We filled our time at HR Tech Conference with great conversations with awesome people. As a plus, our Cofounder and CEO, David Karandish, presented in two sessions—and made history in the process.
“The hardest presentation to give at the HR Tech Conference is the Ideas and Innovators session, and the second hardest is demonstrating your technology in the Awesome New Technologies for HR session,” announced HR Tech’s Co-Chair, Steve Boese. “In the whole history of the HR Tech Conference, David is the first to do both in one year.”
Don’t fret if you missed the conference or couldn’t make it to all the sessions. Here’s a quick rundown of the most competitive sessions:
Ideas and Innovators Session
This session is surprisingly difficult because it requires thought leaders to speak on anything in the world besides their company. If that weren’t challenging enough, all presentations had to conform to Ignite format. Afraid of presenting? Try coming up with a five-minute presentation on a completely new topic, where each slide auto-advances every 15 seconds. Despite the challenge, everyone covered topics that were all well worth discussing and did great presenting.
David discussed the importance of balancing creativity and proficiency in the workplace by referencing the new book, The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. When an organization focuses on a culture of creativity, this drives out a culture of proficiency and vice versa. Rather than choosing one over the other, companies can automate tasks with AI. Automation allows you to balance creativity and proficiency, which leads to a healthy organization.
A couple of leaders discussed the need to revamp referral programs and mentoring programs on different occasions. The use of blockchain to empower employees with more control over their personal data was also covered.
However, the topic of biases was a crowd favorite.
Ultimate Software’s Director of Product Innovation, Montra Ellis, brought up the importance of addressing biases against minorities. Montra’s call to action involved changing data sets and ditching the “black box.” And TalentRISE’s SVP and Talent Consulting Practice Lead, Carl Kutsmode, addressed bias by telling a story from a recent trip he took where he encountered a young girl with disabilities. During the story, he unveils that this girl refused to let her diagnosis define her. Carl made it clear that it’s important to check biases like these at the door, especially during job interviews.
Awesome New Technologies for HR
This was the complete opposite of the Ideas and Innovators session. In the Awesome New Technologies for HR session, leaders took the stage to represent their companies and pitch a solution. The pressure was on.
ICIMS discussed how companies can cut the costs of career fairs with their new recruiting product, Virtual Career Fairs, which provides a “branded and mobile-optimized experience.”
Paychex showcased a human capital app, Paychex Flex, which provides users with access to recruiting and applicant tracking information, onboarding details, time and attendance info, and much more from their preferred device.
ADP gave a peek inside the new productivity tool, Next Gen HCM, which allows users the ability to understand what’s going on with their teams so that managers have the tools they need to lead efficiently.
Paycom shared the new reporting product, Direct Data Exchange, which allows users to access a dashboard for big-picture analytics like employee usage scores so that HR leaders can keep a finger on the pulse of the organization.
AllyO highlighted the chatbot feature for onboarding, which keeps new hires engaged during the onboarding process, provides visibility into each new hire’s progression, and streamlines the recruiting team’s responsibilities.
Capacity announced the new addition to our automation suite, Capacity Workflows, which enables team members to seamlessly collaborate across multiple departments and multiple processes to achieve a common goal. In addition to mapping out the project, Workflows can automate repetitive tasks that take up valuable time. Capacity can send emails, schedule meetings, connect to HRIS, CRM, etc.—so people can do the value-added work they love.
Our team learned so much during the conference, and everyone is already looking forward to next year. It’s inspiring to see so many technological advancements in the HR sector that streamlines processes and significantly boost employee experience.