Rethinking HR in the Age of Multigenerational Workplaces: 2024 HR Tech Series - Part 3

Pete Tiliakos (00:00)

Am I competing? Am I hiring the right skills? Am I doing the right things for the market I'm trying to engage or the goals that I have. So, I think the idea of big data is everybody can do big data now, right? And tech is really the gateway to that cloud and all the extensibility and of course, AI and the things coming in to take that data and activate it.

Announcer (00:24)

Welcome to Paychex THRIVE, a Business Podcast where you'll hear timely insights to help you navigate marketplace dynamics and propel your business forward. Here's your host, Gene Marks. 

Gene Marks (00:39)

Hey, everyone, and welcome to the third installment of our captivating four-part series on Paychex at HR Tech 2024. I'm Gene Marks, and I'm thrilled to bring you an interview directly from the heart of the conference with the help of our guest host, Rob Parsons from Paychex. If you haven't listened to the first two episodes of this special series, you'll definitely want to check them out. Now, in this week's episode, Rob sits down with Pete Tiliakos from GXT Advisors, and they discuss the transformative trends in HR technology and the role it plays in the evolving, multigenerational workplace. You'll also hear about how companies can best integrate HR technology to transform into truly remarkable places where employees are, well, they're eager to contribute. So, with that, everyone, let's dive in. 

Rob Parsons (01:26)

Hi, everyone. I'm Rob Parsons. Welcome to the Paychex THRIVE Podcast, live from the show floor of HR Tech 2024. Today I'm speaking with Pete Tiliakos, founder of GXT Advisors and a respected principal analyst with over 30 years of experience in payroll, employer of record services, payments, and HCM technology. He's also the co-creator and co-host of the HR and the Payroll 2.0 Podcast and host of The Source by Daily Pay Podcast. Pete's insights are highly sought after, making them a regular contributor to industry, publications and events. Pete, thank you so much for joining me today. 

Pete Tiliakos (02:07)

Thank you for having me, man. I'm excited. The buzz here is it gives you goosebumps, you know? So, love it. 

Rob Parsons (02:12)

It's been a great show so far. A lot more energy, actually, than I'm used to in past years. What have you seen so far? What are the trends you're seeing and what's really popping out for you? 

Pete Tiliakos (02:21)

Yeah, well, you know, I think there's a lot of curiosity, right? We walk around, you talk to people. Everyone's sort of curious, like what we know, what's, what can we do with these things, right? How can we you know, solve the challenges that we have. A lot of cautious optimism for AI, a lot of angst over talent, a lot of craving for data. And I think ultimately, more options to solve those problems than ever, which I think is, as a former practitioner, like I was saying on stage a little while ago, I was like, if I would have had some of these things as a payroll leader and an HR leader in my day, you know, dating myself a little bit, I mean, I could have taken over the world, right? So, yeah, I love it. I just love the empowerment for the employee, for the business, for the, for the workforce. And, yeah, it's awesome, awesome stuff. 

Rob Parsons (03:03)

I think a lot of the energy, too, is around the evolving workforce, the evolving needs. It's driving a lot of change. It's not all just solutions looking for a problem. There's some real challenges with millennials, Gen Z, call it even the five/six generation workforce that's going on. What are you seeing there in terms of the workforce and how that's pushing technology today? 

Pete Tiliakos (03:25)

Yeah, well, look, I think there's, as you point out, right, we've got five or, yeah, six, maybe generations in the workforce, right? We're all coming to work for some different reason. I like to joke that my daughter, she's a millennial, I'm older than I look. She... I joke that she comes to work to give her dog a better life, right? I mean, but in seriousness, like, we all have that lens, and I think that that lens comes with goals and aspirations. That lens comes with expectations for what we, you know, we expect. I have a 19-year-old son, and I was telling someone, I was like, if you don't have a mobile app, I don't know that you exist to him, right? So, they're bringing their lens to work of what is important to them and what their experience is. And I think they're expecting that to be similar in the workplace, right? They want to be able to achieve their goals. They want to be able to have meaningful work. And technology, I think, is enabling employers to do a better job of all of those things and really create flexibility enablers to allow employees to shape that experience that drives those goals and drives that experience they're looking for, for whatever that reason is that they're coming. So, yeah, that'd be my response to that one. 

Rob Parsons (04:31)

You know, in line with that, there's a saying now, work your wage. People are talking about compensation. The younger generations are looking at differently than I certainly ever did. I assume you were in the same boat, too. How are leaders, how are businesses matching that? We also know people are moving to get that pay bump because companies aren't giving it to them if they stay there. What are your thoughts on how compensation strategies are changing and how does technology help with that? 

Pete Tiliakos (04:59)

Yeah, well, I think that what I'm finding, and I'm exploring a lot of this in my research with payroll is, I think, more and more, it's less about the compensation and more about the pay experience. And that pay experience is greater than payroll and payday. It's greater than just compensation. But that's a big piece, comp and rewards, but also the transparency of that, the inclusivity, the equity, the ability to help employees with those financial goals and those aspirations that they have and helping them shape that experience with payroll, with compensation, with the modalities of pay, or whatever it takes to make that unique. To me, I think that's what employers are really looking to do, and I think technology is offering that right. Like you talk about the ability to know whether you're paying the right thing in the market or the space that you're in. That's going to come from insights and data. It's not going to come from guessing or you don't have time to go out and survey the market anymore. You've got to move very agilely. At the same time, the tech is helping the employee, right. Make better decisions about their pay, understand their pay, get access to the information to help them achieve their goals and create opportunities to shape it to their experience. So, for example, maybe I want direct deposit, maybe I want on demand, maybe I want even crypto. We're starting to hear like, hey, I want to be paid in Bitcoin, right? That's a whole other thing. So all of those, you know, all of that is being powered by technology. And I think what you're seeing is that on the employee side, it's about that flexibility to create that customized experience, the flexibility enablers that are going to give me that autonomy. And then, of course, for the employer, it's having those tools in place to compete for those talent, but then also have the data and insights to stay current, peek around the next corner, and be ahead of the next challenge. 

Rob Parsons (06:48)

I'd love that you brought up data and insights. We were talking earlier about SMBs don't have the access that maybe an enterprise has to actually benchmark and understand what's going on in the marketplace. What are you seeing out here in the world of tech to help SMBs and then companies at large really get a better handle on where they should be at? 

Pete Tiliakos (07:11)

I think the misunderstanding there is that, well, I'm not big enough to do big data. I don't have big data. And that's true. You don't have these deep pools to understand, right? Work with. So. But the reality of it is things like Paychex Flex, right? Amazing. We were talking before a solution that really punches above its weight when you think about the maturity and capability from an HCM perspective for that small market buyer, that small business, and by the way, Paychex serves millions of employees, millions of, or thousands, I guess, tens of thousands of customers. That data and now that insights and that Paychex world is big data, anonymized, of course, but it's benchmarkable data that allows me as a small business to go, hey, am I paying the right thing? Am I competing? Am I hiring the right skills? Am I doing the right things for the market I'm trying to engage or the goals that I have. So, I think the idea of big data is everybody can do big data now, and tech is really the gateway to that cloud and all the extensibility and of course, AI and the things coming in to take that data and activate it. So I love it. I think it's incredible, especially for the, you know, not just the, not just the business, right. And not even just the client, but that frontline leader who's out there doing a lot more of the HR than ever, right? They're not just running their skill or their thing, that they're good at their operation. They've got to really be the empowerment and the engagement and the coaching and have the pulse on the workforce. And so, I love that the data can help them, augment them in that way. 

Rob Parsons (08:36)

That's really interesting, the idea of pushing down, and maybe you're also helping me. You know, I always wanted to know, payroll and HR professionals, it's a new skill set. And how much of that skill set is democratizing some of what's going on? But tell me a little bit about what's changed since you were practicing and really what people should be focusing on now if they really want to be better at that profession. 

Pete Tiliakos (09:01)

Yeah, well, look, I think at has largely always had some tremendous talent in the space, and we're losing them, by the way. HR and payroll is not immune to the talent loss and the gaps that we have. And so. But they are the world's most essential workers. Right? They're keeping us paid, they're keeping the companies compliant. They're giving us, you know, excellent, you know, engaging workplaces to come to but I think that in the past, they've been largely looked at as a cost center. And I think what we're finding is that employers are waking up and realizing that they're actually a value center and they're actually a strategy enabler or they're not. It's you decide, right? You pick whether or not they're going to enable your path forward or be a weight around your neck. And those that are leaning in culturally prioritizing HR and payroll are the ones that are winning. Right? They're the ones that are modernizing, and they're listening and they're learning from their employees and I, they're helping HR and empowering them. And I think that's tremendous, because what we're seeing in that is it's giving the business a lot of agility to handle what they're trying to do, whether that's a merger, maybe a new country or location or market they want to enter, whether that's local or abroad. And so I just think that all this technology is meeting that moment of realization. And I think you're seeing the role of HR and payroll go away from that sort of process owner, you know, button clicker, you know, processor to more of a strategic advisor to the business with that data. Right. Being able to give the business expertise and insights to say, you know, think this way, look at this. What about this? And pair that with other operational data or, you know, internal data. Otherwise, that can give them maybe an opportunity to see around the next corner and predict. So that, I mean, that's, that's what we all would love, right? I mean, a lot of us didn't. You know, a lot of firms haven't pivoted over the years, and where are they now? So you've got to be, you've got to be very agile today. And it all, it's all rooted in people. 

Rob Parsons (10:52)

It's really interesting. I had a guest at the show last year. He talked about the fact that your workforce, your human capital is the only asset you have that actually increases in value. Everything else depreciates. 

Pete Tiliakos (11:05)

Great point. Yeah. 

Rob Parsons (11:06)

So how does payroll and HR, how do they impact that workforce? How can they really help accelerate that increase in value? 

Pete Tiliakos  (11:15)

Well, I think beyond the experience, right? I mean, employees are coming to work wanting a great experience, right? They don't want to be, you know, we always talk about, you know, it's, what do they say, Jetsons at home and Flintstones at work. They, they don't want to... They want a reconciliation of that. Right. I should, I shouldn't come to work and feel like it's, you know, 1995 and so, you know, I think it's doing wonders for that employee experience and engaging employees and again, activating their desires and their goals in line with the business. And I think it's, it's a tremendously different experience to be an employee today when you have an employer who has leaned into that and recognizes that culturally and gives the tools necessary to help the workforce be their, their maximum best. Right. And hopefully retains that talent and continues to come to your point, evolve and grow and build value out of that and have that long term asset in their human capital. So, yeah, it's an exciting time, I think, for everybody involved. 

Rob Parsons (12:08)

It's, it's, it's really great. So now I want you to look in your crystal ball. 

Pete Tiliakos (12:12)

Sí. 

Rob Parsons (12:13)

You're coming to the show next year? You're coming to the show in five years? 

Pete Tiliakos (12:16)

Yep. Yep. 

Rob Parsons (12:18)

What are we going to see? What's going to be different? How's this floor going to be different? 

Pete Tiliakos (12:22)

Well, I think you'll... I think you'll see a lot more. You know, what's interesting is it's very early with AI. Right. I think you're going to see a lot more AI. You know, there's a lot of solutions that are going all in that direction. And I, you know, I, you know that we could debate that one way or the other there, there's a lot of opportunity in, you know, in those spaces. But I think that you're going to see more AI. I think we're going to be talking about more autonomy and more, more repositioning of HR in the organization to do better things. Right. I feel like I'm going to date myself again here, but I feel like when the Internet was really taking off in the 90s, I was very young. I think we were talking fewer but better jobs. That was kind of that thing in the media. I think we're talking the same thing now. I think we're talking a different type of role. And so, I think you're going to be seeing more of that technology again to help augment, automate, empower, bring more of those insights in the flow. I think you're going to see more emphasis around skilling and helping understand how and where and what skills we have and don't have and need and really helping companies become, you know, again, much more agile, much more quicker to market, faster to fail. And so I think there's going to be more. I think we're going to get more and more extensibility. I think a lot of these solutions will, if you go around here, many of these solutions are partners. They're already integrated. They're working together. So, I think we're going to see deeper integrations. We'll probably see some consolidation. You know, we're certainly going to see some. Some fold in acquisitions, but definitely more AI, definitely more human empowerment, I believe. And I think, you know, more of that. You know what? We've been talking kind of like getting that data to leaders faster and with more. More impact and more context to give them what they need to make great decisions in the flow versus, you know, reactively waiting for a report to get pulled and then IT to bring it to you, and then it's outdated. And now I'm trying to, you know. Yeah, that's not. That's gone. So, I think it's all about agility and again, augmentation. Really love it. 

Rob Parsons (14:13)

I love it. Human empowerment. I'm going to… Yeah, I'm going to steal that one. 

Pete Tiliakos (14:16)

Yeah, we haven't. I mean, look, are we really, are we really allowing the athleticism of our workforce to come out? I think we're not. Right. Our GDP is not the best. Right. It's been in history. We've got to improve that. And I think employers have understood that productivity is not linear to throwing bodies at it anymore. You can't just throw heads and it's going to get better. You've got to really put the right heads, the right skills in the right place at the right time, doing the right things, and all that has to come together. And tech is going to need to be enable that. So. Yeah. 

Rob Parsons (14:44)

Awesome. So, this is a question I'm asking everybody. 

Pete Tiliakos (14:47)

Sí. 

Rob Parsons (14:47)

What are the top three things a business owner or an HR leader has to do to become a culture first, a talent first organization. How do I attract the best people? 

Pete Tiliakos (15:00)

Well, I think the first thing you have to do is recognize that again, all the things we talked about, five generations in the workforce, expectations of the working, working population, the rise of the, you know, the gig worker and the creator economy, it's a real thing. And it really is empowering a lot of people to go and do some great stuff. And you're going to have to get out of your comfort zone and understand that talent and skills are not going to come from the same 50 miles radius that you're in. You're going to have to go beyond, right remote work and other things are going to help you do that. So, I think it's first just understanding what you're up against. Right. I think there's still a lot of disconnect between the, between the C-Suite and what HR and payroll are actually doing and what they're capable of doing if they had, you know, that empowerment and that... And not just investment, but invested leaders that are leaning into them culturally. Right. I think the next thing is understanding where you are and where you'd like to be. Right. I see a lot of companies talk transformation, right. But they don't really know. And that's a bigger company thing. But a lot of folks don't really know, well, what is, is that buying a system? Is that doing this thing or that thing or this process? Not necessarily. It's a diet. Right. It's a lifestyle you have to take on. I think it's iterative. I think it's never ending. You're always self-improving. Right. So, a business is doing the same. So I think it's that realization. And then lastly, I think it's engaging technology at the right time, in the right ways, and leaning into that technology and maximizing the value of that technology to help you get the most out of your business outcomes. And yeah, those would be my three guidances there. 

Rob Parsons (16:30)

That's fantastic. Thank you, Pete. This was a great interview. 

Pete Tiliakos (16:32)

Yeah, man, I enjoy it. We could go on and on. 

Rob Parsons (16:35)

Yes, we could. 

Pete Tiliakos (16:35)

But I love talking about this stuff. 

Rob Parsons (16:38)

It's great stuff. I want to keep it short, though. Thank you so much for joining us today, man. 

Pete Tiliakos (16:41)

Appreciate you. Appreciate you. 

Rob Parsons (16:42)

We're going to have a lot of this information in our show notes, and we can also, we'll put in there how you can connect with Pete. He's got a lot of great content, as you can tell. Very smart. Knows a lot about what's going on. Thank you. Thank you to our listeners. And as always, please stay happy and healthy. 

Gene Marks (17:00)

Thanks for joining us for this special episode of THRIVE. Be sure to stay tuned next week for the last part of this special series, paychecks at HR Tech 2024. Don't forget to check back here on Thursday for your Week In Review episode. Until then, I'm Gene Marks. Keep thriving. Do you have a topic or a guest that you would like to hear on THRIVE? Please let us know. Visit Payx.me/thrivetopics and send us your ideas or matters of interest. Also, if your business is looking to simplify your HR payroll, benefits or insurance services, see how Paychex can help. Visit the resource hub at Paychex.com/worx. That's W-O-R-X. Paychex can help manage those complexities while you focus on all the ways you want your business to thrive. I'm your host, Gene Marks, and thanks for joining us. Until next time, take care. 

Announcer (17:54)

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