#HRTechChat: Jamie Aitken, Vice President of HR Transformation at Betterworks

March 8th marks International Women’s Day and a special opportunity for organizations to celebrate the contributions of their female employees. This is an especially important day to me because it is about empowering women in the workplace. So this year on International Women’s Day, let’s take some time to recognize our hardworking women and find new ways to challenge the status quo.

Celebrating with me today is Maji Tharpe from University of Illinois’ Discovery Partners Institute, and she is doing everything she can to diversify the tech ecosystem in the state of Illinois by disrupting the internship model.  We met at the virtual HR Tech Conference, and instantly hit it off!  We both operate in the cross section of HR Tech, succession planning, upskilling and pipeline diversity.  We are both committed to challenging the status quo to create a better workplace for our daughters.

“It is important that we address these issues systemically and conscientiously so that we can actually make a difference,” said Maji, “because if we just say we want to do good, that's not solving anything, we've got to create solutions.  We have got to push ourselves to the point of being uncomfortable if we are going to make a difference that is actually going to affect and make our system more equitable across the board.”
 
International Women's Day is just a great opportunity to put this message out there with a solution of what can be done.

Reach out to Maji at immersion@uIllinois.edu to learn more.

#HRTechChat: How Maji Tharpe is challenging the status quo

I'm going to date myself here. My first encounter with Mike Ettling, CEO of Unit4, was over 10 years ago. Technology editor for HRO Today at the time, I was relatively wet behind the ears, as the saying goes, when it comes to human capital management and the technology for it. I attended a briefing for analysts and the industry press with Mike, CEO at the time of what was then NorthgateArinso. The gathering was in real life, a.k.a. IRL (a term that had not even emerged yet).

"Well, Brent, that goes back some time," Mike said when I brought it up to open the discussion on this episode of the #HRTechChat video podcast. Much has happened since 2011. NGA became NGA Human Resources and, eventually, a part of Alight, and Mike went on to even greater things. Possibly most notable among his past roles is that of CEO for SAP SuccessFactors, a post he held from 2014 to 2018.

To say Mike loves thinking about HCM is evident. He sees how it all blends, and he takes it a step further. "Unit4 focuses on ERP for people-centric businesses," he says, and his philosophy there is, in fact, to treat HCM and Unit4's software for enterprise resource planning and financial planning and analysis (FP&A) as being inextricably linked and having one holistic application for business.

Mike's perspective here is refreshing. The idea to integrate these activities closely has been forming bit by bit for years, and, from a messaging standpoint and more, the approach has been just screaming for a go-to-market vehicle. The benefits afforded to an organization that treats these activities as linked are many and go beyond potentially sizable newfound efficiencies. The company that can give its financial people visibility into the organization's people overall, its workforce, will cultivate a greater appreciation among the former for the upside of a positive employee experience.

Perhaps it is no accident, then, that one of Mike's first executive decisions, when he took the role to lead Unit4, was to rename the human resources department as People Success, a term that captures the essence and spirit of recently gathering trends in HCM and business leadership overall: the tenet that organizations' profitability and overall perpetuity hinges on their embrace of a new guiding ethos, one that asserts the success of the company's people ultimately translates to success, period.

Not for naught, the concept is baked into Unit4's tagline, too: "in business for people," which is what initially drew Mike to Unit4, he says. The saying implicitly intersects with diversity, equity and inclusion, another topic we explored during the podcast. Mike says that he is grateful for his upbringing in South Africa, as it instilled in him what he sees as a second nature for DE&I. "You cannot solve DE&I with a process," he says. "You can solve it with empathy and the right leaders in an organization."

It was a wide-ranging conversation. Just before recording began, Mike and I joked that our discussion would probably dip into speculation over artificial intelligence at some point (as does most coffee talk in HCM these days, it seems). Amazingly, it did not, but he says he's interested in returning to #HRTechChat someday to discuss AI specifically. That would be yet another fantastic discussion.

#HRTechChat: Mike Ettling, Chief Executive Officer at Unit4

Brandon Dorr, director of people technologies at WPS Health Solutions, guested on this episode of the #HRTechChat video podcast. He and host Brent Skinner discussed how Brandon's training in IT led him into HR. There seems to be a robust career path in HR (and other lines of business) for IT professionals needed for their expertise in sorting the data that SaaS for HCM produces (and in developing custom, tailored functionality). During their conversation, they also touched on the high caliber of attention that UKG pays to customer success.

#HRTechChat: Brandon Dorr, Director of People Technologies at WPS Health Solutions

For this episode of #HRTechChat, Purbita Banerjee, senior client partner and head of product management at Korn Ferry, joined 3Sixty Insights Co-Founder Brent Skinner for a barnburner of a discussion. Their topic? How future-of-work technology is upending long-held notions in #talentacquisition and #talentmanagement. "We're here to create pathways to success for humans at work," said Purbita.

#HRTechChat: Purbita Banerjee, Senior Client Partner and Head of Product Management at Korn Ferry

Last week, just before the morning's program commenced at the Boston stop along the 2023 #isolvedRoadShow, this episode's #HRTechChat video podcast guest Geoff Webb and I met for some impromptu "green room" time and joked that it was too bad the camera wasn't rolling. Never fear, however: I plan to build on that very interesting discussion soon with a dedicated blog entry....

Following the conclusion of last Thursday's itinerary at the Courtyard by Marriot, Geoff and I sat down for this episode of the podcast -- recorded "in concert, so to speak," from the Road Show floor. And this may be the right time to explain just what the 2023 isolved Road Show is, because it relates directly to the conversation captured here. A multiple-city trek that executives and others at isolved are making to reach as many of the vendor's customers as possible, the Road Show is isolved's vehicle to deliver an important, timely message to HR leaders and their teams: it's possible to stop spinning your wheels under a mountain of administrative work and become strategic, laser-focused on the all-important employee experience. And you can get there one step at a time.

Geoff shared a metaphor for all this, the Red Queen Effect. In Lewis Carroll's 19th century classic Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen teaches main character Alice the underlying subtext and metaphor of running faster and faster and, yet, staying in one place.

"When you think about what that means to an HR organization," Geoff said, "I think it's very, very appropriate. We see HR teams being asked to do more and more and more, to react and respond to changes in employee expectations and to change to the needs of the business. And, of course, there's just a relentless drumbeat of new legislation, new laws, new compliance requirements, new mandates, and so on. So, of course, what they're doing is have to run faster and faster, just to stay in the same place."

The gist of the Red Queen's lesson is to work smarter, not faster. Species evolve to evade falling prey to predators. These same predators then evolve to catch these same prey anew. Each draws on the same innate imperative, and HR can evolve, too. HR can stop running faster and faster just to stay in one place. With this deliberate, intentional shift in thinking, HR will see many desirable benefits over time. Their evolution will lead them to more gratifying work that organizational leadership will recognize as strategic. The best part is, just like biological evolution occurs in tiny steps, so does HR evolution. HR presses forward and upward in gradual increments -- easily mastered, effective steps.

Geoff is a repeat guest on #HRTechChat, by the way, and you can view a previous episode featuring him. In the midst of doing well over 60 for 2023, isolved is serious about its Road Shows. Those into math will recognize right away that this means at least one city every week this year. Yes, the isolved team is busy, and we at 3Sixty Insights enjoyed the opportunity to join them and host this episode of the podcast.

The Boston #isolvedRoadShow Episode of #HRTechChat with Guest Geoff Webb

I wish we could just push a button and have payroll process without a hitch, like everyone thinks we do," joked Robyn Torgius, guest on this episode of #HRTechChat. Instead of just falling into the work, as most have in the past, people are increasingly choosing payroll as a career path. This is a good thing. As global head of payroll at IFS and member of 3Sixty Insights' Global Executive Advisory Council, Robyn shared her considerable insight into how payroll can be elevated into a profession -- and why it should be.

#HRTechChat: Robyn Torgius, Global Head of Payroll at IFS

“How do I make a 120,000-person organization data-aware?” asks Amaresh Tripathy, my guest on this episode of the #HRTechChat video podcast.

Amaresh is senior vice president and global business leader at Genpact. A General Electric spin-off, Genpact is several billion dollars in size. A publicly traded professional services firm, Genpact mainly focuses on two things. One is all about running various digital operations on behalf of Genpact's clients, which are Fortune 1000 companies around the globe. The other involves data, technology and artificial intelligence, wherein Genpact concerns itself with helping these clients transform some of these same digital operations for the better. Amaresh's role is with this second focus, working to make "our clients more data-intelligent and data-aware," he says.

You probably already see the tie-in with Genpact's workforce. Amaresh believes that, at Genpact, he and his team have built the world’s largest data awareness program. Solutions such as EdCast, found in the Cornerstone suite, factor largely into the effort. We discussed this. An illustrative example of organizational and digital transformation, the initiative relies, critically, on well-sorted learning technology and modern tools for curating and delivering content just right for the task at hand.

Phenomenally, Amaresh is more than halfway to achieving an ambitious goal: so far, somewhere between 65,000 of and 70,000 of the company's own employees have completed the associated certification program, which leaves them highly versed in understanding the tools to extract and blend enterprise data. Graduates then go on to use their newfound knowledge and skills in order to help a client—in the process earning from Genpact what is akin to a black belt in data awareness.

During our chat, Amaresh shared the philosophy behind his vision and delved into the thinking that has helped make it a reality at Genpact. This vision is empowering staff with the high-impact upskilling that is an essential ingredient not only for their success individually, but also for Genpact’s overall. Indeed, like so many initiatives notable for their positive effects on business, Amaresh’s is redolent of the idea that an organization’s people are an asset to cultivate and engage. This is the model for success. All at once, Genpact’s data awareness program is good for the company, its clients, and its people. If you're looking for an example of how the future of work is happening right now, look no further than this episode of the podcast. It was an absolute pleasure speaking with Amaresh.

#HRTechChat with Amaresh Tripathy: Upskilling 120,000 People for Data Awareness at Genpact

Megan Coen, vice president of HR services at isolved, was a guest on the #HRTechChat video podcast. isolved calls HR outsourcing by a different name, HR augmentation, and this episode provides a glimpse into why. Megan shared war stories from her previous lives in helping to drive change management in HR and did a great job in laying out how isolved combines "the right blend" of technology and services.

#HRTechChat: Megan Coen, Vice President of HR Services at isolved

Both my guests for this episode have appeared on the #HRTechChat video podcast previously - and it only made sense to host the two of them this time, at the same time. Why? Betterworks CEO Doug Dennerline and Vice President of HR Transformation Jamie Aitken have co-authored and published a book titled "Make Work Better," and our discussion revolved around it.

Let's get something out of the way first. Employers have six ways to Sunday to make work better: make scheduling better for work-life balance, make onboarding better for immediate employee engagement (and faster time-to-productivity), make payroll better so employees get paid incorrectly less often, make on-the-job learning better so staff can build their careers...

Have I missed anything? Probably, and we've been talking about how to make work better for years. Over 10 years ago, when I worked with executives at one of the well-known vendors of technology for workforce management, we argued (correctly) in our thought leadership that you could make work better for retail associates by modernizing WFM systems.

The list goes on. You could start anywhere to make work better. One of the best places to start to make work better, however, is by upending tired old approaches to measuring and assessing employees' performance. More specifically, the central tenet of Doug and Jamie's book is that you can make work much, much better by dispensing with performance management that revolves around the tedious annual performance review.

We've all heard the tongue-in-cheek term, The beatings will continue until morale improves. Well, what are we doing? We can do better than rely on an approach developed by the U.S. military early in the last century and specifically for military scenarios. As for the private sector, "massive research shows that it doesn't change performance," Doug said. "It's a ridiculous thing. Yet people still do it. So, this book was aimed at helping people understand the value of making the change, and giving them a bit of a roadmap on what happens when you do that" and insight into "the profound impact it has on companies that are brave enough to make the change."

What kind of organization doesn't want performance to improve? What's great about leaving the traditional annual review behind is that employees' performance finally does improve -- the goal all along. New approaches aided by the state of the art in cloud software for this (like Betterworks) promote regular dialogue between managers and their direct reports, result in greater workforce engagement overall, and elevate the caliber of leadership throughout the organization.

Over time, in fact, turning away from the old ways of performance management can be an important precursor to organizational transformation -- and HR transformation, certainly. Traditionally (and tellingly), HR departments have always measured success vis-à-vis performance management in simple terms of completions -- "as opposed to impact, what is it that you're trying to achieve?" Jamie said. "Well, it's not just 'check the box.' We need to have a completely different way of showing up for our employees. We need to be thinking about different ways to get them engaged, and focused."

HR departments end up escaping this cost-center-reinforcing mentality and, armed with rich data on workforce performance and engagement, elevate their own standing with organizational leadership. Getting out of the past and into the future of work with their performance management, in other words, is good all around for everyone involved.

For an example of how this plays out, watch this episode of #HRTechChat from last summer, when we interviewed Betterworks user Jeff Andes, vice president of talent management at University of Phoenix.  And I almost forgot: another member of leadership at Betterworks appeared on the podcast last year. In the meantime, and as always, Doug and Jamie were great guests.

#HRTechChat: Make Work Better with Betterworks' Doug Dennerline & Jamie Aitken

Some may appreciate the play on the title of a mid-1970s philosophical novel, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” others the Eastern twist on Western theology. Regardless, original Zen and the art of integration strategy is the absolutely essential and crucial understanding that cloud-to-cloud integration is a process and a way of life, never something that eventually ends because it will ever finally be perfect. Vendors in HCM that acknowledge and embrace this universal truth will save money, increase sales, and improve their customer retention — all major competitive advantages.

This episode of the video podcast is something we call the #HRTechChat Showcase, a version of #HRTechChat wherein our guests not only chat with us, but also share slide decks or other visual cues to help convey their ideas. So, if you’re listening to us on one of the audio platforms where we syndicate, this time you may want to look for us on YouTube so you can view the video.

My guests were all-around experts in the granularities of cloud integration: Chief Technology Officer Jeff Tremblay and President Pierre Rousseau of The Cloud Connectors, an integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) where they and their fellow co-founders invented and use Clouddata™, a native-to-cloud-integrations computer language.

Listening to vendors of software-as-a-service (SaaS) for human capital management (or any other domain of the enterprise, for that matter), a buyer might be forgiven to believe solution providers have solved cloud-to-cloud integration once and for all with application programming interfaces (APIs). But they haven’t — far from it. An HCM technology stack chockful of countless APIs hanging together via no more than a slew of corresponding point-to-point integrations is, as the cliché goes, a recipe for disaster. Vendors experience what TCC calls the Wall Effect, a hockey-stick graph where the cost of integration (TCoI) for maintaining everything suddenly increases exponentially to sap resources and siphon talent away from innovating. The challenges comprise far more than what appears above the waterline of the Integration Iceberg, an apt metaphor TCC invokes.

To use another cliché, Clouddata is a game-changer. To pull from the related research note that we recently published, “Clouddata does for integrations what SQL has done for relational databases. Much like SQL delivered relational database coding from the very complex language CODASYL, Clouddata fulfills the same role for integrations. Clouddata makes it easy to build complex integrations that enable businesses to scale.”

There’s more, of course. Critical as Clouddata is, it takes more than a breakthrough in computer language to make cloud-to-cloud integration better, more manageable and affordable over the long term. And there’s even more, and at this point, I really should just let Pierre and Jeff do the explaining.

I happen to like the concept of #HRTechChat Showcase, by the way. Perhaps you’ve wondered at times what a briefing with an industry analyst is like, for example. Or, you just like seeing slide decks or other props when learning something new. Some don’t like PowerPoint, but we’ve all seen their impact and effectiveness elevate immeasurably when the caliber of presenter is really good. And, in Jeff and Pierre, we have really good, high-caliber presenters for this episode, indeed.

#HRTechChat Showcase: Original Zen and the Art of Integration Strategy

The talent acquisition of today is nonlinear. By this, we mean it’s all one thing, not a siloed process with many activities taking place in an orderly fashion or readily apparent, repeatable sequence. James Galvin should know. Our guest for this episode of the #HRTechChat video podcast, James is CEO and co-founder of Starcircle, a Cork, Ireland–headquartered vendor of cloud software and services designed to result in truly effective talent acquisition campaigns by looking at these as holistic efforts and considering sourcing first, and not last — an idea embodied in a term Starcircle uses: long-tail talent.

Take artificial intelligence, for example. It’s difficult to discuss modern talent acquisition without mentioning AI. This is because AI has entered the fray of talent acquisition for good. This is not hype. At the same time, however, “there’s a lack of understanding around how AI is going to fit into talent acquisition,” said James during the podcast. “And one thing’s for sure is: it’s not going to do your work for you. ”

The issue goes back to the tried-and-true old adage about relying on computers: garbage in, garbage out. Known perhaps even better for its acronym, GIGO is the idea that it doesn’t matter how powerful a computer is: if the data going in is bad (i.e., garbage), the computer will spit out something of very little value (i.e., again, garbage).

AI is the result of highly advanced, sophisticated computing, which of course means that GIGO applies to AI, too. Say you’re an employer. Say there’s an open role. Not that it necessarily matters for the example, but say it’s an executive role that you’re trying to fill. You’re certain of the qualities and characteristics you want or believe you need in new candidates for an open role. But who’s to say your certainty is warranted?

Very few ask the question, and once you inform the AI in your talent acquisition technology with whatever ideas you have, you’ll get the candidates you requested. The problem is, your idea of what you want or need is probably a little or way off the mark when it comes to what you actually need or should want. Apply the AI without any thought to this deep consideration, and never mind the disservice to diversity: you risk perpetuating deep-seated organizational dysfunction.

Talent acquisition is no longer a clean chain of neatly defined in-tandem events or occurrences culminating in a hire. Just as there is an emerging new talent acquisition suite for the future of work, in other words, so there is an emerging new process to go about finding and acquiring new talent. As the one who is planning talent acquisition for your organization, you could take this holistic view of talent acquisition and think of yourself as being at the center of a circle. A circle is a nice visual for the idea of something being nonlinear, after all.

On this episode of the podcast, James and I went on what you might characterize as a walkabout. AI was just one topic. Our discussion touched on talent acquisition in a deep way:

how approaching recruiting as if it were a sales funnel is a mistake, James believes — precisely because talent acquisition has become so nonlinear
why sourcing is anything but transactional and should be the first (instead of last) thing employers rethink in their approach to recruiting
what friction in hiring is and how lessening this friction helps employers engage with their talent pipelines and avert candidate abandonment down the line

#HRTechChat: James Galvin, CEO and Co-Founder of Starcircle

Marta Weinstock, my guest for this episode of the #HRTechChat video podcast, is senior director of operations at California-based Rutherford Investment Company. Part of her charter at Rutherford Investments is to get human capital management as efficient as possible. Under the aegis of her leadership and the help of isolved, the employer's journey along the road to HCM maturity has been sweeping and inspiring. With isolved, Marta has brought order to a previously dysfunctional, disorganized HR ecosystem. Leading the charge for digital transformation from the inside, Marta has witnessed first-hand not only the excellent capabilities found in isolved's software-as-a-service People Cloud™, but also the highly attentive approach of isolved's HR services team.

#HRTechChat: Marta Weinstock, Senior Director of Operations at Rutherford Investment Company

This episode of the #HRTechChat video podcast welcomes Playvox Chief Marketing Officer Michelle Randall. The sole focus of Playvox's cloud software for human capital management for is the call center industry. When it comes to workforce management, especially scheduling, call centers are complex, challenging. Plus, everything we hear about the importance of the employee experiences is magnified at call centers. And everything we know about the impact of a positive employee experience on the customer experience is amplified at call centers. Deploy technology capable of improving agents' quality of work-life balance, their employee wellbeing, and customers will have those positive experiences when they need it the most: when they get in touch with the call center. Michelle dives into the particulars, and I highly recommend tuning in.

#HRTechChat: Michelle Randall, Chief Marketing Officer at Playvox

At the very tail end of May 2023, the enterprise artificial intelligence software and services vendor Veritone announced the acquisition of Broadbean, a global recruitment technology company. Given that PandoLogic joined the family of Veritone companies in mid-summer 2021, we invited an expert each from PandoLogic and Broadbean to appear on the #HRTechChat video podcast and discuss synergies between the two now-Veritone companies. Joining us for this episode were Faisel Samseer, director of partnerships, development and growth for Broadbean, and Nikos Livadas, vice president of partner development for PandoLogic.

 

Viewers (and listeners at the many audio podcast platforms where #HRTechChat syndicates) know we typically have in-depth discussions and communication with our guests in the "virtual greenroom" in the run-up to each episode. This episode is no different. Over a couple meetings and several detailed email exchanges, Nikos, Faisel and I discussed how the two vendors' shared circumstances under the aegis of Veritone ownership afford them the same kind of benefits normally found in any business partnership of this magnitude and scale.

The joining of these two companies is natural in many ways. PandoLogic started out as an AI-based programmatic advertising solution for recruiting and quickly and significantly grew its capabilities from there, delighting customers along the way. As for Broadbean, "Today, we're the world's leader in job distribution technology," said Faisel. "We enable our clients to blast out their jobs to multiple platforms at the same time." He elaborated on Broadbean's large global footprint: "We say we're global. We have offices throughout the world," and Broadbean supports around 7,000 job board integrations.

So, just how, exactly, do Broadbean and PandoLogic complement each other? "I think we all can agree that the bedrock of a successful AI platform is the amount of data that it has on the back end to fuel its algorithms and engines," said Nikos, pointing to the the "immense reach that Faisal was talking about earlier in data and combining it with the power of what PandoLogic has done in the AI space."

This is true. No matter the type of AI, it always evolves better the more data it has access to. We see this in AI-based scheduling software and AI-predicated self-evolving skills ontologies. Outside human capital management -- and inherent in their very name -- "large" language models thrive most when as much data as possible (i.e., from human input) feeds them. It only stands to reason that this same fundamental rule of AI applies when it comes to AI and talent acquisition.

 As Nikos shared in a note to me ahead of the recording, "As our resellers and referral partners embrace the new Veritone HR Solutions set, they will be able to leverage our new expanded global footprint to expose our combined offering in more geo-locations than ever before possible. This will allow our partners to focus on their core competencies while relying on Broadbean/PandoLogic to handle the logistics and distribution aspects."

 Veritone's history in the AI space is long, "and they're a formidable player in AI when it comes to media advertising and voice technologies," said Nikos. Leveraging all that newfound data in a creative way will help the companies' customers find and engage with the best candidates for their open roles. "This is phenomenal for our partners as well," Nikos continued, "and we're looking forward to working with our partners under this new umbrella.

#HRTechChat: A Deep-Dive Into PandoLogic Owner Veritone's Acquisition of Broadbean

The buying cycle for enterprise software and technology shouldn't be a power struggle between departments. 3Sixty Insights is a research, advisory, and consulting firm providing deep understanding of how to bridge the gap in perception and priorities between stakeholders. Through our research, we unearth strategic approaches for streamlining the decision-making process, successfully managing solutions, and maximizing value from business software and technology investments.

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