Some #HRTechConf Conversation and a Discount Expiration Warning

Note: The rest of this post is entirely about the HR Technology Conference coming up in October and is pretty much 100% self-serving, so if you are not really in to HR Tech, or Conferences, or helping me out, then you can drop off now and check back tomorrow.

First, I had a chance to guest on Bill Kutik's Radio Show to talk about the upcoming HR Technology Conference, to share some of what I felt like were the important changes in the event this year and highlight just a few of the sessions and other aspects of the Conference that I am particularly excited about. You can listen to the replay of that conversation here, (about 25 minutes or so, and it moves really fast, trust me). Thanks to Bill for having me on the show to promote (shamelessly, much like I am doing here), the event.

Next, coming up really soon, at midnight EDT on August 4th, (that is next Monday!), several HR Technology Conference discount registration codes are set to expire, and essentially if you elect to buy your Conference ticket after August 4, you will have paid a little bit more than you could have. And that is kind of a drag and also is not what I want either. So if you have been contemplating attending HR Tech in October and have not registered as yet, I urge you to do so before 8/4.

The very best generally available discount code that you can use before the 8/4 deadline is TW14 (case sensitive), and provides $600 off the on site rate of $1,945 for a net price to you of $1,345.

If you miss the 8/4 cutoff (Shame!), then use the next best thing, the discount code for listeners and fans of the HR Happy Hour Show and podcast that I do with Trish McFarlane. That code is HHH14 (case sensitive), and gives you a $550 discount from the on site rate, so your net cost is $1,395. Still pretty good and for procrastinators the best part is the HHH14 code does not expire.

The conference's home page is here, where you can find links to the agenda, detailed session descriptions, the list of exhibiting companies at the sold-out Expo, and of course the registration page as well.

Thanks for indulging me in this little commercial, I do hope to see lots of blog readers out at HR Tech in October and I definitely don't want you to pay more than you have to in order to attend what is shaping up to be a great conference.

SLIDES: What Did That HR Tech Salesperson Say? #SHRM14 Presentation

Earlier today Trish McFarlane and I presented "What did that HR Tech salesperson say? Demystifying HR Technology Selection and implementation" at the SHRM Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Despite it being one of the very last and final sessions of the marathon event, (we jokingly referred to the session as the 'Closing-Closing Keynote'), we had a super-engaged audience of HR professionals that had lots and lots of questions about the HR technology research, evaluation, selection, and implementation processes. Trish and I were kind of blown away by the number of questions, really. And even though it was the final session of the Conference, numerous attendees stayed past the 'official' ending time to share with us their challenges and concerns about HR tech solutions.

Embedded below, (Email and RSS subscribers will need to click through), are the slides that Trish and I presented, (although with the number and type of questions we had from the attendees, we probably needed to devote more time to Q and A), at the session. Have a look to see the basic of what we talked about, and what had so many HR pros wanting to dig in to the important issues facing them and their organizations.

What Did the HR Tech Salesperson Say? SHRM Annual 2014 Presentation from Steve Boese and Trish McFarlane

In fact, we had so many questions and conversations after the session ended, that we promised attendees we would continue the conversation on the HR Happy Hour Show - so look for a show to be scheduled soon in which we will continue to try and 'demystify' the HR Tech selection process, and help HR pros arrive at better decisions for their organizations.

Many thanks to SHRM for having us at the event, and for allowing us to 'close' the show!

Which tech advice is good advice? #SHRM14

Been spending a little time working on the final bits of the presentation titled "What Did the HR Tech Salesperson Say? Demystifying HR Technology Selection and Implementation", that Trish McFarlane and I will be giving later this week at the SHRM Annual Conference, and by way of preview (and since it is interesting to me) I wanted to riff on one section of the presentation, where we plan to discuss ways for 'normal' HR pros to conduct HR technology research.

With blogs, social networks, LinkedIn, podcasts, about 1,345 Twitter chats, etc. there is no shortage of advice, opinion, and information out there about anything and that of course includes HR technology solutions. 

But which sources of advice are good advice, or at least, relatively better than some of the competing alternatives? I think you can break down and then compare sources of advice on HR Technology solutions on a simple 2x2 grid with the X Axis being "Informed" and the Y Axis being "Biased" (or at least the potential exists for bias based on history, contracts, or other less obvious drivers of biased opinion.)

Here's my take on the "Who can you trust/who knows what they are talking about" chart:

What do you think? Too harsh on some of the vendor-driven content? Not giving the Online Pundits their due? Does your Mom know a lot more about HR Technology than I calculated?

Look, the exact placement of any of these sources of information on the plot of 'Informed/Biased' is subject to debate, interpretation, and certainly exceptions exist for any of them.

But the larger, and more important point I think, and one we will make during the presentation, is that any source that you as an HR pro uses as an input into your research/decision process needs to be evaluated and scrutinized carefully.

Lots of 'experts' really are not that expert - they either never have actually bought and implemented HR solutions in organizations themselves, or haven't done so for a really long time. Some consultants purport to be vendor solution agnostic, but might only have a chance at scoring some billable work from you if you select a specific vendor's technology. And lots of people with blogs and Twitter accounts have no idea what they are talking about, (possibly me too).

So in the SHRM session, we will try to take some of the mystery out of what can often be a one-sided, vendor has all the power kind of dynamic, and give you the HR pro some tips, tricks, and secret code to help you better understand the process, and hopefully that will lead to better outcomes.

And, we will have a bunch of HR Happy Hour shirts to give away at the session as well!

CHART OF THE DAY: Special #SHRM14 Handbag Edition

The convergence was just too irresistible to fight: the week of the SHRM Annual Conference (where on Wednesday in the SHRM version of the 'Session Time of Death', Trish McFarlane and I will be presenting), I run across a story and chart about HR ladies' traditional favorite accessory maker, Coach.

Turns out, times are getting a little tough for Coach - in the last couple of years it has seen it's sales growth evaporate, its stock price essentially miss the entire bull market, and the emergence of increased competition from companies like Michael Kors and Tory Burch.

Today's chart, courtesy of Bloomberg Businessweek, shows the percentage change in same-store sales (a really important data point in retail), for Coach and its principal rival for the arms of HR ladies everywhere, Michael Kors.

Pretty ugly if you are a fan of Coach, (or a stockholder). Kors has been killing it while Coach seems to be in the beginnings of their death spiral.

Times are certainly changing, I guess - whatever allure Coach had for many years seems to be waning and companies like Kors and Tory Burch and Kate Spade are the new must-haves.

What in fact do I know about any of these trends in women's fashion and accessories?

Hardly anything. But I have owned and loved a series of Coach men's wallets over the years, so I suppose I should think about making a future replacement purchase as insurance - just in case in three years when my current wallet is about needing to be retired there will be no more Coach to speak of. The relationship a man has with his wallet is a pretty important one, second only to the one he has with his butcher I would think. So put me on the record as hoping Coach figures it out.

If you are heading to SHRM, have fun - look around and see if you can spot this changing of the guard so to speak as you wander the halls and the Expo.

Have a great week!

Three keys for a successful HR vendor user conference

I'm just back from the inaugural HireVue Digital Disruption user conference in absolutely gorgeous Park City, Utah, a place where the only thing you can possibly complain about is how after about 15 paces you're short of breath (due to the altitude), and dying of thirst (due to the dry as dust air). It was a really great event, and kudos to the entire team at HireVue for executing at a high level on their first try.

During the closing reception at the event I got to talking with some attendees and in those conversations I shared how I have been to about 5 or 6 HR tech vendor user conferences so far this year, and I expect I will attend another half dozen or so before the end of 2014. And if it seems to you that sounds like a lot of vendor conferences you're right - it is a lot of vendor user conferences. So after having hit so many of these events over the last couple of years, I like to think I know something about what makes for a successful and valuable event, and since no one asked, here are three things I think are the most important keys or elements that can help make vendor user conferences more successful.

1. Executive keynotes - the best vendor executive keynotes are not the ones that show off the 5 new and amazing product features, they are the ones where the CEO/Founder/President shows his or her more human side, and actually connects with the audience, (especially the customers). I think we consistently underestimate how important the personal and human elements are in many of these vendor/customer relationships. Customers want to believe in you and what you are doing. They want to see how passionate you are for helping them solve their problems. They want to see you talk about your own team, hear something about your company culture and leadership philosophy. Mostly, they just want to see the CEO as a real person. So the best vendor executive keynotes manage to allow this human side to show through.

2. Content mix - the natural tendency at vendor user conferences is to program an agenda almost completely comprised of two types of presentations: Vendor reps talking about the products, and existing customers talking about how they use the products, often at a very detailed level. While both types of sessions can be valuable for attendees, I think the best vendor user conferences mix in at least some content that is not 100% product focused. Bringing in some more outside voices or even having existing customers discuss more of their HR and business challenges more broadly, can benefit the overall value for attendees. Often I talk with attendees who feel like many of the sessions simply repeated information about the products or how to use the products that they already knew. There should be at least a fair amount of content that can challenge, excite, and interest the most expert customer users, or else they don't really have a need to attend the user conference at all.

3. Attendee mix - while it is great that the vendor wants to enable as many of their own people to attend/participate/interact at the user conference, if the ratio between the vendor's own staff and the actual customers and prospects in attendance gets too skewed toward the vendor side, the opportunities for great customer-customer interactions get diminished. What the vendors really want and need is for their own customers to be their best advocates, to share their experiences and opinions about the vendor and the technology. It gets hard for them to do that freely if there are vendor reps swarming everywhere, (they are easy to spot too, since they all will have on the same color coordinated logo shirts). The best vendor user conferences manage to be more about the users and less about the vendors, if that makes sense.

Ok those are my three tips for creating and delivering a great HR vendor user conference. You're welcome, even though you didn't ask.

What else can HR vendors do to make their user conferences better?

Thanks again HireVue!