Heath Brownsworth

As a record 4000+ attendees descended upon the Las Vegas desert this week from all around the world to attend the 14th rendition of the HR Technology Conference & Expo, there were rain clouds in the sky and for attendees and vendors alike a perfect storm consisting of social media, mobile and ‘the cloud’ swirled throughout the conference floor. Although the thunderstorms outside put on a lightening show and brought much needed rain to the scorched valley, they didn’t dampen any spirits inside or even interrupt the hundreds of conversations taking place about these significant technology trends shaping HR.

The conversations ranged from tips on the latest Facebook changes to intensely debated positions on how social media, mobile and cloud play a role in the future of HR. As you can imagine, the sentiment fell across the spectrum from no role at all to claiming that all three are domains that should be completely owned by the HR function. Below are a few observations on each:

Social Media

On the lips of almost every attendee, social media is the one technology heavily utilized personally that everyone is struggling to incorporate into HR. While marketing makes use of social media as another channel to build and manage brand, HR is less certain of where the boundaries are drawn. The most interesting use case demonstrated at the HR Technology Conference was by Marriott who commissioned Evviva to build a Facebook game called My Marriott Hotel. The purpose of the game is to simulate the experience of running a hotel and serve as recruiting tool for the hotel chain.

Mobile

While the use cases for mobile are much clearer, including self service, recruiting, interviewing, on boarding, learning, compliance and analytics, the area of debate in mobile is centered on the question of native applications (applications written in the language of the mobile device) vs. HTML5 applications (an approach that offers multiple device support with a single application). Most vendors were in favor of native applications while attendees favored HTML5. Vendors cited the richness of native applications leading to better adoption as the reason for there choice, where as attendees pointed to concerns over device security as the basis for their support of HTML5. While the technology is still an open question, the trend to offer more and more HR functionality on mobile devices is not.

Cloud

Virtually all vendors present had cloud and/or SaaS based offerings. Cloud and SaaS are continuing to make significant inroads into Human Resources arena, and there is no sign of this trend reversing. What may be of interest though is the benefit that most attendees reported from their cloud/SaaS solutions. Agility, not cost, was cited as the most realized benefit. While the topic of security was still present in many cloud discussions, it did not dominate completely. Attendees were also discussing the importance of end-to-end processes in the cloud and in conjunction, integration.

Final Thoughts

The above observations are by no means scientific and without a doubt it is easy to get carried away, after all, whether stated or implied, the intent of an event such as the HR Technology Conference and Expo is to come, collaborate and dream what might be possible. However, Jason Averbook of Knowledge Infusion offered all attendees sound advice during the Great Technology Debate that merits repeating. It is not about the technology, it is about the outcome. Whether social, mobile or cloud, these technologies are means to an end, not the end. Ensue that you have a clear vision for the desired outcome, then select an appropriate technology to achieve that outcome.

It was truly an honor to attend this event and interact with so many high caliber professionals. Thank you to all not only for your commitment to, and passion for, the Human Resource discipline, but also for so graciously, and openly, sharing your thoughts and ideas. Collaboration truly is the path to the future.

Heath-

(Cross-posted @ Skywriting)