NOW of Work

"My parents were born to sharecroppers in Southern Georgia. (They) would have to miss school to pick cotton during harvest season. I saw these messages of bias, racism, and oppression, even as a child...Whatever environment you're in there's a label that is either thrust upon you or that you cling to for recognition. So, I've always been intrigued by this work. When you’re imbued with empathy… when you see injustice around you, you can either be part of the solution or part of the problem. And my goal is to be part of the solution."

Marc is the SVP of Racial & Social Equity and Culture at California Life Sciences. His goal is to make the life sciences industry more diverse and equitable. He also spearheaded the first DEI program at Vail Resorts, creating an intentional cultural shift within their employee and customer experience efforts, to create a more inclusive space for their workforce and clientele.

Kate Graham joined us as our special guest co-host on this episode of our NOW Digital Meetup. Kate has an incredible track record providing clear voice and a healthy perspective on the trends, challenges, and innovations relevant to people, work, and technology. 

We loved following her work at Fosway Group and UNLEASH. Now it's time to check in on Kate's recent move back to the vendor side (what a win for Cornerstone OnDemand!). She had some really fantastic advice for both HR Tech vendors AND consumers. It has to do with transparency, being realistic, and better storytelling. Kate and I can't wait to bring this fresh conversation to the community. 

BTW, where's Jess Von Bank? She checked in from the course during our Meetup to share their progress! If you've been following us for a while, you know Jess loves to race. During this epsidoe, Jess began a 200-mile Ragnar Relay from the Canadian border (Blaine, WA), running along the glacial Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges, Deception Pass, and Puget Sound before she crossed the finish line with her team on Whidbey Island, sometime in the afternoon. Go, Jess! 

Driving transformation in any organization is a journey, even an uphill battle. Driving transformation in an industry absolutely begging for disruption is uniquely challenging. Healthcare is one of those industries -- HR is constantly challenged with talent shortages, workforce burnout, demands for improved well-being and workforce experience, lagging innovation, and evolving measures of success for consumer satisfaction and patient delivery outcomes.

Designing an effective, inspiring, caring workforce experience matters a LOT in healthcare. That's the job of Tobias Washington at CHRISTUS Health, and he shared his story and their organization's journey on this episode of the Now of Work Digital Meetup.

Tobias is the System Director of Digital Employee Experience & Digital HR Transformation at CHRISTUS Health. He is an amazing leader working in the healthcare space, that is truly transforming how HR and work is done. 

Wonder what the future of work holds? Nela Richardson, Chief Economist at ADP and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, alongside Marcus Buckingham, shared her predictions during our Digital Meetup!

In my opinion, Nela Richardson is one of the best researchers in the world on the economy, jobs, and work. If you are thinking about the workforce, job trends, HR, or HRTech, listen to this interactive chat with Jess Von Bank, Nela Richardson, and I. 

the global economy, work and labor market trends, the impact of Generative AI on the job market, and what the future holds. Nela also dives into what ADP is doing to prepare HR for the changing world of work. Understanding the Future of Work is to understand macro trends in the global economy and labor market. So far, 2023 checks the box on a lot of macro trends, including slowing global growth with advanced economies contributing the least, the return of inflation, rising wages in pockets, but a decline in productivity and a smaller labor force. 4B people now have access to the internet, or half the world population. That's four times what it used to be, illustrating a growing digital economy. 

Do you read every email you get from your employer and HR department? Imagine if you got a text notification instead at the beginning of your shift? Because they know when your shift starts and that you’re primarily mobile. Or imagine if you were a salesperson who spends most of your time in Salesforce, so that’s where personalized communications go for you! Right in the newsfeed in the system where you spend most of your time.
In other words, imagine if your employer really knew you and met you where you are? Instead of spamming the workforce with everything you might possibly need but can’t possibly read? 
Intelligent communication has the power to shape and create exceptional, frictionless Employee Experiences. This not only boosts efficiency and productivity, making it easier for employees to perform, but also demonstrates care and empathy during critical moments that matter.
Jess Von Bank and I loved chatting with Nicole Alvino, CEO of Firstup and Sabra Sciolaro, their CPO, on our Digital Meetup. Nicole and Sabra joined us in discussing: how organizations can make intelligent communication an integral part of your Employee Experience plan, their highlights from our recent webinar, and their newly launched white paper.

We welcomed Adam Binnie, Visier's Chief Product Officer, to our Digital Meetup! Visier unleashed some amazing new product announcements recently, and Jess Von Bank and I can't wait to dig in!
Team Visier is always pushing the envelope on innovation and their newly released HR Tech products illustrate that drive. They are on a mission to make an impact on AI with the launch of 'Vee,' a powerful new generative AI digital assistant, designed to make people analytics accessible to everyone. It allows users of all proficiency levels to ask questions about their workforce, explore available datasets, and drive action after finding critical insights.
Adam will shares details about Visier's 'Smart Compensation' launch, another new product designed to take the complexity out of compensation planning with a simpler, data-driven approach. The new tool is designed to address challenges like pay transparency, retention, and pay conversation preparation.
We are honored to have Adam join us to share the excitement around the world of data analytics, generative AI, and HR analytics. This is one of the most important areas that HR can focus on today, and will continue to gain momentum moving forward.

Ben Brooks, Founder & CEO of PILOT Inc. joined our Jason Averbook JESS VON BANK to share the pros & cons of #remoteworking and how he continues to lead a business, connect with his team, and find #worklifebalance. Ben Brooks has been working (literally) all over the world, and today he joins us from beautiful Bozeman, Montana. He had two burning questions for Jason & Jess: is #HR really making decisions based on quantitative data, or do we rely on narrative and #storytelling? We also talked a big game around developing people, but it feels like we spend too much time on the smallest bucket of people who need it.

MEATY discussion in store -- against Ben's stunning backdrop, we have no doubt.

I welcomed Luc Hédou, CEO of Workaxle, to discuss the latest innovation in Workforce Management. Innovation in Workforce Management? It's true! A shift is happening. When it comes to improvement to Workforce Experience, Workforce Management (WFM) makes a MUCH BIGGER DENT than your Core HR. Trust me.

In fact, we’re seeing WFM shift to Phase I transformation work more and more often. We’re seeing scheduling solutions make a world of difference to productivity and retention, and we’re seeing significant experience payoffs when organizations invest in WFM. Yes, Workforce Management is time and attendance. It’s also demand forecasting, scheduling and rostering, leave and absence management, and on-demand wages. These are make-or-break moments that matter when it comes to day-to-day workforce experience. That’s why a little goes a long way when you double down on Workforce Management, and it’s also why starting here can be the trigger for changing your entire HR Tech stack.
In the Now of Work, time and talent are at a premium and waste is expensive. Leveraging the power of your WFM solution is key, especially if you want to impact Employee Experience in an measurable way. How else can organizations increase efficiency, meet customer demand with talent supply, and change the way people work?

Today my co-host, Jess Von Bank and I discussed the industry news of the week during our live, unscripted show. We will also checked in with our amazing audience and their questions about HR, HR Tech, employee experience, work-life balance, leadership, and humanizing work during our open Q&A on all things Now of Work. 
The Now of Work is a movement to better serve humanity by humanizing work. This movement represents the humanization and digital disruption of work during the most historic labor market and business cycles we’ve seen in modern times. People are calling the shots, and we’re calling them differently. 

Are you craving community and inspiration? Jess Von Bank and I talk all things HR, HR Tech, and humanizing work. We also had a little surprise in store for our listeners... On today's episode, Amanda Hahn, Chief Marketing Officer of HireVue surprised us live!

HireVue is an organization that helps global enterprises gain a competitive advantage in the modern talent marketplace with video interviewing software, conversational AI, and pre-hire assessments. Together we chat about getting the full view of PEOPLE while leveraging tools that HireVue uses to transform the way companies discover, hire, and develop talent. By combining video interviews with predictive, validated IO science and artificial intelligence (AI), HireVue augments human decision-making in the hiring process and delivers higher quality talent, faster.

Together Jess, Amanda and I discuss the utilization of talent acquisition tech platforms and how they help to better evaluate skills, capabilities, and future potential in the hiring process.