and, and right now it's only available in Florida. It's, it's generally available in Florida.
[00:43:30] Uh, but it will be, we'll be going later to other places. And I could see this being, you know,
[00:43:35] pairing very nicely with their global capabilities and their, you know, just their core infrastructure.
[00:43:40] So, and don't forget, let's don't forget. They have very, very strong workforce management,
[00:43:44] right? Not known. I don't think as a standalone workforce management solution,
[00:43:48] but incredibly formidable for that, uh, for that stack. Yeah.
[00:43:51] So, um, you're jogging my memory now. Is that similar to like, um, the, what's it called?
[00:43:57] Work market that ADP?
[00:43:58] Uh, yeah, kind of. Uh, but I think this goes a step further. Yeah. To include the services,
[00:44:02] but yeah, something along that line, more, but a bit of a, maybe a little bit like
[00:44:05] Vendly in some ways. Um, probably. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:44:09] They all probably fall in the same category. Yeah. But it's got that mechanism of being able to sort
[00:44:14] of, uh, not employ them, but be able to at least, uh, take care of them from, uh, you know, payroll,
[00:44:19] you know, time, um, that sort of thing. So yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see what that,
[00:44:23] where that evolves. I think that's a unique solution for them. So, but yeah. Um, what else? Uh,
[00:44:29] yeah. Oh, I will tell you this. They did mention Julie, they, you know, they are day force has been
[00:44:33] pushing up market for some time now they're maturing. They're getting pulled up market.
[00:44:36] Uh, the global, the global stuff helped that they mentioned, they have a customer they've signed
[00:44:41] that is, uh, nearly a half million, um, workers. Um, and we'll, I think they got about 50 K live,
[00:44:47] about two 50 coming. So that's impressive. And they, and they demonstrated, uh, Henkel,
[00:44:52] who is a customer example on stage that had 55,000 employees in 40 countries. So, um, absolutely
[00:44:59] coming up market and doing very well.
[00:45:01] I bet that was Greg. Was that Greg Isaacs that was on stage?
[00:45:03] I don't remember. I think it was a video, a video.
[00:45:06] Been involved with Henkel from the start. So, uh, I actually have had the privilege of being
[00:45:10] involved in a number of their, uh, high profile global, uh, global clients. So, um, yeah,
[00:45:16] definitely doing great things, um, and expanding.
[00:45:19] Hey, this is William Tenka, work to find. Hey, listen, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about
[00:45:24] inside the C-suite, the podcast. It's a look into the journey of how one goes from high school,
[00:45:30] college, whatever, all the way to the C-suite, all the ups and downs, failure, successes,
[00:45:35] all that stuff. Good. Listen, subscribe wherever you get your podcast.
[00:45:39] Yeah. Very good. Yeah. Well, look, I think you're going to see more, uh, yeah, look,
[00:45:43] look for more AI, more agents, uh, more co-pilots, um, already have autonomous agents writing job
[00:45:48] descriptions and, and, and time off, uh, exceptions I think is what they had. Um, tons of predictive
[00:45:54] insights. So yeah, I think you're going to see that. And I think you could also, they did say
[00:45:58] they're considering, uh, looking at a compliance as a service type, uh, solution as well would make
[00:46:03] total sense. Right. I think, I think it might even make sense for UKG. Um, but, uh, yeah, I think
[00:46:08] this is, um, yeah, good stuff, man. I I'm excited to see what day force is doing and shout out to them
[00:46:13] for giving us, uh, analysts a bit more updates. Uh, we were getting a better flow of updates now. So,
[00:46:18] um, hopefully can give you more updates here on the show about what's going on over at day force.
[00:46:22] So congrats to them and thanks for having us. Yeah. Awesome. So what else? So you tell me about,
[00:46:26] uh, shared services and outsourcing. I I'm still jealous. I've never been.
[00:46:30] I know. I know. Well, you know, um, when COVID hit, they, uh, this organization paired back
[00:46:36] and they used to do two HR specific, uh, conference events. And then of course they have their,
[00:46:41] their, um, their main events, which are the shared services and outsourcing week,
[00:46:45] which are global business services tailored, right? So HR is there, but they're one of
[00:46:50] finance and supply chain and, you know, other back office areas. And then large employers are folks
[00:46:56] that are really pushing the shared on services envelope. Eventually you do structurally put,
[00:47:01] put yourself into a global services model, right? Um, and so having everybody there can be helpful
[00:47:08] because maybe you have more than one, you have HR and finance and shared services, for example.
[00:47:13] So, uh, so the HR shared service event that's specific for HR is back. Um, we've been
[00:47:20] talking and been talking to them about it for years since COVID and say, you know, please bring
[00:47:23] this back. It's well-loved. Um, it's well-attended and it's heyday. It's always attracted maybe 125
[00:47:29] or so, um, you know, HR practitioners, HR leaders, folks that are charged with, or thinking about,
[00:47:36] or in the path and the journey, um, for HR transformation. It was in Atlanta just this last
[00:47:42] week. And, uh, and I would say, you know, amazingly well-attended. Uh, and we know exactly
[00:47:49] how many folks you could bring in, um, for this Atlanta November, uh, event. And I figured maybe
[00:47:56] 60 would be good show. Uh, we had to add chairs to the room and there were, you know, probably a good
[00:48:02] strong 80, 80 or more, um, you know, HR leaders there. So super exciting. And, uh, the other thing
[00:48:10] that was very, very interesting is, uh, early on in the main event day, um, our, uh, MC who was, uh,
[00:48:19] Steph Ernst from AmeriCorps. Uh, she asked folks to, uh, to show whether they were first timers,
[00:48:28] um, at the event or just starting their shared services journey. And really, you know, there
[00:48:32] were probably over half of the room, you know, we're had, we're just starting to get into a shared
[00:48:38] services industry event like this. And, uh, that's much more than, you know, these events,
[00:48:44] I see the same companies over and over. They send multiple folks of their teams over and over again.
[00:48:48] So from a, a fresh new faces, you know, folks that are, you know, finding, um, peers to be a really
[00:48:56] important and valued source of information. Uh, you know, there, there's a huge interest out there,
[00:49:01] I would say. And, uh, this is a great conference for them to go to.
[00:49:05] Hey, Julie, do you, do you see more, um, do you see more public sector popping up in there? Because
[00:49:10] I, I just, one thing I did mention, I want to mention, you know, in addition to Workday,
[00:49:14] obviously, you know, doing FedRAMP and pushing into public sector, um, UKG is on that path as well.
[00:49:19] So, uh, I don't know about Dayforce. I can't remember if they're already there. They may already
[00:49:23] be there given. Oh, they definitely have. Yeah. They're already doing some work on Canada,
[00:49:27] obviously. So, um, yeah. But are you seeing that any, anything there, any trends with public sector?
[00:49:31] So, yes, I do. And I would say, uh, last year, at least in the SSOWs, because of course we weren't
[00:49:37] back to the HR ones, um, the SSOW, SSOW group is very good at co-locating some events. So this
[00:49:44] particular HR event was co-located with, uh, some, uh, AI, uh, and AI for finance event. But last year,
[00:49:54] uh, we had at least one of the main events that was co-located with, uh, education,
[00:49:58] education and public sector. And so when that happens, kind of like being up and down the strip,
[00:50:04] the way you split your time, right. Between, um, Dayforce and, and UKG, then you have practitioners
[00:50:10] who can actually split their time and they stagger, you know, some of the activities and some of the
[00:50:15] events so that, you know, you, if you have an interest, you can attend some very specific
[00:50:20] public sector or education focused items. And then also, you know, not miss out on your HR focus.
[00:50:26] Yeah. Yeah. Good. So they're good about that. It, this wasn't, this one wasn't education and
[00:50:31] public sector. This one was, um, scattered. Yeah. Uh, we had, um, just a couple of other
[00:50:37] highlights from this particular conference. The session that I led with, uh, a few, um,
[00:50:42] practitioners that I want to shout out was on simplifying the HR transformation journey and
[00:50:47] specifically looking at enhancing the employee experience through that. And so, uh, shout out to
[00:50:54] the panelists that I worked with, um, which include Dan Liskuski from Delta airlines was there. That was
[00:50:59] kind of like our, our big, our big, biggest employer group. They're, they're delivering services
[00:51:05] to over 300,000 employees. If you count retirees in their, um, SAP based, um, solutions. Morgan
[00:51:12] Shannon was, um, another one of the panelists from New York Presbyterian hospital. They're about 42,000
[00:51:18] employees and have been on the journey for a little while doing some very cool things as well.
[00:51:23] And Adrian Holcomb, um, from areas management corp was on the smaller, but very global and fast
[00:51:28] moving and M and M and A side. And so we had a panel that was really diverse and could cover
[00:51:33] everything from the large to the small market, different technologies in play, different stages
[00:51:38] in the journey. And, uh, every single one of them had something to say about, you know,
[00:51:42] how they're enabling the journey and lots of good conversation about, um, AI and how they're using
[00:51:49] AI. Usually it's product specific, right? And, um, so you're trying to manage and deploy the things
[00:51:55] that you could turn on from your own existing platform. And that just, you know, was of course,
[00:52:00] one of the most, um, exciting things that, um, that folks wanted to hear about. Um, and maybe second
[00:52:08] in the excitement channel is, you know, for me, uh, we had a great, you would have loved the payroll
[00:52:14] and shared services kind of, there was a, uh, fireside chat on the intersection of payroll
[00:52:18] and shared services that, uh, that really spoke to, you know, kind of the, the critical strategic
[00:52:25] role that payroll can play in your shared services. Go figure. Right. Um, so thank you so much. Amy
[00:52:31] Wang from Mercedes Benz was in that, um, Chaitanya, um, Jayanti from Northwestern Memorial healthcare,
[00:52:38] Sarah and Sarah Chasey from, um, um, from Banfield Pet Hospital, uh, spoke specifically to, yeah.
[00:52:45] Thank you guys. Like you, they were, they were speaking our language on, uh, on payroll and how,
[00:52:51] uh, how much of a transformation lever it can be for employees. Um, and, uh, and, and instead of running
[00:52:57] away from it in your HR shared services, embracing it and, um, recognizing how, how, uh, how cool it can
[00:53:04] be to end up having payroll as part of that. Yeah. Sounds familiar.
[00:53:08] Yeah. So my hope is not only that this becomes annual, you know, it was biannual, I would say
[00:53:14] once upon a time. Um, what I've said, I know I've said before to our listeners that this particular
[00:53:19] conference is practitioners listening to practitioners. Um, that doesn't mean that a person
[00:53:25] like me doesn't, uh, help facilitate conversations, um, and make it easy so you don't have to do a lot of
[00:53:30] legwork. Uh, and, uh, so if, uh, if anyone who's listening has a keen interest in getting involved
[00:53:37] with, uh, SSO ends or has a cool stories to tell, like, just reach out to me and, uh, and I'll make
[00:53:44] sure to figure out, uh, make sure, you know, when next ones are, which ones are next and, and, uh, and,
[00:53:51] um, work with you to help bring a story forward to some of your peers and participate in one coming
[00:53:56] up. Maybe as soon as there's a March one, that's an SSOW, a bigger one in March in Orlando. And
[00:54:03] with any luck, we might have a, uh, uh, an early June HR version. We'll see if you can score me a
[00:54:11] pass. I'd love to go show up. Yeah. Get me one. Yeah, we'll do it. And next time you're in Atlanta,
[00:54:15] we got to get together. If I'm, if I'm not for sure, not in town. Yeah. Yeah. I knew I was going
[00:54:20] to miss you. We need to record, record live again, you know? So yeah. All right. Well, Julie, look,
[00:54:26] I don't know about you, but I am, uh, this is hopefully knock on wood, my final trip for 2024.
[00:54:30] I think I did enough. Um, so yeah, hopefully we can get some real work done and, um, yeah,
[00:54:36] I'd, I'd just like to call out that we are going to come back this year. We're going to, we're,
[00:54:40] we're getting, we're prepping our where to focus in 2025 episode. I think it's been our most popular
[00:54:45] episode every year. Um, so we're working on that. And of course I'd love for everyone to come over
[00:54:49] to payroll influences.com and check out the forum over there. We've got some conversations going slowly
[00:54:54] and yeah, Julie, what do you got going on? You know, I'm in Dallas early next week. Um,
[00:54:59] um, and that's a client related thing. So, uh, hoping to maybe see a few folks there and, um,
[00:55:04] and, uh, it's always nice to, I haven't been down to Dallas in a while. I've been doing a little more
[00:55:09] Houston. So happy to bet. Yeah. Might be my last one of the, of the, uh, of the year, my last official
[00:55:15] event because the NARES event that used to be in December has moved itself to spring. So, um,
[00:55:21] so maybe getting caught up. Yeah. Sometimes I'm the bottleneck in some of the things that I work on with
[00:55:26] clients. I've got, yeah, I got so many things I want to do just personal things. I want,
[00:55:30] I want projects I want to work on. So, uh, yeah, we got to get together. I got some things I want
[00:55:34] you to work on me with, uh, work with me on, excuse me. Great. Um, you're great at voluntolding
[00:55:40] me. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It actually is wonderful. Well, we're going to, we're, we're going to,
[00:55:44] we're going to work on our video channel. We're going to bring up a, uh, we're going to bring all of
[00:55:47] our video content onto a YouTube channel, uh, for the show. So we won't necessarily put all of
[00:55:52] these audio only episodes, which is most of them. We're going to bring all the video content. So
[00:55:56] like the work that we did with Jason Lee, um, some of the other recordings we've done around the
[00:56:00] industry, we're going to bring all that in. And I've got a couple of, uh, points of view that I
[00:56:04] want to share on video, Julie, I'm sure you've got some, and I know we're going to do some together.
[00:56:08] So, uh, yeah, look for that content to come soon as well. Excited for that. Okay. Well, this was a
[00:56:13] long one, but you know what, when the conference season is coming around and there's updates and
[00:56:17] there's so much to do and say, you know, it's just really helpful to get it out while it's fresh.
[00:56:22] And, uh, and then we can loop back in and, and round in all the filling all the missing spots.
[00:56:28] Yeah. Yeah. And look, shoot over your questions. We have a, I don't know if our email, our email is
[00:56:32] still active, but just, just DM us on, on Twitter or, uh, or excuse me, X or LinkedIn or me or Julie.
[00:56:38] Uh, if you have questions, if you have something you want us to talk about, something you'd like us to
[00:56:41] cover. Uh, I've been getting a lot of feedback from folks I've been meeting who listen to the show for
[00:56:46] education, for, uh, market updates for all different reasons. And so if we can help, just let us know.
[00:56:52] Reach out, give us the feedback. We love to shape things. And we've got a bunch of guests,
[00:56:56] a bunch more guests lined up, um, bunch of good topics lined up. So, uh, yeah, stick with us.
[00:57:01] Yeah. And you know, especially, um, you payroll HR and payroll leaders. So I'm just going to say it,
[00:57:06] you know, folks know we're not a commercialized, uh, we're not a commercialized podcast or products.
[00:57:12] So, um, so don't, don't, don't ping us with the idea that we, that we help spread the word about
[00:57:17] your product. Yeah, right. It's not. Yeah. That's a good point. That's a good point. We're not a,
[00:57:22] uh, yeah, we're not that show. We're, we're, we're not a, uh, just interview someone and talk
[00:57:26] about their product. We, this is purely around education and we don't monetize this purposely.
[00:57:32] Uh, we want this to be complimentary. Um, and we want to share our knowledge, right? We have,
[00:57:37] uh, you know, we're privileged to be on the front lines of this stuff and I'm, I'm happy to share
[00:57:42] what I know. I know you, you know, us pairing together is a great compliment, but yeah, what we
[00:57:46] want to do is, uh, we want to bring a thought leader point of view, um, a social media post,
[00:57:52] a blog, an article, uh, is typically what we feed off of. So if we find something that's intriguing,
[00:57:57] um, that we think is resonating with what we've, uh, our content and themes, we'll, we'll pull that,
[00:58:02] right? So we've, uh, you know, we, we've typically invited guests on that way.
[00:58:07] So if you've got a point of view, uh, something resonating, something big, um, out there,
[00:58:11] shoot it over to us. Let us look at that. Um, uh, it's the best way to get, you know,
[00:58:15] to get on the show if you're, if you're interested is we do get a lot of outreach and, um, yeah,
[00:58:19] it's not, uh, so, you know, Julie, we've gotten some strange ones. I got one about, uh, one time
[00:58:24] about a, uh, a doctor in the, some sort of field, some sort of field of medicine. And I was like,
[00:58:29] I responded. I was like, what would we talk about? Like, I don't even, I'm an idiot when it comes to
[00:58:34] that. Like, I don't, you know, I can't help you with the medical stuff, man. But I, yeah. So
[00:58:39] I don't remember, man, it was something wacky. And then there was another one, one time they wanted
[00:58:43] to bring on some expert in realist, some sort of real estate, commercial real estate. And I was
[00:58:46] like, what would we talk about? So here's a challenge. Don't pee. See what kind of a weird
[00:58:52] request you can put in RDO. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, but look, we, we, we, we're always looking for guests.
[00:58:57] So certainly, you know, we're not saying don't reach out. We're just saying it's just not the
[00:59:02] type of show where we would, where we're just pitching products, right? We want it to be a
[00:59:05] robust educational moment for people. So. All right. Time to wrap it up. Yes. Good talking to you,
[00:59:11] Julie. And, uh, yeah, we'll be back soon. Sounds great.
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