There was a definite hum of HR excitement in Birmingham on Tuesday and Wednesday this week as the #HRDSummitUK was held at the International Convention Centre. A few intrepid members of the Veran team ventured up with the aim of deepening their understanding of HR hot topics and meeting some of the 1500 delegates to discuss life on the front line. Here’s the wrap up and the top 3 questions we were asked.
The Conscious Organisation
The theme this year was the Conscious Organisation and with over 100 speakers discussing a variety of content including leadership, employee experience, talent, strategy and organisational development, we were not disappointed in the opportunities provided to learn alongside engaging with HR professionals from a variety of industries.
The conference kicked off with a great keynote speech by Dr Rita McGrath discussing the idea of a new organisational model for fast moving contexts. There were two key takeaways from Rita’s discussion; firstly, organisations being aware of and identifying those crucial moments in their organisational cycle known as Strategic Inflection Points. This enables a business to react to change when they still have the capability to do so before losing their competitive advantage. The second point being the continuing movement of the leadership approach towards context and away from control. Overall, her message was clear, people are still an organisation’s main advantage and the value HR continues to deliver is supporting leadership in creating and promoting a culture that inspires innovation and encourages local decision making.
How do I improve my HR technology?
A third of the HR professionals who dropped by our brightly orange themed stand for a classy orange notepad and the chance to win a Fitbit, had implemented a Cloud HR system in the last 3 years but were less than satisfied with the results. The most commonly discussed reasons for this were;
The system is more clunky than it looked in the demos
Processes were never optimised and standardised
Adoption and change management started as a focus and then was forgotten
Phase X was therefore a hot topic; Veran’s service to review and optimise People, Process and Technology in order to maximise the investment you’ve already made.
Robotic Process Automation is too advanced for us – right?
Another third of the HR Directors, Learning experts and Engagement Ambassadors who came by the stand were intrigued about Automation and where we’ve seen it make a real difference to HR processes. The examples that people were most interested in were;
Mass compensation
CV screening
Pre-populated timesheets and expense claims
How do I join your HR networks?
Veran connects and supports over 16,000 HR professionals through our nationwide networks myHRcareers and Financial Services HR & Compliance.
Our seminars and networking events which tend to be in London and Manchester (but can be further afield if the demand is there!) are free to attend so sign up and join the community.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to drop by and speak to us and congratulations to the winners of our Fitbit competition. We look forward to seeing everyone next year for the 2020 HRD Summit!