HR, We Have a Problem - Emerging HR tech trends focused on problem-solving over product demonstrations.

[00:00:00] .

[00:00:02] Welcome to the HR Huddle podcast, presented by Sapient Insights Group, the ultimate resource

[00:00:09] for all things HR.

[00:00:12] It's time to get in the huddle.

[00:00:21] Hello everyone.

[00:00:22] Welcome back to the HR Huddle.

[00:00:24] I'm your host, Terri Zipper, CEO and managing partner at Sapient Insights Group.

[00:00:29] And we're back for another exciting episode of HR We Have a Problem.

[00:00:34] This is the show where we break down the big and most relevant HR issues of the day.

[00:00:39] We help you make sense of what they mean for you, and we talk about what you might do about

[00:00:44] some of them.

[00:00:45] Joining me today is Nohav Amana.

[00:00:48] Nohav is the CEO and founder of Collective HR Solutions and the founder of the Technology

[00:00:54] Review Council.

[00:00:55] Welcome, Nohav.

[00:00:56] Always great to catch up with you.

[00:00:59] Thank you, Terri.

[00:01:00] I very much appreciate it to be here today.

[00:01:03] So Nohav and I first met, oh, I want to say HR Tech maybe 2018, right?

[00:01:08] Yeah.

[00:01:09] I just remember thinking I could learn a thing or two from this guy.

[00:01:14] And you invited me to join your Technology Review Council.

[00:01:18] I had no idea what it was about, but it sounded really interesting and important,

[00:01:23] so I couldn't say no.

[00:01:26] And I've not been able to participate nearly as much as I'd like to, but I'd love

[00:01:30] to talk about it on the show today.

[00:01:32] I want to get perspective of what all you do, the importance of it, the importance

[00:01:37] of being in the market for technology, even when you're not really in the market.

[00:01:43] I think that's just a critical component of kind of knowing what's out there and what's

[00:01:47] available.

[00:01:48] So that's kind of what I wanted to talk about today.

[00:01:50] Does that sound like a good plan to you?

[00:01:51] It would be thrilling to speak to it because I see it on the other side, participating

[00:01:56] in it, but not talking about what I do.

[00:01:59] So this is a good opportunity.

[00:02:00] I appreciate it.

[00:02:02] Let's get into our huddle.

[00:02:03] Alrighty.

[00:02:04] Great.

[00:02:05] So quite literally, this started roughly about three and a half, almost four years

[00:02:11] ago.

[00:02:12] It came out of my deep love of the technology in the HR space.

[00:02:16] I've been in that HR tech space my whole career.

[00:02:19] I may have been the very first HR I asked.

[00:02:21] I'm not sure exactly, but the gray hair kind of speaks to that.

[00:02:24] But the idea of having seen so many different vendors and being approached by a couple

[00:02:28] of newer vendors, it struck me that they need a forum to let people know they exist,

[00:02:34] especially in the startup.

[00:02:36] And so I reached out to my network, personal network, and then I moved out to my LinkedIn

[00:02:41] network and we now have almost 700 people in this technology review council.

[00:02:48] And the premise of the council is really to provide a vendor, an audience to simply

[00:02:54] say, I want to do this.

[00:02:57] It's not so much a demonstration as opposed to really saying, I know you have a problem.

[00:03:02] I'm solving this piece of that problem.

[00:03:05] And that's really what I tell the vendors.

[00:03:07] You're here to tell us what you're solving, not demonstrate a product.

[00:03:11] And the audience is really interested in, that's a common theme amongst this technology

[00:03:16] review council, is we're interested in what's new.

[00:03:19] And so they attend an hour long presentation, a demonstration and explanation, and we ask

[00:03:26] a lot of questions from everything, from how does this fit into my world?

[00:03:30] Or why do you think this is a problem?

[00:03:32] Or you're showing me some new technology.

[00:03:34] How was that founded in some logic of some sort?

[00:03:38] Is it AI being, everybody's skeptical one way or another, either I love it or I

[00:03:42] don't like it.

[00:03:43] And we get a lot of questions about how do you validate this technology and how

[00:03:47] does it fit in my world?

[00:03:49] So that's really the audience is giving some feedback in the course of this conversation.

[00:03:54] I'm a vendor, which to a T every vendor says, I can't thank you enough for

[00:03:58] bringing me to the table.

[00:04:00] I got terrific information from prospective clients on the value of what

[00:04:06] I'm trying to provide.

[00:04:08] And I do not make any distinctions about the solution itself in the sense

[00:04:12] that we've seen everything from a pre-boarding, onboarding, sourcing

[00:04:17] situation all the way up to a termination program, off boarding, if you

[00:04:21] want.

[00:04:21] So we really, we really run the gamut and most of these are brand new startups for

[00:04:27] the most part.

[00:04:27] And so I literally do not charge for that purpose because they help me

[00:04:32] understand what's new.

[00:04:34] They're entertaining an audience and they're getting exposure.

[00:04:36] And I think that is a win-win-win situation all the way around.

[00:04:39] So I don't discern people saying, okay, you know, you don't have the

[00:04:44] budget, don't come.

[00:04:46] I want to see everything.

[00:04:47] And then therefore many of these startups really are very, very underfunded, if

[00:04:51] you will.

[00:04:51] So your goal is kind of twofold, right?

[00:04:55] It's helping the, these startups, these vendors that may not be able to

[00:05:00] get in front of this many people at one time, it's helping them get more

[00:05:04] visibility and at the same time, it's helping people in the market, in the

[00:05:09] community to learn about these new companies and look for opportunities or

[00:05:15] ways that they might fit into the broader landscape of HR technology.

[00:05:20] Exactly.

[00:05:20] And I think to your point, the audience is seeking a little bit more

[00:05:26] insights on what is out there.

[00:05:28] You can go to a number of places.

[00:05:30] You could do a Google search for recruiting programs.

[00:05:33] When you get to about the four thousandth page and figuring out

[00:05:36] where do I start to sort that out?

[00:05:39] The intention is to really give them an understanding of the kind of general

[00:05:42] technologies that are available.

[00:05:44] This kind of a point solution perspective of how to solve problems.

[00:05:48] And that what I'm getting out of that process from the audience

[00:05:51] itself is they're saying, this is pretty interesting.

[00:05:53] I would not have found these people that I not sit in this meeting.

[00:05:58] We do record all the meetings that are out there on my YouTube channel as well.

[00:06:01] So the perspective is sharing as much information out there and call it a

[00:06:07] semi-marketing or pseudo marketing for the vendors, but it really is to

[00:06:10] provide a knowledge base for people to become acquainted.

[00:06:14] A lot of the HR folks still are not as aware of technologies.

[00:06:18] They probably could and should be.

[00:06:20] And this is just another opportunity.

[00:06:22] Yeah.

[00:06:23] How do you pick who, you know, who you bring to the table?

[00:06:28] Do they pick you?

[00:06:29] Do they call and say, Hey, no, I heard about this technology

[00:06:32] review council, I'd like to be part of it.

[00:06:34] Or are you scouring the market or both?

[00:06:38] Well, I will say I do make myself presence known at things like

[00:06:42] HR tech conference and so on simply just going to visit all the vendors.

[00:06:47] But if you will, the technology view council members are also

[00:06:51] my eyes and ears out there.

[00:06:52] So they've heard proposed by a vendor and they get a call and say,

[00:06:56] Hey, I've got a new product.

[00:06:57] I'd like to show you.

[00:06:59] I usually get an email or a quick call and they say, Hey,

[00:07:01] no, I just ran into a vendor.

[00:07:02] I don't remember seeing them in technology, which I like to talk to them.

[00:07:06] I do vet the vendor for lots of reasons.

[00:07:08] I personally want to be a little more conversant when I do talk to them or

[00:07:12] bring them to the table so that we can have a dialogue rather than just

[00:07:15] a presentation and so I'll do a little bit of vetting and spend some time with

[00:07:19] them to understand, I have to say one of the funny offshoots of this

[00:07:22] whole thing is what people call their product.

[00:07:25] Oh yeah.

[00:07:26] The strangest name I'm going to, I will tell you in HR, it doesn't

[00:07:29] really work well in our world, but we would never have found you

[00:07:33] and then things like that.

[00:07:34] So, but it's interesting to hear the stories behind what things

[00:07:38] became, you know, and the naming and so on.

[00:07:40] They are interesting.

[00:07:41] I've been on the front end of that a few times in my career.

[00:07:46] I remember we, when I was at Mercer, we built this tool to do

[00:07:52] manage the survey data and we called it WIN, the Workforce Intelligence

[00:07:56] Network, and it was just, you know, it sounded cool.

[00:08:00] It was an acronym.

[00:08:01] You know, you just come up with things that you like and try

[00:08:04] to run with them, but later on when you're wanting people to find

[00:08:08] you, you're like, nobody's going to know what this is.

[00:08:10] Exactly.

[00:08:10] Exactly.

[00:08:11] And so I always ask that question amongst the many questions I have,

[00:08:15] but it starts with why did they name this?

[00:08:18] And some of it works and some of it doesn't.

[00:08:21] Yeah.

[00:08:21] What we have seen over the many years that we've done this

[00:08:24] now is quite literally people come and go.

[00:08:27] And so the world of startups is something that I'm fascinated with it.

[00:08:32] I don't think I'd ever want to participate in.

[00:08:35] It's too difficult, but we are seeing a lot of the technology shows now

[00:08:39] starting to provide forums for the startups to do their pitches and so on

[00:08:44] for either investors or clients.

[00:08:46] Yeah.

[00:08:47] I like the, I really like the startup pavilion at HR Tech that they've

[00:08:52] started to have the last few years.

[00:08:54] And then the Pitch Fest obviously has always been popular and I'm sure

[00:08:58] a lot of other, you know, shows are doing similar type things.

[00:09:02] Yeah.

[00:09:03] Well, speaking to your system survey as well, just to give credit

[00:09:08] to the Sapient Insights Survey, which I have been very, very enamored

[00:09:13] with since it started and that's again, the gray hair says a lot right there.

[00:09:17] But literally what you are seeing, I think parallels what I'm seeing

[00:09:20] in the sense that point solutions are becoming a very popular way of

[00:09:25] augmenting what a base system provides.

[00:09:27] So many of the vendors today would like to have a lot of these

[00:09:31] functions, but they just can't develop them vast enough or the market

[00:09:35] maybe is not really screaming for that.

[00:09:37] Startups are really starting to fill some interesting gaps and their

[00:09:40] approaches we're seeing I think are very refreshing that they're not

[00:09:45] looking at the traditional problem and trying to solve it with technology.

[00:09:48] They're actually changing the approach in how they're solving a problem.

[00:09:52] And so, so we're seeing recruiting changing quite a bit,

[00:09:55] performance and changing.

[00:09:57] I love the world of benefits and learning.

[00:10:00] Those are the two.

[00:10:00] And I think your survey brought out that those are two very key

[00:10:04] areas that are growing quickly.

[00:10:06] Yeah.

[00:10:06] And I think best of breed used to be a little more challenging,

[00:10:10] obviously integration and all of those things made it harder to kind of have

[00:10:14] all these multiple point solutions.

[00:10:16] But today with all the integration and API and you know, just the

[00:10:21] capabilities that most of these vendors have with connecting to other

[00:10:26] tools and technologies, it makes having this concept of point solutions a lot

[00:10:32] simpler than it used to be.

[00:10:33] Exactly.

[00:10:34] In fact, when I first did the technology, the review council, most

[00:10:39] of the vendors were seeking vendors, the larger vendors to hook up with.

[00:10:44] I'm seeing that reversing that the larger vendors are now looking to the

[00:10:48] startups and going, what kind of function do I need to deliver to my

[00:10:51] customers or customers in general?

[00:10:54] How am I going to find them?

[00:10:54] So that's the whole dynamics of that process has changed because the

[00:10:58] integrations are getting a little easier.

[00:11:01] Most of the new vendors are already well adopted in terms of kind

[00:11:05] of plugging into the existing system.

[00:11:08] Yeah.

[00:11:09] It's kind of, it's an interesting world to be sitting in there.

[00:11:12] And I never thought HR tech or HR in general was going to be this exciting.

[00:11:16] So yeah, or this big, like every year when I go to the

[00:11:19] conference, the exhibit hall gets bigger and bigger.

[00:11:22] It's, you know, it's like, and that's not even, you know, a drop in the

[00:11:26] bucket compared to how many vendors are actually out there doing stuff

[00:11:31] around HR and HR technology.

[00:11:34] Yeah.

[00:11:34] I find that, you know, we are seeing a tremendous kind of ebb and

[00:11:38] flow a little bit in terms of functionality.

[00:11:40] So recruiting was hot.

[00:11:42] Learning is becoming hotter.

[00:11:44] Benefits is really growing quite literally.

[00:11:46] And maybe we can speak a little bit to what we're seeing in

[00:11:48] terms of some of those trends.

[00:11:50] It really does support what your survey showed in terms of those

[00:11:53] core ideas as well, which is kind of nice.

[00:11:57] But you know, I, what I am seeing is, and a couple of folks are now

[00:12:00] entering to this environment called the partner ecosystem.

[00:12:05] So that is becoming a very interesting part of my business in terms of

[00:12:09] evaluations and so on, is where I'm really trying to orient my clients

[00:12:14] to think about what they're trying to accomplish and forget about the

[00:12:18] technology or the system that would serve that, because in all honesty,

[00:12:23] we now have a better variety of things we can go for.

[00:12:26] And many of the partners are sort of the larger companies, the vendors

[00:12:30] are starting to look at a partner ecosystem that says, I want, I have

[00:12:33] a performance management system, but if you want it to do this way,

[00:12:37] this way, I have a couple of partners that are hooked into my system.

[00:12:41] And really, I think the major vendors are recognizing that a client

[00:12:45] would like to have one contract and one point of contact.

[00:12:49] I hate that term, one throat to choke because I, I would rather say it's

[00:12:54] one hand to shake, but we'll just give it that.

[00:12:57] But quite literally the idea is the major vendors will have that

[00:13:01] partner ecosystem and validate the fact that systems do interact well.

[00:13:06] They're, you know, the maintenance on that whole process is going to happen.

[00:13:09] My client standpoint, that is very beneficial to see.

[00:13:12] So I think the partner ecosystem is going to grow and it's going to open up

[00:13:16] the doors, I think to these startups even more so than it does today.

[00:13:20] Yeah.

[00:13:20] And I think that's a great place for these, the big vendors to be thinking

[00:13:25] about the additional value they're bringing to the customer, right?

[00:13:30] They know about all the basics.

[00:13:31] They, you know, everybody does that.

[00:13:33] Everybody's got this, this or that feature.

[00:13:36] What are the value ads that you're bringing me?

[00:13:39] And how can that be used to change the dynamic?

[00:13:44] Like what, you know, have you really looked at what I need and how you can

[00:13:47] solve for it with not just your system, but plugging me into your ecosystem.

[00:13:53] Exactly.

[00:13:54] I think it's going to be, it certainly has become part of my evaluation

[00:13:58] considerations is talking about what kind of a partner system do you have.

[00:14:03] We certainly in our RFIs ask the vendor if you aren't doing it yourself

[00:14:07] out of the box, is it a configuration of your system or is it delivered by a

[00:14:11] partner and if so are they truly a partner in the sense that they're joined together?

[00:14:16] So it changes the whole dynamics of what we're looking at.

[00:14:18] And that's kind of what I'm hoping in technology view council is doing for

[00:14:22] our audiences to say, I really like the way they've approached this.

[00:14:26] Where are you hooked up and where would, you know, here's my tech

[00:14:29] stack today, will you fit in?

[00:14:31] And so we've changed the landscape a little bit as we're doing this.

[00:14:35] Which is have there, have there been any big aha moments for you?

[00:14:39] I know, you know, I do my best to attend when I get it, especially when I get an

[00:14:43] email from you that says, Hey, I, you know, something really great this past

[00:14:48] week follow up, we want to, we made a video like you want to check this out.

[00:14:52] Like I go and look at those, but have there been any sort of big ahas for

[00:14:57] you and maybe this year or.

[00:14:59] I would say yes, actually I'm glad you asked that question because what I

[00:15:04] am seeing, and I really believe that in terms of terminology, we keep changing

[00:15:09] the name of HR from personnel to, to whatever we want to call it in.

[00:15:12] And we're now into the people ops and so on, but learning as we used

[00:15:17] to know it has become much more of a content management system.

[00:15:22] And I say that because what I'm seeing in terms of the learning

[00:15:25] platforms and newer vendors are really looking at repurposing the material

[00:15:32] that an organization has videos, PDFs, whatever you want to the website itself

[00:15:37] that they do the outreach to their customers, they're looking at all that

[00:15:41] and saying this is content.

[00:15:43] If we're going to brand ourselves as a company internally and externally,

[00:15:47] can we be consistent about?

[00:15:48] So really the folks that are creating training videos and things of that

[00:15:53] nature are starting to recognize that they are into the content management

[00:15:58] world. It goes inside.

[00:16:00] It even goes outside from a recruiting standpoint, if I'm going to teach

[00:16:03] people how to do things in here internally, can I not take that same

[00:16:07] stuff and show it outside in a posting and say, here's the life of, you

[00:16:11] know, something, how we do things here, how we brand ourselves.

[00:16:14] It's amazing this going on and the vendors are adopting that because

[00:16:18] it now widens the bandwidth of what they offer.

[00:16:22] They're no longer doing a learning system.

[00:16:23] They're doing a content management system.

[00:16:26] And so that was that was, I think, a fairly significant thing.

[00:16:28] The same thing with the world of benefits.

[00:16:31] Benefits used to be more of administration once a year.

[00:16:34] We do this now.

[00:16:35] It's a marketplace of choices and employers are recognizing

[00:16:40] that the more benefits I can offer, whether I'm paying for them

[00:16:44] or the employees paying, I have access to it.

[00:16:47] I'm giving things to people that makes their life better

[00:16:51] at work and away from work.

[00:16:53] And so they are starting to recognize that the benefits world has to have

[00:16:56] that kind of a marketplace approach, a very individualized, you know,

[00:17:00] if I'm a young couple, that's one thing.

[00:17:02] If I'm towards the end of my career, maybe I'm looking at completely

[00:17:05] different types of benefits and that is an attraction and a retention device.

[00:17:11] And so these two things, so all of a sudden I'll say this carefully

[00:17:14] because I'm sure there's the HR folks in the audience are going to go,

[00:17:17] Oh, how could he say that?

[00:17:19] HR needs to learn marketing.

[00:17:24] And I say that very truly.

[00:17:25] We're giving HR a lot of opportunity to market internally and externally

[00:17:31] in ways that we've never thought of before.

[00:17:34] And we need to understand how to leverage that very well.

[00:17:37] It becomes an excellent attraction device.

[00:17:39] It's also terrific retention.

[00:17:42] I hear a lot of benefits people say, we've got great benefits.

[00:17:45] Nobody seems to use them.

[00:17:46] Well, that's because they probably don't know about it.

[00:17:48] There's not a constant reminder, but some of these new vendors

[00:17:52] are coming up with ways to really create a stickiness between, you know,

[00:17:56] what they're offering and what the employee needs.

[00:17:58] Yeah, I just did a podcast with a woman who was the chief

[00:18:02] experience officer for a health care system and kind of

[00:18:06] her role evolved into that from being in marketing

[00:18:11] and then really looking to say, I want to bring this same

[00:18:16] consumer experience to the employee.

[00:18:19] Yes.

[00:18:20] And, you know, so basically created that role within the organization.

[00:18:25] And we talked a lot about this topic.

[00:18:28] I mean, you know, I think HR and marketing are the perfect couple,

[00:18:33] if you will, in terms of, you know, you've got your creative side,

[00:18:37] you've got your analytical side, you bring those two things together.

[00:18:41] It's pretty powerful.

[00:18:42] And the reality is, I mean, you want your employees

[00:18:47] to have a great experience.

[00:18:48] You want your customers to have a great experience.

[00:18:52] Why can't those two things be integrated in some way?

[00:18:55] And that, I think, is a lot of what that whole CXO

[00:18:59] is trying to achieve, right?

[00:19:01] Exactly. And then honestly, I'll draw from a very historical perspective,

[00:19:06] but it's just kind of a mainstay.

[00:19:08] When we launched Manage Yourself Service, we did ourselves

[00:19:11] and the HRA a tremendous disservice.

[00:19:14] We had an HR icon sitting on the desktop says,

[00:19:18] I have to now launch Manage Yourself Service instead of advertising.

[00:19:22] I'm here to help you do your work better, not HR's work,

[00:19:27] your work better.

[00:19:28] We just said, no, here's an HR icon.

[00:19:30] You have to go push on that.

[00:19:31] And people were saying, I don't know what Manage Yourself Service is all about,

[00:19:34] but we're just helping HR do their work.

[00:19:36] And it was just like, I don't know.

[00:19:38] So to your point, we really need to be much more

[00:19:42] astute. The employee experience, what we called it, was more,

[00:19:45] how can we be much more efficient and get the paperwork out of HR

[00:19:50] and push it to where it needs to be at the point of the work?

[00:19:53] No, no, no. The employee experience now, to your exactly point,

[00:19:56] we as a company, for these multiple things for you to partake in,

[00:20:02] are you aware of them?

[00:20:03] And here's how you do it. And we made that.

[00:20:05] So. And it has to be part of the journey, right?

[00:20:09] Like it has to be there when you need it.

[00:20:10] Like, yes, you're pushing stuff out to me and I'm not, I'm busy.

[00:20:14] Like I don't have time for that right now.

[00:20:16] And it's, I don't need to do it.

[00:20:18] It's kind of like, I mean, YouTube just totally changed the way

[00:20:22] we, you know, do education.

[00:20:25] And now anytime you need to do anything,

[00:20:28] you know, how do I fix my garbage disposal?

[00:20:32] I want to replace my garbage disposal.

[00:20:34] Oh, well, here's the one I bought. Let's look it up on YouTube.

[00:20:36] I'm sure it's on there.

[00:20:38] Oh, here's all the instructions.

[00:20:39] I became an expert in changing out my garbage disposal.

[00:20:44] Right. And it's that same kind of thing.

[00:20:46] Like I needed it at that moment and I went and I found it and I got it.

[00:20:51] And I, you know, was able to do what I needed to do.

[00:20:54] It's that kind of thing.

[00:20:55] I think HR hasn't fully mastered yet because you know, we're,

[00:20:59] it's like any other part of the business.

[00:21:00] You're pushing information out to people because you're ready to push it out,

[00:21:04] but not necessarily because they're ready to receive it.

[00:21:07] Exactly.

[00:21:08] And so we're on HR's time scale or timeframe as opposed to,

[00:21:12] and coupled with when I needed is the personalization.

[00:21:16] So in other words,

[00:21:17] and so I will take us to that wonderful two letter

[00:21:21] eight AI topic just kind of moving there.

[00:21:24] I am seeing that the use of AI is much more along the lines

[00:21:28] of bringing me what I need when I ask for it.

[00:21:32] And so this personalization could be helped greatly by AI,

[00:21:37] not telling me what to do, but rather I have a question.

[00:21:41] I'm going to go on leave.

[00:21:42] What does that mean?

[00:21:44] Bring me all the stuff about policies.

[00:21:47] Bring me the tools that might say, you know,

[00:21:48] what am I going to get?

[00:21:49] Oh, well, here's a calculation.

[00:21:51] You know, all these things.

[00:21:52] So AI is is here kind of waiting in the wings to do things for us,

[00:21:58] but we haven't quite mastered it.

[00:22:00] And I hate to say it, but HR really does need to own AI as a tool

[00:22:05] of all the places in an organization.

[00:22:07] HR touches everybody.

[00:22:09] So I figure if it's going to touch everybody,

[00:22:12] AI is there to help everybody.

[00:22:14] So that's kind of the.

[00:22:16] But yeah, I think the world of AI is still in its infancy.

[00:22:19] I'm seeing a couple of interesting uses of it, but not a scary use.

[00:22:24] I think people are a little bit too concerned about it taking my job.

[00:22:28] If AI has tried to take my job several times on doing evaluations,

[00:22:32] but it's not working.

[00:22:35] I'm not too worried about that.

[00:22:36] But no, I think, you know, AI is a very popular subject.

[00:22:40] But to go back to your perspective also about aha moments,

[00:22:44] the time and attendance world has suddenly vaulted

[00:22:49] to the top of the list as the productivity database

[00:22:54] in the entire company.

[00:22:55] And we've known that for those of us who built

[00:22:58] and implemented time and systems, all you have to do is say

[00:23:01] everybody fell out of time sheet or if you're salaried

[00:23:04] and you take a vacation, I want you to book that in there.

[00:23:06] So I know that the 40 hours was used up as vacation or a day or whatever.

[00:23:11] Outside of that, we can attach all the stuff about what is that

[00:23:15] NOV's doing.

[00:23:17] And we have a really good understanding what the workforce is doing.

[00:23:21] And so that time and attendance thing is no longer a processing system.

[00:23:25] It is becoming an information database from and, you know, I'll touch upon

[00:23:28] like, say, the world benefits to me is just incredible.

[00:23:31] But wearables are coming into fashion very quickly.

[00:23:36] And I think we're going to see, I suspect that your

[00:23:38] system survey will touch upon the idea that who is using wearables

[00:23:42] and for what purposes and what kind of information are you getting out of?

[00:23:46] You know, it does touch upon that privacy world of HR as well.

[00:23:50] Yeah, very much aware of it.

[00:23:51] But I think that wearable are going to give us some interesting perspective.

[00:23:54] The hybrid workforce again, I'm going all over the place,

[00:23:57] but technology is the base of this whole thing.

[00:24:00] It opens up so many doors of things that we haven't thought through

[00:24:05] and giving us information on if we do it and capture it well,

[00:24:09] and we don't intervene into the privacy world.

[00:24:13] We have some better understanding what's being done,

[00:24:16] where it's being done and by whom.

[00:24:18] And so that's really what HR has been trying to do.

[00:24:22] Do we have the right people doing the right things at the right place?

[00:24:25] And so this technology to me is just fascinating where it's going.

[00:24:29] And I'm seeing a lot of vendors really starting to move into areas of

[00:24:34] AI and the data that we're gathering and doing some very interesting things.

[00:24:39] You know, yeah, yeah, this the answer.

[00:24:43] The answers are there now for HR in many of these areas.

[00:24:47] They know where to look.

[00:24:50] And I think what will be the question, especially on the AI side, is

[00:24:55] how far, how deep can I go right when you start thinking about

[00:25:00] you know, how people are doing, you know, their their well-being and things like that.

[00:25:05] That some of these wearables are going to be able to help us track like how

[00:25:08] deep are we going to be able to go on some of this stuff?

[00:25:11] And what information do we actually want to want to be able to track

[00:25:15] about employees and understand because it has an impact on our ability

[00:25:19] to be productive exactly as an organization?

[00:25:22] Now, like I say, health and safety situations

[00:25:25] with the wearables is going to be impacted greatly.

[00:25:27] I look at so many things that we do.

[00:25:30] It all comes down to the data we capture and our ability to also cross

[00:25:34] reference data outside of the world of HR in the workforce.

[00:25:39] What am I doing?

[00:25:39] And how does it impact the financials on the customer stuff and so on?

[00:25:43] So there's a lot of data to be had.

[00:25:44] And you're right, AI is going to be the one that's going to amass it.

[00:25:48] I always say that if you're presenting something using analysis

[00:25:53] and you're not generating a question, you're not presenting the right data

[00:25:57] because presenting something should raise another question.

[00:26:00] What about or the next step?

[00:26:03] And that, I think, is exactly what AI is going to do for it.

[00:26:05] It's going to open up some thinking of, you know, what's that next

[00:26:08] level to go down to your point?

[00:26:11] Yeah, yeah.

[00:26:12] And I think, you know, starting to tie in the other,

[00:26:15] you know, the financial side of the business and supply chain.

[00:26:21] How do we really start?

[00:26:22] I think technology is bringing a lot of these things together better

[00:26:27] so that we've got a better picture of the overall,

[00:26:31] you know, health and management and understanding of the organization

[00:26:34] rather than just focus focusing on these HR statistics. Right.

[00:26:39] Exactly. The metrics that HR could be providing, because I actually say

[00:26:44] and I hate to say this on I won't the first vendor that raises

[00:26:48] their hand changes their name will say they listen to this podcast.

[00:26:52] I keep calling what we're doing.

[00:26:55] We're building a workforce information asset,

[00:26:59] just like a financial asset is a workforce information asset.

[00:27:03] All these things that we're doing in process, we're going

[00:27:07] we've transcended from being a processing system to an asset

[00:27:10] and the information asset.

[00:27:12] And I think if we look at what we're trying to collect,

[00:27:15] it would open up the door to a lot of things that we could be doing with that data.

[00:27:19] Yeah.

[00:27:20] So that's just kind of my pet peeve about things.

[00:27:23] We'll see if somebody starts calling their system

[00:27:25] the workforce information asset.

[00:27:27] Yeah, so we'll need to come up with something that it spells

[00:27:31] a little bit better acronym. Right.

[00:27:33] I would say, you know, like workforce information network,

[00:27:37] but that would be a win. Right.

[00:27:39] Yep. There you go.

[00:27:40] I'm sure. Didn't they have done that one?

[00:27:43] Exactly.

[00:27:45] So but no, like I said, I think the technology

[00:27:48] and going back to this technology view council,

[00:27:50] I'm hoping that I'm accomplishing what I sought out to do for myself.

[00:27:55] And that was to get to know what's out there,

[00:27:57] understand what are the new technologies and how are they being used

[00:28:01] and how people solving old problems with new ways.

[00:28:04] And that's that to me is considered an improvement, I think.

[00:28:07] Yeah. Sharing that with the audience.

[00:28:09] I personally have learned so much from my audience

[00:28:12] asking the questions that really strikes upon either the concerns

[00:28:17] or the desires of that audience.

[00:28:20] And I think the vendors are responding that very nice that as well.

[00:28:24] So that's a there's definitely some fascinating things that people are doing.

[00:28:28] And you would just never hear about it unless you're you're kind of looking.

[00:28:32] And, you know, I think about people in HR and even people

[00:28:36] and maybe in you don't have to be an HR technology

[00:28:39] to care about some of this stuff. Right.

[00:28:41] And to think, you know, I should kind of know what's happening in the market.

[00:28:45] Maybe there's some ways to help us deliver better services

[00:28:50] and solutions to our organization.

[00:28:53] Maybe there's some better and more efficient ways to do things.

[00:28:56] There's stuff out there.

[00:28:57] So staying a you know, I have to know everything,

[00:29:00] but kind of staying abreast of what's coming and kind of what the

[00:29:04] we do a lot of stuff on the emerging tech and kind of where

[00:29:08] where people are headed, what they're thinking really helps,

[00:29:11] I think, to be a better, you know, a better leader in organizations

[00:29:16] when you have a good pulse on what's going on.

[00:29:19] Yeah, exactly.

[00:29:20] And like I said, I think HR folks

[00:29:24] need to know what's out there so that they can, you know,

[00:29:27] we have a seat to the table.

[00:29:29] We've always had a seat somewhere on the table.

[00:29:32] But now that we're being asked to present at the board levels

[00:29:35] and senior management levels, we're part of the senior management team.

[00:29:39] I think being able to come and ask the questions,

[00:29:42] hey, I've seen some interesting stuff around, you know,

[00:29:45] some data analytics packages are doing some very cool things.

[00:29:48] What are we doing about that?

[00:29:50] And the CIA will go, you know, I don't know.

[00:29:53] Talk to me about that, please.

[00:29:55] You know, I think coming to with that kind of equipped information,

[00:29:59] I've said many, many times you stop and think I hear

[00:30:02] you hear the story all the time.

[00:30:04] I went through a really great candidate experience.

[00:30:07] I got hired.

[00:30:09] I come in first day to hand me the sheet of papers

[00:30:12] or tell me to go on a terminal and do this kind of stuff.

[00:30:16] Why? So to me, your technology,

[00:30:19] how it's presented is a reflection of the culture, who you are.

[00:30:24] And in HR, that's the one that touches everybody.

[00:30:26] So why aren't we being as up to date

[00:30:30] and if you will, as really flexible with our technology as we should be?

[00:30:34] Yeah. So I think it's kind of a it's a it's

[00:30:38] I think it's finally a confluence of, you know, the technology and the need

[00:30:43] coming together and HR is really quite in the middle of this process.

[00:30:47] Yeah. So yeah, I think that's a great thing to leave people with.

[00:30:51] Right. As you know, you're in the center.

[00:30:54] Like what? How are you going to participate in this new world?

[00:30:59] And I think AI is going to be something that I don't know about you,

[00:31:03] but I want to be in front of that.

[00:31:05] Yeah. You know, before it rolls me over.

[00:31:07] So that's something I think everybody should take some time

[00:31:11] to learn a little bit more about it. Yeah.

[00:31:14] Well, as we came into this podcast, we were talking a little bit

[00:31:17] about our AI assistants going into the meeting.

[00:31:21] They can take faster notes and keep me honest about all the things

[00:31:24] I said I was going to do better than I will ever do on a piece of paper.

[00:31:28] And so to me, it's really augmenting my abilities,

[00:31:32] not taking out of it.

[00:31:34] So I'll call it a positive view on AI, but I feel

[00:31:38] it's kind of where my head is going to be. Yeah, exactly.

[00:31:42] Well, thank you, No, for joining the conversation today.

[00:31:45] It's been great having you.

[00:31:47] Where can people find out more about the Technology Review Council?

[00:31:52] Well, I would say if you sent me an email at Nov

[00:31:55] at collectivehrsolutions.com, you will get a personal answer back.

[00:32:00] The Technology Review Council is probably going to go

[00:32:03] into a couple of different new areas.

[00:32:06] So I'm experimenting with some ideas that will be maybe a little more in depth

[00:32:10] than just a demonstration of problems and so on.

[00:32:13] So maybe we'll do something more later this year when you get back.

[00:32:16] Yeah, I would invite you to say that many of the vendors are very much

[00:32:20] into opening their system up for trials.

[00:32:23] And that's kind of OK. Oh, that'd be awesome.

[00:32:26] It'd be fun. Well, thank you so much.

[00:32:28] I want to thank our producers, Brand Method Media and our marketing team.

[00:32:32] And thank you for tuning in.

[00:32:35] That's all the time we have this week for this episode of H.R.

[00:32:39] We have a problem.

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[00:32:45] And we'd love it if you'd leave us a review.

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[00:33:00] We have a problem. Thanks, everybody.