Trish Steed and Steve Boese on HR Trends Defining the Next Decade: 2024 HR Tech Series - Part 1

Trish Steed (00:00)

So, I'm glad you said care, because when we were thinking about this, that's what my word was. It enables you to care for your employees in a different way. It's what we always wish we had had that we didn't get. And now it's our opportunity as leaders to provide that to the incoming generation of workers, I think. 

Announcer (00:19)

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 (00:35)

Hey, everybody, it's Gene Marks, and welcome to the first episode of our exciting four-part special series on Paychex at HR Tech 2024. We are thrilled to bring you insights straight from the heart of the event, featuring our guest host, Rob Parsons from Paychex. Rob had the chance to chat with some of the top HR analysts, industry influencers, and Paychex partners. Together, they dive into the dynamic world of today's multigenerational workforce and explore how leveraging HR technology can help companies transform into the kind of workplace where people truly want to be. Today's episode features Trish Steed and Steve Boese from H3 HR Advisors. They sat down with Rob for a dynamic discussion on emerging trends and insights that are reshaping the future of human resources. I think you guys are really going to love it. So, without further ado, here's Rob. 

Rob Parsons (01:11)

Hi, everyone. I'm Rob Parsons. Welcome to the Paychex THRIVE Podcast, live from the show floor at HR Tech 2024. I'm here today with Steve Boese and Trish Steed from H3 HR Advisors. Steve is the co-chair of the HR Tech Conference, co-founder of H3 HR Advisors, and a writer for Human Resources Executive Magazine. He's also the co-creator and co-host of the Weekly at Work in America podcast, the longest-running and most downloaded podcast about human resources, talent management, recruitment, and workplace technology. Trish is also a co-founder of H3 HR advisors and co-host of the At Work in America podcast on the H3 Happy Hour Network. Alongside Steve, she's also the co-creator of the H3 vlog. Steve. Trish, so great to have you back on the podcast show. So far this year, I've sensed a lot of buzz, a lot of excitement. What are the trends you're seeing? What are you paying attention to? 

Trish Steed (02:36)

What's interesting this year for me has been around the insights and the outcomes. Every single tool that I'm hearing companies talk about either enhancing or building into their solutions, is around insights and outcomes. And I think that's the difference between last year it was really AI-focused, and we weren't talking a lot about what you were going to get from terms of value from that. So that's the biggest change I've seen this year. 

Rob Parsons (02:58)

All right. How about you, Steve? 

Steve Boese (03:00)

Yeah, for me, I think it's been the ongoing evolution and maybe a little bit of maturing of AI technology. Last year when we were here, generative AI was newer and there were lots of interesting examples of Gen AI emerging into the HCM space. And I think a year has passed and development has intensified across the industry and organizations have began to experiment with these tools in their own workplaces. So, we're seeing a little bit more maturity, a little bit more understanding, some emerging use cases for AI. But certainly now everyone's still trying to figure out how to harness these powerful new technologies to drive the kinds of outcomes that Trish talked about. 

Rob Parsons (03:43)

Now we know business outcomes, always a driver of change in HR change. One of the things we're seeing, though, is this multi-generational workforce being a real driver of change. Millennials, now Gen Z, both my daughters, one in each generation, very different attitudes than I had coming into the workforce. And companies, business owners, HR leaders have had to respond. What are you seeing? What are you hearing about the multi-generational workplace and how technology can help?

Trish Steed (04:11)

Yeah, for me, all the younger people I'm talking to are expecting more from us as leaders. And really, I think it makes sense when you think about a lot of us who are at the age of being a business leader, we're probably also the parents of sort of the people that are coming into the workforce, right? So, we've trained them to expect more. We've shown them this is what we didn't have. And so, they're coming in, wanting more education. I think around areas around wellbeing and finance and understanding things that maybe when we joined the workforce, we just either kept our mouth shut or tried to learn it on our own. And it seems like now businesses are really using their technology to help provide that education and experience right out of the gate to a brand-new hire. 

Steve Boese (04:51)

Yeah, I think those are great points. And I think I'm seeing like the differentiated workforce across multiple generations, I think requires differentiated approaches to leadership management and certainly technology solutions. I think the younger generations value flexibility more perhaps than we were used to. Coming up, as Trish said, we sort of were told what to do right by our leaders, and that's what we did right. I think the newer entrance into the workforce, up through even, I'd call the Millennial generation have come to expect more flexibility, want to pay more attention to things like wellness, as Trish said, but also work-life balance and what's happening outside of work. And it's interesting now because the Millennial generation, certainly they're into that sweet spot of trying to grow their careers, say, into middle management, emerging into maybe even more senior roles, but also in that family era, right, with school-age children at home, if they've gone that route and really feeling those strains of managing work life, childcare, other forms of caregiving, all those things are sort of in a stew happening inside organizations. The old ways of sort of saying, here's what we're doing in the organization, here's how we're working, here are the tools that you're using, here's the rules and regulations, and everybody fall in line, just don't really fit anymore. And I think for organizations that can appreciate that and adapt to it and be more flexible, they'll have the most success, both with engagement, retention, and ongoing kind of just productivity, I'd say, as well. 

Rob Parsons (06:31)

So, flexibility is not a word I would usually associate with HR, you know, but it's a different era. And this is a kind of a two-part question. One is how can HR teams be more flexible when dealing with their workforce, but also how can they be more agile helping themselves? It can't be easier to be an HR leader today with all the different challenges that are hitting. 

Trish Steed (06:55)

Well, you're right on. The second part is first, I think that in some ways it is easier, though, because when I think about even with the tools that Paychex offers, things that used to take me hours, even days to achieve now can be done on your phone in seconds. So that part is actually giving time back just to the individual people in the HR department, but then also collectively as a team. And it lets them focus on sort of that. To answer the first part of the question, what employees are expecting, expecting and wanting. And maybe the flexibility piece is where you can now spend more time caring about people and have empathy and compassion and some of those more human aspects that were really struggling with maybe 20 years ago because you have the technologies in place to make the time available. So that's what I'm seeing. 

Steve Boese (07:44)

Yeah, I think I'd add to that we have better capability now to understand employee sentiments. You know, we've talked for a while here at HR Tech about how the traditional kind of understanding of what employees want and how to react to them was done, less formal ways, and then certainly formally, largely only annually, right in the form of the classic employee engagement survey or employee feedback survey, et cetera. The evolution of tools and technologies to get sentiment or get feedback more quickly and then applying more advanced tools, like perhaps AI, to analyze sentiment allows organizations to get more real-time input into what's happening in the workforce, and then hopefully to respond to that much more rapidly right than in the past. Now they have to be willing to respond certainly to the feedback and to the sentiment, but we're certainly able to get it much faster and be aware of it. And now it will be up to HR leaders and business leaders, quite frankly, to be willing to be flexible, to experiment a little bit, and to understand that just because we did things a certain way for 100 years or 50 years or even ten years, means we can continue to do them today. I'll just go on for one more second. We did a session yesterday with a huge company, been around for 150 years, and the CHRO told me about, he got into his role six years ago and kind of said, I don't care that we've been profitable for 150 consecutive years. We can't continue to operate in the way we've always been and continue to succeed. And that approach, I think, is the one that HR leaders really need to take to heart. 

Trish Steed (09:19)

Yeah. I think though, what you're talking about in terms of having that information really quickly, whatever it is, whether it's sentiment or just something that an HR team or business leaders have, being able to act on it is going to ultimately impact retention. And that's the struggle. You know, again, just going back ten years ago, we didn't really have the ability. You didn't want to lose people. But by the time you figured out what was wrong, it was almost too late sometimes. So now you really are more empowered, I think, with the technology than ever before, and there's better understanding of how to use it. Technology isn't necessarily going to replace what you do. It's going to enhance what you're doing to retain those quality employees. 

Rob Parsons (09:58)

It really, and you've hinted at it, both of you, experimenting, flexibility, that's coming to play into benefits. I feel like we've got to be even more open-minded about benefits. It's not just medical and dental and vision. It's that whole, I'm working for you, what are you doing for me? 

Trish Steed (10:18)

Absolutely. I think you know what, and they're asking for more. But what we need to do as leaders is be open. Right. If you have people, I don't care what age they are, but they're more junior. You're an organization, be asking them, use focus groups, right? Find out what they want. You might not be able to offer everything, but if you even put one or two things in place a year and they see that result coming really quickly, it's an amazing differentiator for organizations who might even be struggling to, you know, that war for talent that still remains. 

Steve Boese (10:46)

Yeah. And I think, Rob, you make a great point about alternative or voluntary benefits. Medical, dental, retirement contributions, even typically considered standard features, right. Of most employment arrangements here in the U.S. And most employees tend to expect them, and most employers, certainly above a certain size, providing them in one form or another. And, you know, we don't need to debate about which medical plan versus the other, but in general, speaking, right, they're covering those bases, those kind of requirements. But we start thinking about things that are becoming increasingly important to the employee population. Access to earned wages, right, on-demand, or more frequently than in the past, which was not a thing a few years ago, and now it's become more of an expectation, especially among younger workers. It's shocking how popular a benefit like employer-sponsored pet insurance is. It's remarkably popular with the employee base. Most of us are pet owners. There's three sitting around that table. Do we have three pet owners here? Oh, yeah, of course. It's 100% of the focus group. So, we may be interested in that, you know, in our organization or things like, depending on. We talk about generations in the workplace, right. Caregiving support. At H3 HR advisors, we've spent time this year working on some our year-end rapport and caregiving, both childcare and elder care, and how workplaces can support employees who are facing those situations, including many employees in that kind of mid-Millennial generation who might be facing both right now simultaneously. So right in that sandwich, and then offer student loan support and benefits like that. In that mix as well. And there are others as well. There's certainly not all of the gamut of voluntary benefits, but making those available, accessible, and in some cases, as the company can be, maybe even subsidizing access to them. Remarkably powerful tools for organizations to engage employees, retain employees, and show that. That care and concern for employees, that's so important. 

Trish Steed (12:50)

So, I'm glad you said care, because when we were thinking about this, that's what my word was, it enables you to care for your employees in a different way. It's what we always wish we had had that we didn't get. And now it's our opportunity as leaders to provide that to the incoming generation of workers, I think. 

Rob Parsons (13:07)

I'm a, I'm a frontline leader, a frontline manager, and I work very hard to keep my people engaged. What can HR teams do to better support managers like me? And how does technology come to play? I know we touched on surveys, and that's big. But out there in the front line, what can HR, how can HR support someone like me? 

Trish Steed (13:27)

My first response would be transparency. It's definitely something that not all organizations have. They don't even necessarily think about it, or the leadership might think we're being transparent. But the message isn't really filtering all the way down to your frontline workers. So, number one, talking to them, obviously, sentiment analysis is important, but one on one, having conversations, having access to leaders so that you can, you know, sort of bubble up what's on your mind, and then again, having that transparency to them, saying, oh, we do have this, or we do offer that, or this is our stance on whatever it is, sustainability, or just other important topics to the workers. But yeah, I think transparency, the number one, that's just such an easy fix, you would think, but not a lot of organizations are focused there right now. 

Steve Boese (14:13)

Yeah, it's a super challenging question, Rob, because in our sort of digital era, hybrid working era, maybe even remote working era, it can be difficult to maintain those personal touch points. But I think they are critically important to four managers who are working with their teams to find the time to make those regular occurrences. There's some great tools, you said, well, how can technology help? There's some great tools available to help facilitate things like the classic one-on-one meeting or the one-on-one check-in so you can keep a running log of the topics that you want to address. Or maybe there's a goal or two on an employee's goal plan that you specifically want to bring up in the context of a one-on-one conversation or maybe an element of the employee's development plan for their ongoing learning and development to maybe they want to advance into the next phase of their career. And again, there's some really cool solutions that help tie those things together such that both the employee and the manager kind of understand the purpose of the one-on-one meeting, the agenda of the one-on-one meeting, and then hopefully the outcomes of the one-on-one meeting. So, tech can help, certainly in some of this stuff. 

Trish Steed (15:23)

Can I make a quick point on that? 

Steve Boese (15:24)

Connecting person to person is so critical. 

Trish Steed (15:26)

With what you're saying. I think what we're seeing that's different is in the past, it felt like the manager was doing something in a bubble and then the employee was doing something and they were being told about it and there wasn't a lot of what you're describing with technology is that connection. It's almost like a conversation that's enabled by the tech between the two. So they're collaboratively working on what's important. Right? 

Steve Boese (15:49)

Yeah. And there's some pretty cool... Yeah, it's... Stuff becomes more... You mentioned transparency earlier, Trisha. This information is really transparent because both sides can see it. But there's also some really good tools to help managers stay on track. Now managers are being squeezed because you have your own sort of stuff to do in addition to being a leader and a coach and a mentor and a developer of talent. Right. So, the tools can help you, try to keep you on track. Oh, you haven't checked in with your employee Mary in a while. Maybe check in with her or your employee Dave has upticked his absence rate lately. Maybe you should step in and have a conversation, things like that. So it's really got to be that balance of both. Right. We need to help our frontline managers, though, certainly because they're that front line of engagement, retention and honestly, productivity too. So, we've got to try to do as much as we can to support that group. 

Trish Steed(16:43)

And they're really the face of the company for that employee team. Yeah, it is. Of course there's a C-suite, but really it's frontline manager is the reason that people stay or go, ultimately. 

Rob Parsons (16:53)

Yeah, people don't leave companies, they leave managers. 

Trish Steed (16:55)

They really do. And it's still so important. 

Steve Boese (16:59)

But leaders can lead by example. I'll mention again the session I did yesterday with the CHRO. It's an 8,000-person company. When he came in, who's named from the, from the outside, who's named the CHRO. But 8,000-person company, he told me that within eight months of being there, he had had physical in-person interactions in small group settings with 6,000 of the 8,000 employees. You know, through, through small group, not just big town halls. I'm talking about, you know, small group settings. 10-15 people at a time. Eight people at a time. He did it endlessly for months and months and months. And he literally had conversations with almost 6,000 people of 8,000 people. But that behavior by a leader can be a modeling kind of thing, right, for, for the people on his team and so on down the line. So, yeah, that, that person to person connection, still super important. 

Rob Parsons (17:48)

I love it and I hate that we're short on time, but we gotta tighten up. I have so many more questions, but I'm gonna hone in on two last questions. The first is, what are the top three things a business leader, an HR leader, needs to do to create this kind of talent first culture? Become kind of that company where people want to work for them. 

Trish Steed (18:11)

Right. Why don't I take one, and maybe you take the next two? But the one for me that is most important is inclusion. And I don't mean just for maybe underrepresented groups. I mean, make sure that each employee on your team feels included. Right. We have a lot of personalization in the tech now. Let's make sure we're. We're bringing that to the employee base individually, making them feel like they really do belong on our team. Right. Because there's always a pecking order. There's always sort of a list of ranking in your head. No, you've got to, like, step aside from the old ways of thinking about your team and really making sure that you're figuring out what is that hidden gem that each one has and then letting them shine. 

Rob Parsons (18:50)

Sí. 

Trish Steed (18:51)

I think the one thing we're seeing that we maybe didn't see years ago is that each person really wants to have challenges. And sometimes when you come into a new role, you're not being challenged right out of the gate. It feels like you don't belong. So that's my number one. Steve, what about you? 

Rob Parsons (19:05)

We hammer square pegs into round holes all the time. 

Steve Boese (19:09)

Yeah. I'll mention one that ties a little bit back to the voluntary benefits conversation we just had. And I'd call it just empathy and sort of care for the quote unquote whole person, because we've all heard that expression. Right. We want employees to be fully committed. We want them to bring their whole selves to work. And certainly, we could debate about whether or not that's super advice, but it's talked about a lot, and we certainly do want people to be engaged and committed, of course. But we must then show those people we care about them. We care about their whole person. Right. And their whole person is not just the nine to five right in the office. It's everything that's happening in their lives, their well being, their financial wellness, their mental health, their family members, who we may cover in our benefit programs and extend in our voluntary benefit programs. The caregiving element that I discussed, and even. I'm not going to. I'm not, I'll bring it up again, even their pets. Right. Or part of their family members, show that we care for the whole person. Right. And support them and want them to succeed in work and in life. And then in turn, you know, they'll bring that back to the workplace and really, you know, give their all and give that full commitment. So that'd be my, my item. All right, I need a third. Trisha, you want to go over a third? 

Trish Steed (20:22)

No, you go for the third. 

Steve Boese (20:23)

Okay. This is a little more straightforward. After compensation and benefits. The second reason people leave organizations is growth and development opportunities. They want to develop their own skills. They want to see a path for them forward in the organization. So really leaning into how can we make our organization and environment where people can learn, develop and grow, set themselves up for success in a rapidly changing environment with tech skills that are coming in and out so much quickly, quicker than ever before. Invest in those opportunities as best you can. There's loads of ways to do it that'd be subject for another podcast, Rob. But growth and development, certainly a huge, huge thing in 2025 moving forward.

Rob Parsons (21:04)

Love it. All right, I'm glad you said 2025 and moving forward, I want you to peer into the crystal ball. Let's go to 2027. 2029. What's going to be happening on the show, the show floor? What are we going to be seeing here in technology? What's going to be the next big thing or the next big things? 

Trish Steed (21:22)

That is such a great. Well, I think, first of all, AI and generative AI is table stakes. Then just a quick couple years down the road, we're two years in, I'm going to say two to three years. Everyone is going to be just, it's just another thing that we use that we all are comfortable with. Right. We're going to get past some of those fears. So I think that's coming. I hope that opens it up maybe more to what you were talking about in terms of learning and development, because I don't know, I feel like that's something that kind of waxes and wanes over the years. So, I think there's been increased focus on how tech can, specifically with AI, figure out where people need to be, both for the organization's benefit, but to keep them engaged and entertained and creative and all the things, because I think sometimes you mentioned fitting, you know, a square peg into a round hole. We do that a lot because that's what the organization needs. And we think like, oh, we're going to develop you into this role. And I'm hoping that with AI and it being more of a comfort, we're now actually trying to make a better match. 

Steve Boese (22:23)

I think I'll be maybe, maybe, maybe more than 2027, but I think there's at least a good chance we'll be talking a lot more about the evolution of the organization from one that is centered around the classic org chart that's job and position based to one that's much more about the skills that the organization requires and the tasks then that need to be done in a more flexible and fluid manner, and then engaging with this huge pool of talent and capability to try to match right into those skills and task boxes rather than job boxes. And so that would mean more emphasis from a technology side on systems that allow organizations to engage still with regular full-time employees, because there will always be that but other flexible ways of working, which has been around for a while, but has been proven very difficult technologically to manage fluidly, in effect, efficiently and with agility. So, I think there'll be more emphasis on flexible work, flexible working and what needs to be done from a skill and task level. So, I expect there'll be a lot of that happening in the next few years. 

Rob Parsons (23:34)

I love it. Trish, Steve, just always such a pleasure. It's so great having you on the podcast. 

Trish Steed (23:40)

Thank you for having us. This is really fun. 

Steve Boese (23:42)

Yeah, great to see you, Rob. Thank you so much. 

Rob Parsons (23:44)

You got it. To our listeners, make sure you check out At Work in America. It's a great podcast. Great insights as you heard here. And as always, please stay happy and healthy. 

Gene Marks (23:56)

Thanks for joining us for this special episode of THRIVE Lots of great information from our friends Trish and Steve from H3 HR Advisors. Be sure to tune in for our remaining three special edition episodes for more HR tech insights. And don't forget to stay tuned on Thursday for your Week In Review episode with yours truly. We'll see you then. 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. 

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