PODCAST: HR Happy Hour 408 - SHRM People Analytics and HR for the Startup Organization

HR Happy Hour 408 - SHRM People Analytics and HR for the Startup Organization

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

Guest: Joey Price

Listen HERE

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show recorded live from the SHRM People Analytics Conference in Seattle, Steve and Trish were joined by Joey Price, Founder of JumpStart HR to talk about the event, about people analytics in HR and some of the issues and challenges, as well as Joey's role as an HR advisor to startup and small businesses.

On the show, Joey shared some of the common issues and challenges he encounters when helping startups and small businesses with their HR needs, how small businesses are thinking about HR differently, and gave some insights as to where HR for small businesses might be going.

Additionally, we talked about the People Analytics event, speculated (some), on how personal work history and information may be changing and be impacted by new tech like Blockchain, the connection between sports performance and workplace performance, (including a Moneyball reset), and more. And Steve shared a very important tip about naming a new baby - you can learn more about that here.

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, on your favorite podcast app, or by using the widget player below:

This was a really fun show, thanks Joey for joining us! And thanks to SHRM for having the HR Happy Hour Show at the event.

Remember to subscribe to the HR Happy Hour Show wherever you get your podcasts.

What is your one wish for your ideal HR technology solution that you’d love to see created by 2020? #nextchat #HRTechConf

I had a great time guesting and participating on yesterday's #Nextchat Twitter chat that is put together each seek by the fantastic Mary Kaylor over at SHRM. Mary and the SHRM team have done an amazing job building a active, engaged, and large community of people with #Nextchat, and it is always fun to get to dive in with them.

If you missed the chat, there is an excellent summary of the conversation here. One point I thought it was worth teasing out, and particularly since the HR Technology Conference is starting in about 2 days, was the chat's final question, presented below:

What is your one wish for your ideal HR technology solution that you’d love to see created by 2020? #nextchat

The idea of this question was to try and get participants thinking about what tools or technologies would really help them get their jobs done more efficiently, enable them to unlock the potential of their workforces, better engage and retain their best people, or somehow just make HR and the organization 'better.'

It was a fun and speculative way to end what was a really interesting overall discussion about HR technology today.

Since I liked the question so much, (I did come up with it), and since HR Tech starts on Sunday and more than 300 HR technology solution providers will be exhibiting and they are the 'right' people to see the community response to a question like this, I am putting out the question one more time.

What is your one wish for your ideal HR technology solution that you’d love to see created by 2020? #nextchat #HRTechConf

I added the #HRTechConf Twitter hashtag to the question, (and to the blog post title above), since I know just about everyone involved in the Conference seems to be on the Twitter tag already.

I would love to see more folks chime in on the question in the run up to the Conference and even have some of our HR Tech Conference exhibiting companies jump in to the conversation as well. You can post your responses on Twitter or in the comments of this post.

It could be that the 'dream' HR technology you want to see by 2020 already exists, and there is a solution provider at HR Tech ready to show you.

Thanks again to Mary and the folks at #Nextchat. 

Hope to see lots of readers out at HR Tech!

Note for readers: I am heading out the Conference tomorrow, so posting will be extremely light, if non-existent for the next week. You will be fine.

#Nextchat with me today: The next 5 years in HR Tech - #HRTechConf

Remember just a few years ago when we started to see a flurry of articles, presentations, and even books about the topic of “Workforce 2020” that offered predictions about what work and workplaces would be like at the then far-off-into-the-future year of 2020?

I am not sure why authors and consultancies fixated so much on the year 2020. Maybe it just sounds fun to say out loud and it also had the benefit of seeming so distant that you could plausibly predict just about anything short of we’d all be commuting to work in flying cars and you’d probably get away with it.

Let me see if that still holds today -- here is a 2020 prediction for you:

“In 2020, organizations will have access to powerful technologies that automate every HR and talent management process, can apply sophisticated machine learning capability to predict workforce events like attrition and job-fit, and since these technologies are all delivered via THE CLOUD, they will be accessible and affordable for every organization, regardless of their size.”

Wow, amazing!  And what is more amazing is that all of those things exist TODAY, and we don’t have to wait until 2020 for them. Which is a really good thing because I am not sure if you have noticed, but 2020 is really not that far off anyway. We have spent so much time thinking and talking about 2020 as some vague signpost in the far distance that it has just about snuck up on us.

But the good thing is that since 2020 really isn’t all that far off, we can offer better, more reasoned, and more valuable predictions about what it truly will be like, and we can start making more concrete and specific plans for how in the next five or so years, leading up to 2020, our HR teams and our organizations can best utilize technology to improve work, workplaces, and drive organizational success.

Please join  @shrmnextchat at 3 p.m. ET on October 14 (TODAY) for #Nextchat with special guest, ME, the HR Technology Conference Co-Chariman and Co-Host of the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve Boese (@steveboese).  We’ll take a look at the next five years of HR technology  and chat about what HR leaders should be thinking about -- and preparing for -- with respect to workplace technology in 2020.

Here are the questions we will hit on the chat today:

Q1. What are the key considerations for HR leaders as they begin to plan their HR tech strategies for the next 5 years?

Q2. What are some ways to tie the HR technology strategy to the organization’s long term business and talent strategies?

Q3. How will changing employee demographics and their expectations for technology change how HR leaders deploy technology in the next 5 years?

Q4. What area of Human Resources (Recruiting, Performance, HR Admin, etc.) will technology have the largest impact upon in the next 5 years?

Q5. How does the increased reliance on technology to enable HR service delivery change the role and competencies required of the modern HR leader?

Q6. What should HR leaders look for when evaluating HR technology solution providers over the next 5 years?

Q7.    What is your one wish for your ideal HR technology solution that you’d love to see created by 2020? #nextchat

#Nextchat is the only Twitter chat I regularly participate in, and I encourage all of you to jump in to the conversation today from 3PM - 4PM EDT.

Thanks to my friends at SHRM for having me back to chat about HR Tech!

SLIDES: Busting the Common Myths in HR Technology - #SHRM15

I had a great time (early) this morning co-presenting along with Trish McFarlane at the SHRM Annual Conference in Las Vegas. Trish and I were really glad to see somewhere near 300 folks brave the 7AM start time to hear us talk about HR Technology and more specifically, HR Technology implementations.

The size of the crowd, the high level of attendee enthusiasm and engagement, and the really long line of folks who came up to chat after the session was completed was a great indicator of the continuing and increasing importance of technology to the HR professional.

The slide deck we shared is up on Slideshare and also embedded below, (Email and RSS subscribers may need to click through).

After the Contracts Are Signed: Busing the Most Common Myths in HR Technology from Steve Boese

The big messages that Trish and I shared were a few - that even in the age of modern SaaS technology platforms the fundamentals of great project management remain important. Executive support, a dedicated project team, intentional attention to change management, and making sure the 'right' users at all levels of the organization are appropriately engaged in the implementation project are just as important in 2015 as they were in 1995.

This was a fun session to present, and Trish and I want to thank everyone who came out this morning as well as the folks at SHRM for allowing us to be a part of the event.

We'd love any thoughts, comments, suggestions any one has on this deck as well!

The best line I've read all year, and trying not to deliver what's expected

A few days ago, in this piece, Marketview: Huge in Japan on the finance blog Dynamic Hedge, I read what I believe to be the best line I have read anywhere this year, and quite possibly my favorite line ever, (although the last line of Song of Myself is tough to beat).

Here it is:

The Yen carry trade is basically driving risk markets globally and will eventually destroy everything you love.

Boom.

Right in the middle of a pretty standard piece on the Yen currency fluctuations and the recent volatility in the Japanese equity markets, the author drops in that amazing line about everything you love being destroyed and now you're not reading a standard (and dreary) financial analysis piece anymore. This is something else entirely, and entirely unexpected. (I am so stealing this line).Flowers, Andy Warhol, 1964

I'm heading out the big SHRM Annual Conference next week, and presenting on Monday afternoon. While at the event, and certainly before and during my session I will be thinking about this piece from Dynamic Hedge, and that line and how it ambushed me from out of nowhere.

SHRM and the most of the other big, mainstream events succeed largely by meeting expectations I think. They are very clear about what is going to happen there, the speakers they select are if not familiar individually, are familiar in the aggregate. There are always the lawyers and consultants and advisor types speaking, and they are all kind of interchangeable. They all say (again, mostly), the same kinds of things to the same kind of audience that comes back each year. It is a kind of 'cycle of the expected' if you will.

And that is pretty smart I suppose, and good business. SHRM Annual especially is a pretty large commitment of time and money for attendees, and the risk of not delivering to them what they know and expect is pretty high for the organizers. While it feels hard to break in to the SHRM Annual line up as a speaker, it seems much easier to stay there once you are in (and if you have figured out how to deliver to those expectations).

Having said all that, or having said that little, I press on towards the event and the other things I am up to - thinking about the idea of meeting audience, reader, or even public expectations. 

It's all pretty safe, the assessing, defining, and meeting expectations game. If I do that in my session on Monday, I will probably get decent ratings, and maybe get invited back to speak again. It's just a formula really. The speaker is going to talk about X, the attendees are coming to hear him or her talk about X, and they leave knowing something about X. It's simple.

But it all seems kind of boring, kind of forgettable even.

The best events, speeches, ballgames, picnics, movies, songs, books, etc. - the ones that you remember and that resonate beyond their allotted time horizon for your attention - only do that when they ignore, (or at least pretend not to care about) your expectations and deliver on their vision, and not be beholden to yours. But it can be hard to do that. And scary. And that's why it's done so rarely. But I will give it a try on Monday. Probably fail. Probably not be back in 2014.

Let's test it out:

The HR technology landscape has been transformed in the last 5 years, and if you don't keep informed, markets will shift globally and will eventually destroy everything you love.

Maybe.

Have a great weekend, and if I see you at SHRM, please say hello!