Countdown to the 2013 HR Technology Conference

Gary Bragar, HRO Research Director, NelsonHall

This year’s HR Technology Conference, less than 10 weeks away, will be back in Las Vegas October 7-9 (please note onsite rooms are going fast, I had to stay at alternate hotels the past two years!).

With 6,000 people from 28 countries attending last year, I continue to find it an invaluable investment of my time to:

• Attend presentations
• View technology exhibits
• Network with peers
• Meet individually with companies that I do business with and others I want to learn more about.

Presentations: Session topics include:

• Strategic View
• Talent Management
• Social in the Enterprise
• Workforce Analytics and Planning
• HCM and Workforce Management
• Recruiting
• Service Delivery
• Expert Discussions & HR Tech Talks.

Be sure to check out the agenda at: http://www.hrtechconference.com/agenda.html

Highlights of just a few of the many presentations include:

• High-Tech/High-Touch RPO: What the Doctor Ordered for Boehringer Ingelheim – presented by Corry Ioli, Executive Director, Talent Management & Acquisition, Boehringer Ingelheim and Sue Marks, CEO, Pinstripe
• Goldman Sachs Buys RPO Eyes (and Hands) for a Quarter Million Resumes! – presented by Tom Osmond, Global Head of Talent/HCM Solutions, Goldman, Sachs & Co and Regina Lee, Division President, ADP
• HR Tech Talks, presenters: I Come From the Water: Evolution of the Modern Manager, Kris Dunn, CHRO, Kineti; Clowns, Sharks, Anemone and HR – What Do They All Have in Common? Mary Sue Rogers, Global Managing Director, Talent 2
• How Mobile, Social and Gamification Tools are Improving Employee Health – presented by Barry Hall, Principal and Innovation Leader, Talent & HR Solutions, Buck Consultants and Scot Marcotte, Managing Director, Talent & HR Solutions, Buck Consultants.

Whether your company has outsourced or continues to do everything internally, there are bound to be several sessions where you can learn how to improve HR in your organization and be a better business partner. When I was on the buy-side prior to joining NelsonHall, I would attend such HR conferences to:

• Learn about the broader industry
• Think about how our HR outsourcing contract compared to others
• Get ideas on improvements we could make.

Technology Exhibits: Since technology is changing so rapidly, it is often difficult to keep up with new applications that are available. The conference is a great way to get exposed to a broad-range of recent innovations. You can stop by any booth and see a demo. There is no pressure and vendors are excited about their new products and services and are happy to show you more.

So here is your chance to make a difference at your organization; you might stumble onto a better, more user-friendly technology for example. Even if you are not the decision-maker, you can always tell your organization about it when you return and request a customized demo. Alternatively, if you are already outsourcing, you might see something that you don’t have and can bring it to your provider’s attention.

Network: The conference provides an opportunity to expand your network with others, including HR practitioners, buyers, providers and analysts, etc. In addition to the daytime events, there are evening socials too. HR deserves to have fun!

As a reader of my blog you are entitled to a discount. Just use the Promo Code HRO13 (all caps) when you register online at: http://www.HRTechConference.com/register.html to get $500 off the rack rate of $1,895. The discount does not expire until the conference ends on October 9, 2013.

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The Fertile Ground of HRO Innovation

Kelly Services’ recent announcement of its new Office of Innovation was fascinating as the company has long been a leader and innovator in the staffing services field. Go global, check. Provide MSP, check. Add RPO, check. Add consulting, check. Launch mobile access applications, check. Supply chain management, check. Its success shows in the results, with 2011 revenues totaling $5.6 billion, a 12% increase over 2010.

To find out more, I had a lively discussion with Kelly Services’ Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Rolf Kleiner. Basically, Kelly Services has already done so much that it is focusing on new solutions and capabilities to remain ahead of the competition and keep up with its many Fortune 500 clients.

According to Kleiner, the company has always done well with the “little I” incremental innovations that improve and enhance its current services and capabilities. Kelly Services is also looking for new “big I” innovations, those that can move the needle on results and set precedents within the company and in the marketplace. It was felt that by adding more visibility and vetting larger scale opportunities, the Office of Innovation will be able to identify, develop, and bring new innovations to market faster.

Kleiner plans to set up a “pull” process for ideas that includes many stakeholder groups including employees, clients, suppliers, and other industry experts. He likened the process to farming. It will take working with the communities of interest on an on-going collaborative basis to develop a harvest of ideas.

There were several items I found especially interesting. One is using this effort as an opportunity for talent management. Some proof of concept and development projects will be managed by the Office of Innovation and will provide highly visible opportunities for those assigned. When projects are managed outside of the normal lines of business, integration and communications will be maintained which brings reality to planning and brings market needs and innovation participation deep into the infrastructure and culture of Kelly Services.

Also, there is a very crisp vision for the strategic initiative and clear criteria for the kind of innovation opportunities that are being sought. There is solid alignment with the goals of the company, scale for sizing market opportunities, and an openness to solutions that could include internal developments, partnerships, supplier networks, etc.

Finally, the selection of Kleiner as head of the Office of Innovation is a strong indication of Kelly Services’ seriousness with this endeavor. He reports directly to the CEO and his previous assignment was as Senior Vice President and General Manager for the KellyOCG group, which provides consulting and outsourcing services. The pulse of the market, the voice of the customer, and the operational beat of the business are all fresh and fertile ground for Kleiner’s new challenge.

Our NelsonHall HRO team always advises clients to look for service providers that can meet today’s needs as well as offer partnership for meeting the needs of tomorrow. How is your HRO vendor focusing on the future?

Linda Merritt, Research Analyst, HRO, NelsonHall

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Providing Value Through HRO Research

HRO service providers can derive significant value from producing and sharing research information. Vendors can show thought leadership, establish service and subject matter creditability, and reinforce brand differentiation, even as they gain a source of marketing materials and a lead-in to client discussions, as well as some free public relations coverage.

Much HRO research is designed to directly reinforce the need for the services and consulting offered by the service provider. A recent article by Ceridian discusses whether U.S. employers will drop employee health care plans when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) coverage requirements become effective in 2013. After providing some PPACA information, Ceridian moves to support services it offers, specifically consumer driven-health plans and health saving accounts.

When providers are not conducting primary research, it is important to reference other reputable resources. In this case, Ceridian quotes America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), which recently reported that enrollment in Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) had reached 11.4m people in January 2011, a more than 14% increase over 2010. According to the AHIP, HSA enrollments have nearly doubled in the last three years and large group coverage was up 26% last year. Ceridian also quoted its executives, one of its own statistics, and ended with links to its web pages on CDHCs.

This is a solid, but perhaps overly focused on service offerings and marketing, communication designed to help it further tap a market where only 11m of a potential 160m are currently enrolled in an HSA.

A second example comes from a Mercer press release about the impact of automatic enrollment on defined contribution savings rates. It also directly supports Mercer services and it additionally offers information that is a bit more consultative.

Mercer used its own database of its 1.2m DC plan participants to show the positive impact of automatic enrollment and automatic increases on contribution rates. Participants who were automatically enrolled in their plan and use the automatic contribution increase have a 25% higher contribution rate (4.4%) than those who do not use the feature (3.5%).  Even better savings rate results come from self-enrolled participants (7.4%), and those who do self-directed increases, had the highest rate of all (8.5%). Company executives are used to further the messaging by commenting that those who self-enroll and set their own contribution rate contribute nearly two and half times more than those who are automatically enrolled.

With a bit more subtle communication, Mercer is establishing that it is a major player in DC by sharing information on what its 1.2m participants are actually doing that can help employers make policy decisions, support additional consulting, and reinforce the need to keep up proactive employee communications programs (which is a brand differentiator for Mercer) to support maximum effectiveness of the offered benefits of a DC plan.

Do you look at your vendor as a trusted and value-added source of information?

Linda Merritt, Research Analyst, HRO, NelsonHall