As with virtually any profession, human resources departments are becoming increasingly reliant on innovative technologies to streamline workplace practices and enhance productivity. With the rise of technologies geared toward human resource development, conferences and shows that promote new technological innovations have become increasingly commonplace. HR Technology is the world’s largest and most revered HR technology conference and exposition.
“HR Technology is the world’s largest and most revered HR technology conference and exposition.”
The world’s biggest HR technology conference
Billed as the world’s biggest and best HR technology event by company organizers, this year’s annual HR Technology Conference took place at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort from Oct. 18-21, 2015. Over 8,500 people attended the event and there were exhibits from more than 300 companies, as well as 75 new product announcements, according to official reports. HR Technology explained that this year’s event would feature panels on some of the very latest HR technology trends, including social, mobile, analytics, video, SaaS and of course, the cloud. HR Technology also noted that many cutting edge developers in the field of HR technology had selected the conference to present their exciting new innovations for the first time.
And event organizers certainly delivered. A report by the Society for Human Resource Management explained that the event consisted of more than 60 different sessions, as well as two different mega-sessions, where new solutions were presented by a number of different companies. Solutions pertained to HR issues such as talent acquisition and employee engagement. The report by SHRM also outlined the possibility of a technology that could offer personalized HR solutions to human resources departments, in a similar vein to platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
This year’s event was held in Las Vegas.The importance of data in HR technology
Stephen Boese, a writer with Human Resource Executive Online, detailed some of the innovative new technologies that were presented for the first time at this year’s conference. He argued that a couple of companies stole the show in terms of exciting new technologies designed to resolve issues concerning data consolidation and data visualization. Bose noted that OrgVue, a British-based start-up, stood out as especially innovative, on account of a new technology that specializes in data visualization and transformation. The technology presented would enable HR departments to analyze organizations and the impact of change upon said organizations. As Boese explained, the technology would be especially beneficial for a human resources department attempting to deal with a large company merger or transition.
Certainly, a significant theme of the conference seemed to speak to the idea of the growing importance of data-driven technological solutions in the field of HR. Jennifer Payne, a blogger for the event, explained how she was inspired by the idea that data-driven solutions, although daunting or confusing for many HR departments, can actually be employed to create connections between previously unrelated areas of data. She listed examples of different areas of data in HR management – payroll, performance, engagement, learning management. The data connections, once synchronized and synthesized together, can paint narratives concerning the workplace that can be acted upon in a tangible way by HR departments. Furthermore, Payne explained how data can now be literally fed into machines, and HR managers can receive a comprehensive narrative back. Such technology will surely enhance the effectiveness of HR practice in the future.
It is conspicuous that the field of HR technology is expanding rapidly, and many of the solutions presented this year in Las Vegas could be utilized in workplaces across the nation in the near future.
Off the back of the success of this year’s show, the conference will return next year, this time in Chicago, between Oct. 4-7, 2016.
