UNLEASH America: Make your HR investment go further

HR technology has seen a boom in recent years. As people have begun to adjust to working in dispersed locations communication, collaboration, and engagement tools have become must-haves. 

This doesn’t look set to change, in Ernst & Young’s 2022 Digital Investment Index it was found that nearly three-quarters of executives (72%) claim they must radically transform their operations during the next two years to compete effectively in their industry.

However, no one wants to waste money. Fortunately to guide you through investment in HR functions UNLEASH America has the voices of Raju Vijay, vice president of global people services at Nissan, Michael Oldham, senior director of global business services at McDonald’s, and Jason Averbook, CEO and co-founder of Leapgen.

Measuring investments

When it comes to implementing a tool or platform, Oldham offers his mindset: “It’s really saying, ‘hey we want to get proactive about delivering a great experience for employees.’“ 

Oldham adds: “No matter if you’re in a restaurant or a corporate staff member that we’ve been working with, it’s this whole concept that we don’t just focus on go live but instead ‘go begin’.“ 

By this Oldham means that platforms are not just launched and then left, instead they are integrated into workflows.

Integrating tools can be done through a single hub for employees to access. However, businesses still need to measure the success of their implementations.

Prior to UNLEASH America, Vijay told UNLEASH about the importance of benchmarking: “We [Nissan] look at how work is typically tiered within an organization, putting a three-tier definition in place – a strategic body of work that happens close to the business, a tactical body of work that is an execution of strategy set with the business, and a transaction definition of making sure everything is connected running the business as usual.”

On this note, Averbook offered insight at the show into making sure that a project is a right move for the business noting you need to measure “how is the experience and how does it make somebody’s life better or easier?

“We use this term, SOS. It means shiny objects syndrome and how do you make sure that you’ve got a solid foundation before you put a shiny object on top of it?” 

With all this in mind, it is essential to understand where your business is and where you want to go before investing in the latest tool.

If you want more from UNLEASH America but can’t make it to Vegas, check out our website and our social media channels