What an HR professional learned about HR Tech at an HR Conference ( Or....... how many HR’s can you get in one sentence)

I’ve just spent the last 2 weeks at 2 major HR conferences, Unleash HR in Paris and Gartner ReImagine HR in Orlando.  In my nearly 15 years in HR, this takes my total conference attendance to…..2! I love talking about all things “People and HR” but conferences have never grabbed my attention, so I’ve never prioritised them, but on these occasions I was asked to go and be on the Blink stand and talk about all things Blink. On a personal note, I’m an extroverted introvert, so ask me to speak to a crowd and I’m in my element, but ask me to speak to a stranger 1-1 and it’s my idea of hell! I’ve had somewhere in the region of 500 1-1 conversations during the last 2 weeks and I have the utmost respect for Sales and Business Development professionals who do this every day, but it’s not for me!! Having done it twice now, it was one of the best learning experiences of my career in HR tech so far and I wanted to share what I learnt:

1: The HR professionals I met want to do the best for their people – it sounds basic but HR leaders who give their time to attend these conferences are looking to buy tech or find solutions to make their peoples lives easier – this is great to see. 2: The most forward thinking HR Professionals are looking for the technology they need to support their internal pain points…but they have to fight to get the budget to get it… the days of HR throwing a pizza party to get people to fill in the staff engagement survey are long gone, Engagement and connection is now about meeting the employee where they are every day, and technology is a key part of that.  The HR Leaders I met over the last few weeks weren’t looking for nice to have software, they were looking to solve big organisational issues, but that needs to be translated into a business case, clear return on investment etc which can often be hard to do.

…..and finally, and most importantly,

3: Great HR Leaders know what is going on in their organisation

This sounds simple, but it’s my biggest learning from the last few weeks – the really great HR leaders I spoke with knew within 30 seconds whether Blink was or wasn’t for them, because they knew what was going on in their teams. They knew who was engaged and who wasn’t or who was leaving and who wasn’t. The stereotype of HR as administrators was not present in the people I met, these were true leaders with a strategic understanding of their company’s and more importantly, their people.

So that’s what I learned! If  I met you, thanks for your contribution to this ,  if I didn’t and you are an HR leader, keep going! I know it can be hard to secure tech investment or convince your business what the ROI will be, but it’s possible and I see our teams at Blink working with HR leaders on a daily basis to build these business cases and help drive digital transformation on a massive scale.