HR TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

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1 , SR. BENEFITS TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANT The 18th annual 2014 HR Technology conference brought HR leaders, IT contributors, technology vendors and industry front-runners to collaborate on the implications of using technology for workforce and talent management. More than previous years, industry speakers offered practical recommendations for organizations that are looking for the best way to partner, adopt and optimize technology to drive better business outcomes. Following are the main themes highlighted in the keynote presentations, breakout sessions, and vendor demonstrations throughout the conference. KEY INSIGHTS There s no such thing as a perfect provider or solution. Organizations should be transparent with potential partners about challenges, goals, processes and expectations during a vendor selection. Data shows the most successful organizations are adopters of integrated Workforce Management, Talent Management, and Business Intelligence solutions. Effective use of big data will be the key driver of HR and employer success.

2 TECHNOLOGY VENDOR SELECTION: When organizations are ready to buy software there typically isn t one technology solution that allows them to solve all employer problems. Vendor selection is a difficult process for everyone involved, including the technology providers. The most appropriate process is for an organization to identify problems and scenarios they are trying to solve and work with a technology provider to understand specifically how its technology can help address them. When evaluating HR technology the question to ask is not how does the platform look, it s How can the technology help contribute to the people capital of your business? VENDOR SELECTION PROCESS RECOMMENDATIONS: Inventory current internal processes and be prepared to re-engineer them. Develop a requirements list. Create a business case to justify technology costs. Have open and honest communications with vendors. This can be more impactful than an RFP process which makes it hard to collaborate about the challenges facing the specific employer. Ensure the technology provider s sales team has a full understanding of the organization s objectives and processes. Require the provider to show how its technology and services will specifically address your organization s employer challenges, not just talk about it. The culture of a service provider is an indicator of their architecture. Are they focused only on attacking competitors or are they talking about the value and roadmap of their platform? SECURITY AND PRIVACY: Determine how service providers anonymize and aggregate data. Identify how technology providers are hosting their solution. Are there audits in place? Confirm how the service provider mitigates risk during data transfer into and out of the system. Understand if the system architecture is flexible and whether configuration changes or data can be backed out if needed.

3 TECHNOLOGY USAGE/PARTNERSHIP: Issues occur and it s up to the service provider team to address them and understand how their implications affect the employer s objectives. Both partners need to take accountability for decisions and results. Employers and service providers should treat each other as partners. Most often projects fail because of unsuccessful relationships, not technology limitations. Service provider teams should be consultative with employers. They shouldn t hesitate to disagree with an employer s request or suggestion if there s a better alternative approach or preferred best practice. SAAS VS. ON-PREMISE: Saas/cloud solutions allow systems to advance at a faster pace. However, the pace of updates from SaaS solutions from a customer perspective has been too fast and users can t keep up with the changes. Current best practice for SaaS providers is to deploy 2-3 updates a year. Employers using SaaS applications will need to have a change management culture of in place to successfully absorb and take advantage of vendor updates. Employers currently using traditional on-premise solutions are hesitant to adopt HR technology that s in the cloud based on cost and data security concerns. According to Brian Sommer, CEO of TechVentive, employers should let go of that generalization: cloud services are some of the least hacked at this time. SUITE VS. BEST IN CLASS: System integration continues to be a challenge for IT and HR professionals across HR environments, despite advances in integration and API applications. As integration becomes more advanced, organizations can obtain different sets of data from multiple sources, however there are inherent challenges with this process. And employers who do this successfully are rare. If HR s goal is to support a delightful experience for employees and provide insight into business outcomes, meeting that goal requires thinking about experiences in totality and at different angles of a career at the same time. Having better insight into a complete environment will be key to organizations success. There is concern about the ability to do this with a fragmented, multiple best-in-class provider environment.

4 ACQUISITIONS: Technology acquisitions are common and a factor to consider when evaluating technology partners. Through acquisitions, vendors are buying components and value-added features which can create positive outcomes for existing clients. If technology providers are architected with inherent integration capabilities it will be easier for them to acquire technology and integrate within their solution. In two years it will be mandatory for a technology vendor to have a plan to acquire others. The ability to leverage technology already in the market will be key. - Narinder Singh, Executive at Appirio BIG DATA The most prevalent theme at the conference was how technology can make HR more data-driven with the goal to understand how talent drives financial outcomes and organization performance. Current state is a fragmented environment of employee data in disparate systems, making it difficult to get clear insight and creating a reluctance to adopt and use business intelligence tools. The predominant excuse for employer avoidance is the perception of existing bad data, which should not dissuade organizations from adopting business intelligence tools. Obtaining data alone doesn t make an organization successful. Successful employers: Understand the questions their organization wants to answer Develop a hypothesis with respect to those questions Test that hypothesis with analytical tools Tell a clear story derived from data that drives business decisions Panel experts outlined three levels of sophistication to the usage of analytics: 1. Descriptive about a current state 2. Predictive predictions aren t going to always be right, but an inaccurate prediction is better than no prediction at all 3. Prescriptive data that confirms actions that should be taken. For the most part employers have yet to mature to this level.

5 Business intelligence example: Does your organization have insights that can predict the success of candidate based on previous behavior and can your organization defend that data? MOBILE: Mobile-enhanced processes will nearly double in HR technology that includes mobile accessibility and social collaboration are increasingly becoming adopted by users. Focus has been traditionally on millennials use of mobile apps, however the fastest growing demographic on Google+ is and on Twitter. HR will need to embrace and leverage associated opportunities as employees of all ages drive the use of technology in the workplace. TRENDS IN MOBILE USE 2 61% use mobile devices at work 86% use mobile to look for job 1 in 5 searches start on a mobile device Mobile Responsive Design: Technology providers who embed mobile-enabled processes in their webbased solutions are currently using responsive web design. Responsive design allows web-based content to dynamically adapt to different screen sizes for all devices by resizing and reformatting its fundamental parts. This doesn t require users to install and use a separate app.

6 WHAT MAKES TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED ORGANIZATIONS SUCCESSFUL? Top adopters of integrated Workforce Management, Talent Management, and Business Intelligence solutions have higher HR, talent, and business results than those with lower adoption levels according to the Sierra-Cedar 17th annual edition HR Systems Survey which benchmarks HR technology adoption and the value achieved from their use. Based on the data collected, the survey recommends the following in 2015: Focus on process standardization and effectiveness. Create and consistently update your HR Systems Strategy. Adopt and integrate Workforce Management, Talent Management, and Business Intelligence Applications. Reduce customizations. Upgrade to current software releases if on older versions. Use enterprise Business Intelligence solutions. Adopt Social-enabled processes. Adopt Mobile-enabled processes. 31% of organizations plan to change their Integrated Talent Management (ITM) solutions in the next 12 months 3.

7 WHAT S AHEAD: Disruptive technology Technology users will continue to adopt new, disruptive applications. Outcomes - Technology users seek outcomes not products. Technology providers will focus on customer experience. Personalization - employees want to create their own experiences. Data users transition from gut to data driven decisions. Every digital input has relevant insight. Partnerships new technology collaborations will co-create and co-innovate. We ll provide more information about these topics in 2015.In the meantime, if we can assist you with your benefits technology strategy and outsource needs, please contact us. BIO Sarah is EPIC s Senior Benefits Technology Consultant. Sarah leads the Benefits Technology advisory and support services team, helping clients to deliver more efficient and effective online benefits administration systems and processes. Sarah has over 10 years of experience in Benefits Technology with prior positions at BeneTrac and ADP. ABOUT EPIC Headquartered in San Francisco, EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants has nationwide presence with a depth of industry expertise across key lines of insurance, including commercial property and casualty, employee benefits, unique specialty program insurance, and private client services. Since its founding in 2007, EPIC has grown revenue from $5 million to $160 million through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions, and remains a fixture on the insurance industry s Best Places to Work lists. Its strategic partners include private equity firms The Carlyle Group and Stone Point Capital. To learn more, visit epicbrokers.com. Footnotes: 1 According to CEB Help Desk Breakthrough Performance in New Work Environment, Executive Guidance for CEB Help Desk Breakthrough Performance in New Work Environment, Executive Guidance for Sierra-Cedar HR Systems Survey