[Music] [Applause] [Music] hello and welcome to the people purpose podcast the show that explores all the ins and outs the challenges and opportunities HR people managers and all people face at work every day I'm here Julie develin with my co-host TR Fields Julie why are you Whispering am do I sound like I'm whispering I'm in a perfect segue I'm in a very very big room and uh I don't want to I I don't know I feel like everybody's listening to me which they are but that's okay um it's I I'm echoey I guess so I'm trying I guess I'm trying not to talk too loud is is it okay yeah I think so luckily we have a great producer that can figure this out after the fact that's really [Laughter] what I mean I I can I can speak louder is that better yeah that's fine no I I was I just thought it was funny because you came in like you were gonna I don't know like well I don't know um like I said I'm in like a really really big room and I'm I'm echoey so it's perfect it's perfect it's perfect hey Jules tell me something good something good um gosh when is this episode gonna hit I'm not really sure two days two days this a quick turn okay go Phillies um Phillies are doing great um I mean that's my something good a lot but right now it is something good they took the first game so uh you know we we'll see if this stays ever green um as a good thing but who knows so that's my something good today I love it I have two something Goods is that okay can we do it um and I know this will be a shorter episode but I have two two something Goods the first one is got some family time last week and and taught my son a little bit about you know Fallen Soldiers we support a foundation um as a family and and did some things that went up to the foundation and spent some time up there and um you know it was a great teaching moment if you will I don't know how much he grasped yet you know he's still pretty young but it was it was really cool and my second one and I'm G to embarrass you on this is my co-host Julie de got top 100 she is a top 100 HR influencer by our friends over at engagedly now I know how much this means to you Julie no the reason I'm saying it is we're super proud of you it's awesome keep up the good work um you know job security I guess I don't know but uh that is something good because you have been a road warrior a brand ambassador a HR inspirer you know so I'm super proud of you and and all the thank you thank you and and and you know takes a village so everything I humbly you know I was I was shocked um that's cool you and how did they notify you by the way how did they like you just get an email they tag they tag they tag everybody on LinkedIn and then you see you see that you're on there so here we are yeah um hey Julie will you tell us about the business stat of the day all right so Chaz the business out of the day according to pwcc 58% of people they survey believe that finding and keeping Talent motivates adopting HR Technologies they also found that almost 60% of teams state that finding attracting and retaining Talent is the main reason for using HR technology so I think that you know that that's a a pretty interesting stat yes yes it is it's really interesting because there's two there's two perspectives and maybe some Middle Ground maybe there's three in this one you have a lot of people who believe that building a culture attracting and retaining Talent or whatever is a like it has nothing to do with technology right like that's one Camp then there's kind of the middle ground well yeah Tech enables us a little bit and you know we use it but we also focus on the people side of things and then there's the people who are so heavily invested in their Tech stack and Technology because they you know I I don't necessarily know the reason whether it's whether it's you want to tap into the Next Generation or you want to maintain some sort of level of connectedness if you will and Tech is usually the easiest way to do it and and it's really hard right so it's you know for the people who don't necessarily use personal Tech on their mobile device or whatever they you know there's that limit that limited connection if you will right I'm in the middle ground I think it matters I think Tech matters I think people matter and I think the people side of things matter it's very Blended but I think more finitely we are tied to technology and sometimes being so inundated with the amount of information we consume on our our phones or whatever Tech that we're utilizing it sometimes hinders us from feeling that connectedness but I do believe that the HR technology or HCM technology is an absolute critical part in attracting and retaining Talent it has to be yeah no but nobody in paper resumes anymore Julie maybe they are but I I haven't heard of it in a long time oh you'd be you'd be surprised how many organizations I see that where people are still using paper and manual processes and all of that so um that's another whole other conversation but I guess that's probably a pretty good segue into what we're talking about today right and and what this episode is and this is a me here in Las Vegas at the uh HR Tech conference the annual HR Tech conference and um you know the the HR Tech conference is the largest gathering of HR Tech uh vendors uh you know enthusiasts yeah yeah all of it and um I think that what I what I thought that would be interesting to do today is to for us to highlight some of the most key themes that we're seeing at this year's conference based on some of the sessions that have happened and are going to happen so yeah um does that sound good to you uh yeah I I'm sorry I couldn't be there this is year two in a row by the way that I'm not there with you last year I was speaking in Wyoming at Wyoming Sherm and you were there this year I'm speaking obviously I'm not there today but i' leave to go to Wisconsin shm to speak up there i' already made the commitment but you know last year we kind of did an interview style like okay what's the feeling what's the vibe what are you seeing what are you doing that will come out gradually but I think what's important is the themes are very different based on what you shared with me than what it would be for sh National Conference right some of it overlaps some of it does overlap but I I do I do want to hear what you're saying and of course I'm gonna have a lot of questions so why don't you just take us into into point one Jules yeah point one okay so when we're talking about this HR Tech conference when I tell you that AI talk is everywhere AI talk is everywhere this this prompted me Chaz to do a little bit of research and because you know we've been using AI for many many years but do you know when the first AI has been came into existence do you want to guess the year the first AI came into existence I don't want to guess the year okay it was it was the early 1950s and apparently this was coined by a guy named Alan touring and you know it's interesting though this research that I did did Googling right Googling um the the the roots of AI can be traced back to the early 1900s when philosophers and mathematicians began to explore the possibility of creating machines that could think so this has been something that's been around for a long long time right in the in the 70s and 80s um there was this uh this shift towards what's called connectionist Ai and that was also known as neural networks which are INSP yeah inspired by the the brain and you know that we're able to learn from data and adapt to new situations but here's the thing in recent years the research the AI research has been so prevalent and it's been fast and it's really pervading conversations not just in HR but so many other Industries and um you know when we we talk about new AI techniques like deep learning um and um you know image recognition that kind of stuff that that's that's all part of it and that's all part of the talk here at this conference HR Tech so you know I think that it's important Chaz for us to simpl simplify things that are complicated sometimes because I know that I know that especially in HR when we hear about data we hear about all these things that we should be doing Etc we're like where the heck do we start well let me let me make ease your mind a little bit AI you're using AI in a wide range of applications today um like search engines right AI it's used to rank search results and also to provide personalized recommendations and I think we've mentioned that before y um uh what are some other things you know social media right social media usually usually top of mind uh it a lot a lot of times people look at it and say well the algorithm that's a that's a portion of it right that's a portion of it I've been doing some work uh behind the scenes here at ukg with AI and and some of the things that are on the cusp of our product and and prescription related information this is kind of the stuff that happens in social media no I'm not comparing our product as social media but this idea of providing content or even something as simple as suggest a new friend or Target advertising I don't know I've shared this with you Julie but one of my best friends from from college Works in advertising and how they deal with targeting ad space to you based on you know specific IP address maybe you like something maybe you uh you know were on a web page and click to another web page and then all of a sudden you start seeing ads on on things this is you know it's it's pretty pretty impeccable and also pretty creatively designed in the sense that it's there to help you or offer you say it's also intelligent oh sometimes sometimes too intelligent you know what I mean where now you have to go in and be like yeah no this is not relevant to me so why am I looking at this you know um so there's it's it's a it's a it's a dual ided coin where sometimes it's really really helpful then other times you're like no remove that whatever it is yeah so so here's the thing you know AI it's also used in health care it's used in manufacturing you know it's used to diagnose diseases and when we're talking about it but we're talking about it in terms of HR and the overwhelming nature of the the amount of conversation and sessions that they are here at this conference um I just want to read a couple of them there are literally probably 75 or so sessions that have ai in the title like building 75 sessions probably more probably more did you hand maybe less no no but I'm really I'm really I'm really good I used artificial intelligence to figure it out oh okay yeah do your summation so so yeah so building a healthy productive AI field culture right that's a pre-conference workshop here um growing with people first practices in the new age of AI you know three powerful ways to make you know uh managers love Performance Management via AI how AI will transform the market forever you know um AI in action elevating HR with generative AI how AI video and avatars will change the way we learn and work driving Better Health outcomes with AI and empathy navigating the risk and opportunities of generative Ai Ai and HR implications opportunities it goes on and on and on and on and on it can be it can be overwhelming it's really overwhelming right so I you know so the question becomes do what can we do to to overcome this overwhelming aspect and I think there's a couple of things that we and HR can do yep and starts with education there are so many resources out there available online um to help you learn about Ai and the potential implications that can have with HR applications um and and and also it can help you to determine you know which kind of AI resources you should be using right I think go ahead Sor go ahead no no I your spot on it this is kind of goes back to anything that we normally say right we we have our assumptions of what something is and whether that's the right or wrong assumption it doesn't hurt for us to go back and review or understand our assumptions and and the AI term has been around for a while like we've had eight million people using AI in our product since 2015 like it is not new for ukg um a utilizing AI in the product same thing with social media right let's take it from a personal perspective we have all of these things that are happening around our social media or the different platforms that we use that leverage Ai and it's like we make the assumption that we know what it is or what it's doing now that it's evolving we have to educate right now that you know not everybody knows the exact impact of AI had this discussion uh was some someone who who is at a high level at a company that understands AI really really well and I don't necessarily know that that we fully grasp what AI can do but it's important for us like you said to go and learn what those things are I like the other piec to this goes beyond HR this goes to really all roles but you do have some people who are more seasoned in leveraging artificial intelligence right what was that experience like how do you learn from others what was good what was bad what are the better practices or best practices around this you know there is so much that we have to take into account before we just start saying oh well it's AI is it or do we need to have a little bit more in-depth conversation what else can we do the limit yeah we can we can start small with things and not and recognize that we can't Implement AI in all areas of HR you know at once I I think about this and I think about the conversations that I have about how many HR folks still have manual processes and then I think well how do we get how do we get to Point how do we get to step 10 here when we're still on step two it's like you have to make sure you can't just you know do have ai and have everything in place um before you know you can't it's basically you can't uh you have to walk before you can run but anyway I think that this is a topic that's going to be more prevalent in the days ahead and I'll probably do future podcast episodes on just this topic Alone um but uh I want to want to talk about another thing that is really really important here at the HR Tech conference which is how to choose the right software how to choose the right HR software for your company and uh you know I think that helping people find the right software helping people find the right HR tech for their organization but it's not just finding the right Tech it's also knowing what tech you have currently and how that can be improved um what are your what are your thoughts there yeah this is a this is a tough one we actually created you and I and the advisers a while back created a buyer guide right you know from our experiences and how we shared those experiences in the buyer we'll make sure to put that link in in our bio um of the episode or the description of the episode where I find this the most intriguing is at a conference you have people speaking on a stage about this and I wonder if they're sponsored or not doesn't matter neither here nor there I would much rather go to some of the networking groups and the people who are in positions like me doesn't even necessarily have to be the same industry right helpful don't get me wrong but I love the idea of you know what Julie let's assume that you were in construction like I was ages ago and I come to you and you're also in construction hey what's your experience like tracking this how do you handle this what what is an efficient way or what product are you using to efficiently run your HCM processes right great what was setup like what was that experience like how's your customer service experience you know what does the organization do for you beyond you know the goli date those to me are more critical because I'm having a face-to-face conversation with a peer who understands me what my role is what my responsibility is and the people that I serve right so on the flip side at a conference like that where people are talking about their buyer experience whether it's spons or not you still get some insight into whatever product that is right so it's kind of it's kind of like a free demo if you will or a free hey here's what's happening here's what you can be aware of go ahead yeah I think it could get overwhelming here too because there's so many different things to see things to do and hey it's also in Las Vegas and there's there's lights and and cameras in action everywhere here so yeah so you add all you add all of this um all of that in you know it it just it can lead to that overwhelming aspect which is is interesting like it's something that I wanted to mention here because I think that it's important you know HR people are overworked overwhelmed as it is and now they're being tasked to go to the conference and figure it out a lot of people that come to this conference are sent here by upper leadership and saying hey go find it the tech that we need we need now that's a double-edged sword because at least the at least leadership is saying we understand that you need the tech um but you know the and then oh by the way you have 8,000 other projects on top of that so I think I think that's something that organizations need to need to look at um so yeah go ahead no I was going to say and scalability too right so you as HR one of the things that you need to be aware of knowing that you're you're overwork stress burnout whatever it is when it comes to selecting a tech that you really have to focus on the processes that take the most time right and find a solution that is going to eliminate those um for you the reality of it is the stuff that you are churning and burning on all of the time there is a lot of good technology out there that can really really help you um you know so it's it's also one of the things that I think where we we get confused when it comes to selecting HR Tech is that there is perfection waiting for you like if I buy this it's going to be perfect well that's how I thought that's what I thought and and it's it's it's a it's it's okay to think that right it's okay to think that but I also like manage your expectations a little bit like what in your life in general is perfect right like like that's what that's where I'm at it's like what hold on hold on let's take a step back here now it doesn't mean that there when you go through the selection process that there aren't things that are really going to help you and thus inspire you to do new things try new things you know shape your business in a new way Tech is a critical Foundation of that but we also have to manage our own expectations with this you know and be like okay if we're gonna buy this new software we can't always do it the way that it's always been done we ourselves have to think about how do we get rid of the manual processes how can be more efficient again going back to the network groups what has your experience been like and how did you overcome it versus okay Splash everything's gonna be perfect right it's not works no no it's definitely not you know there's another session here that I wanted to discuss and it's called hrtech NE next Battlefront manager Effectiveness and when I when I saw this it reminded me of a study that I read by Gartner with basically Gartner was saying says that leadership and manag Effectiveness is going to be the number one priority for HR teams in 2023 and this was this was you know obviously a few months ago but you know the role that managers play in helping employees in the business really you know navigate so many different nuances of the business and so many different things like scheduling Etc you know how can HR technology really help to improve manager Effectiveness and just like you said when you know you say oh well if you put a system in place it's like oh everything's gonna be perfect at that point I think managers think that too there's a huge learning there's a learning curve and that learning curve takes time and that learning curve it takes effort on the part of everybody to come together and learn how to utilize the system right so I I mean what do do you think that hr's next tech Battlefront is manager Effectiveness or do you think it's just long overdue both yeah both it's hard for me you know I you know in my Ivory Tower if you will we've been focusing on manager effectiveness at ukg for a decade longer than that probably right you know we do we do surveys we do scoring we do all of these things that essentially hold managers accountable to be a great manager right that that to me now not every company is that way right not every company is that way on the flip side we've talked about this at length in past episodes where we expect a lot from managers right right and most importantly if we are not teaching them the ways to be effective or the ways to be better or the ways to make sure that our people feel connected or pick a topic that happens in business right kind of when we released the episode today on on the Halloween right like the things that the things that HR just kind of rolls their eyes about right like oh no we did this again we have to make sure that going back to the AI piece and educating them we can't expect managers to know everything but it's equally important to at least educate them on the things that we want them to know moving forward as a business as a structure and to be effective right and and let's let's be clear effective does not mean you are going to like the change right effective does not mean that that you are uh oh rah rah all of the time and everything is so happy and gol lucky effective means we're doing what's right for the business so the business reinvests for us and we take like you often talk about being a good organizational citizen cool part about it is Julie HR technology helps us do all of this really well and at a fast pace and now with the AI piece really poking its head out now I think we're going to see a lot of cool things happen over the next couple years with our workforces yeah I I do I do too um the rapid pace of Technology the rapid change all of that kind of stuff all of the new tools that that's available um again hrtech conference every year just gets bigger and bigger um y you know last year we were the only one that had a pre-conference workshop um and then this year now there are three right and there's over 600 people registered for this Workshop are you running that Workshop I am yeah awesome I'm excited for you that'll be so fun that'll be so fun thank you um Jules hrtech 2023 what did you find you are purpose in uh AI all the time and I need my my purpose my purpose obvious honestly is a little bit personal is that I need to can keep educating and re-educating myself on AI and the implications because it's it's it gets to be overwhelming for me yeah I I I agree I think macroeconomic AI this is my purpose macroeconomic as we educate ourselves more and more uh it's going to force us out of the box to to be more creative right uh that is that is something I think is really really cool so many people say oh that's scary no we just we need to be ready for big changes right go listen to my change management episode we need to be ready for big changes our episode I should say so maybe we'll Circle back on a change episode at some maybe maybe maybe so uh we'll leave we'll leave you with this Julie you're headed to London sorry I couldn't be there again but uh people purpose podcast goes to Google next and London uh this week so be on the lookout for that that's going to drop on 1023 uh a few reminders before we leave don't forget to like And subscribe and use the hash people purpose pod on social media sites like Twitter and Linkedin hey check out the latest blogs and research from the workforce Institute at ukg by visiting Workforce institute.org go Julie go so proud of you congratulations for all that you've done and your accomplishments hey enjoy Vegas I appreciate it thanks for listen everybody [Music] bye
2023-10-23