I'm going to date myself here. My first encounter with Mike Ettling, CEO of Unit4, was over 10 years ago. Technology editor for HRO Today at the time, I was relatively wet behind the ears, as the saying goes, when it comes to human capital management and the technology for it. I attended a briefing for analysts and the industry press with Mike, CEO at the time of what was then NorthgateArinso. The gathering was in real life, a.k.a. IRL (a term that had not even emerged yet).

"Well, Brent, that goes back some time," Mike said when I brought it up to open the discussion on this episode of the #HRTechChat video podcast. Much has happened since 2011. NGA became NGA Human Resources and, eventually, a part of Alight, and Mike went on to even greater things. Possibly most notable among his past roles is that of CEO for SAP SuccessFactors, a post he held from 2014 to 2018.

To say Mike loves thinking about HCM is evident. He sees how it all blends, and he takes it a step further. "Unit4 focuses on ERP for people-centric businesses," he says, and his philosophy there is, in fact, to treat HCM and Unit4's software for enterprise resource planning and financial planning and analysis (FP&A) as being inextricably linked and having one holistic application for business.

Mike's perspective here is refreshing. The idea to integrate these activities closely has been forming bit by bit for years, and, from a messaging standpoint and more, the approach has been just screaming for a go-to-market vehicle. The benefits afforded to an organization that treats these activities as linked are many and go beyond potentially sizable newfound efficiencies. The company that can give its financial people visibility into the organization's people overall, its workforce, will cultivate a greater appreciation among the former for the upside of a positive employee experience.

Perhaps it is no accident, then, that one of Mike's first executive decisions, when he took the role to lead Unit4, was to rename the human resources department as People Success, a term that captures the essence and spirit of recently gathering trends in HCM and business leadership overall: the tenet that organizations' profitability and overall perpetuity hinges on their embrace of a new guiding ethos, one that asserts the success of the company's people ultimately translates to success, period.

Not for naught, the concept is baked into Unit4's tagline, too: "in business for people," which is what initially drew Mike to Unit4, he says. The saying implicitly intersects with diversity, equity and inclusion, another topic we explored during the podcast. Mike says that he is grateful for his upbringing in South Africa, as it instilled in him what he sees as a second nature for DE&I. "You cannot solve DE&I with a process," he says. "You can solve it with empathy and the right leaders in an organization."

It was a wide-ranging conversation. Just before recording began, Mike and I joked that our discussion would probably dip into speculation over artificial intelligence at some point (as does most coffee talk in HCM these days, it seems). Amazingly, it did not, but he says he's interested in returning to #HRTechChat someday to discuss AI specifically. That would be yet another fantastic discussion.

March 8th marks International Women’s Day and a special opportunity for organizations to celebrate the contributions of their female employees. This is an especially important day to me because it is about empowering women in the workplace. So this year on International Women’s Day, let’s take some time to recognize our hardworking women and find new ways to challenge the status quo.

Celebrating with me today is Maji Tharpe from University of Illinois’ Discovery Partners Institute, and she is doing everything she can to diversify the tech ecosystem in the state of Illinois by disrupting the internship model. We met at the virtual HR Tech Conference, and instantly hit it off! We both operate in the cross section of HR Tech, succession planning, upskilling and pipeline diversity. We are both committed to challenging the status quo to create a better workplace for our daughters.

“It is important that we address these issues systemically and conscientiously so that we can actually make a difference,” said Maji, “because if we just say we want to do good, that's not solving anything, we've got to create solutions. We have got to push ourselves to the point of being uncomfortable if we are going to make a difference that is actually going to affect and make our system more equitable across the board.”

International Women's Day is just a great opportunity to put this message out there with a solution of what can be done.

Reach out to Maji at [email protected] to learn more.

#HRTechChat: Jamie Aitken, Vice President of HR Transformation at Betterworks by 3Sixty Insights

#HRTechChat with James Brogan CEO and Co-Founder of PepTalk by 3Sixty Insights

#HRTechChat: Geoff Webb, Vice President of Solutions, Product, and Marketing Strategy at isolved by 3Sixty Insights

#HRTechChat: Organizational Psychologist Caitlin Collins, Program Strategy Director at Betterworks by 3Sixty Insights

This edition of #HRTechChat features Alex Furman, founder and CEO of Performica and 3Sixty Insight's Jennifer Dole. In this episode we share why founder’s story matter. Prospective customers want to understand the story behind a company’s founding- why it exists, what inspired its leaders, and how it will make their lives better. Founders’ stories can offer inspiration, give them insight into the values at play in the organization they're thinking of using, and even persuade them that they have made the right decision when considering an investment with a particular company. In this blog post we explore why Alex's stories should matter when you're investing in technology. There was so much to unpack in a short time during the recording, take a listen!

My guest for this episode of #HRTechChat was Steve Goldberg, well-known HR industry analyst, advisor and thought leader. Steve and I were having so many interesting conversations of late, that we decided we'd better lay one of these tracks down on vinyl, so to speak. Steve shared a few ideas around the theme of "opportunities where HR technology can make a difference today and over the next several years," and here we are....

True to form, Steve got me to thinking about something in a way I'd never considered. It's loosely related to a concept I encountered many years ago. The idea "is really the byproduct of mashing together the vendor perspective and the customer perspective," Steve said. From vendors, there's a standardization of functionality for this or that need and area of practice in human capital management. And, at the employers that use this software, there's a fit for this standardization, but also a uniqueness that standardized solutions won't address. And, Steve asks, "I'm now thinking, can machine learning help? How do you bridge that gap with machine learning?"

That is a fascinating possibility. Another area of interest in HCM today "is what I call line manager enablement," Steve said. "It's a phrase that I started using when I was at PeopleSoft. Even fast forward to today. It's not getting anything close to the attention that I think it needs."

His point is sage. Essential stakeholders when it comes to HCM technology, line managers need attention. And what's intriguing is that the dam seems to be breaking, and vendors of technology for HCM are beginning to gear their solutions for the line manager — a welcome development.

"The HR department typically only comprises about one percent of the organization," Steve said. "How can HR possibly scale and have a finger on the pulse of the needs, interests, goals, potential issues, and challenges of every employee in an organization, every worker? So line managers have to be viewed as critical in listening to employees' needs, interests, and goals and in balancing these with the needs, interests, and goals of the enterprise."

Our chat covered a country mile's worth of ground. We discussed Steve's three P's for artificial intelligence. We threw a bone to Generation X and Baby Boomers by talking about the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island as a parable for the pitfalls in crisis communication at the intersection of internal and external brand (link included for the edification of Millennials and Generation Y). Even the topic of mergers and acquisitions came up, including the cruciality of managing cultural friction successfully during these events. This conversation was truly wide-ranging.

A friend of mine and member of our Global Executive Advisory Council, Steve is always a deep fount of knowledge and wisdom on all things HCM. Much of it comes from his decades in the business as a practitioner in HR, an HCM technology vendor executive, and an industry analyst and consultant. (He recently became a board advisor for Azilen Technologies, for example.) Anyone who likes to think deeply on technology, leadership and more in HCM will want to give this episode a view.

Anita Lettink was the guest for this episode of #HRTechChat. Many viewers of this video podcast may know Anita from her nearly 20 years in positions of increasing seniority at NGA Human Resources (acquired in 2019 by Alight). Following nearly three years as a senior vice president there, she finally left NGAHR in mid-2020 to found HR Tech Radar and write and publish her book, "How to Select Your Next Payroll: The Ultimate Guide."

Anita is a payroll expert by any calculus, and it was a real pleasure to reconnect and discuss the subject matter of her book in detail. Having fallen out of touch in recent years, Anita and I actually go way back, originally meeting when she was about midway through her tour of duty at NGAHR. This was back when NGAHR was known as NorthgateArinso, and the chief executive was Mike Ettling (who's now CEO of Unit4). As for little ol' me, I was technology editor for HRO Today. My, how time flies....

Much as nobody has ever complimented or thanked the power company for the electricity working, no employee (or company executive, for that matter) has ever spoken up to give the payroll department a thumbs up for getting payroll right again. When the power goes out or payroll goes wrong, however, watch the emails, text messages and phone calls roll in.

"It is the expectation of employees that payroll will be correct," Anita said during the episode. "You cannot overperform payroll. But the moment it is wrong, even for a small group of people, I'd say all hell breaks loose. And all the trust you've built, the reputation that you had, is gone overnight."

Payroll is one of those things employees are entitled to, no questions asked. They know this to the point that they don't even think about it, when payroll is right. There's an unspoken understanding. Get payroll wrong, however, and the employer brand suffers. This is why payroll absolutely must be correct. When it is, employee sentiment remains unaffected; when it isn't, employee sentiment tanks.

Having been a close observer and actor in the payroll selection process for so long, Anita has — interestingly — identified what she believes to be a specific stage in the process that, left unaddressed, can botch or derail the implementation and subsequent deployment of a payroll solution. What is this stage in the process? Consider viewing this episode of the podcast, where we discuss the answer. Payroll is among my very favorite topics, and Anita brought deep insight to the conversation.

Some restructuring efforts have become notorious for favoring cost cutting over the employees who drove their success in the first place. We must develop better frameworks that value employees and facilitate learning from our past experiences to ensure restructuring is handled more equitably going forward.  

Joining me on this video podcast of #HRTechChat is Steve Hunt, chief expert, technology and work at SAP and author of best selling book “Talent Tectonics.” In this episode we share an outline of an upcoming research paper we are collaborating on about the “New Era of Restructuring: How Companies are Leveraging Innovations in Work Technology to Manage Restructuring Differently.”

There was so much to unpack in a short time during the recording.  We offer one definition of restructuring, three different reasons for restructuring, and seven different technology categories for managing restructuring differently.  One of my favorite parts of the video podcast, besides singing ‘The Twelve Days of Restructuring’, is when Steve calls it “almost crazy” to do restructuring without an organizational network analysis tool.  

“One of the most underutilized tools in the field of HR and restructuring … is organizational network analysis tools,” says Steve. “When you eliminate people based on organizational charts or spreadsheets, you have no idea what relationships are being destroyed or severely damaged.  Some of the most critical people in the company are not necessarily the ones who have highly visible roles.  Just because you know where someone sits does not mean you know the impact they have on people in other parts of the organization.  It’s almost crazy to do restructuring without [the organizational network analysis tools].”

Our concluding comments are around embracing restructuring with the employee experience in mind.  Steve shares “it is not putting employee needs above company needs, but at the same level.”