7 takeaways from HR Tech

The HR tech space is hot, hot, hot. That was our biggest takeaway from 4 days in the desert at this year’s HR Tech conference. Findem landed a team of 10 from all across the country to meet, greet, and tee off at TopGolf with fellow HR tech enthusiasts. 

We put together this quick take on what we learned and our hopes for next year!

1. It’s great to be in person again!

Like most companies, Findem is hybrid / remote, recruiting the best of the best from where they want to work rather than where our headquarters are located. As a result, meeting up at the Findem booth was the first time many of us had been IRL! Plus, it was an amazing opportunity to get to know so many leaders in the talent space. Thanks for stopping by!

2. Innovation in HR Tech is booming

We counted 437 vendors in the exhibit hall, not to mention the company reps we spoke to who did not have a booth. Innovation is great, but how do talent leaders manage so many point solutions? We believe that consolidation is on the horizon. (80% of talent leaders want to consolidate.) Savvy leaders will be looking for ways to connect the dots…not only to save time and effort for shrinking talent teams, but to give leaders a more complete picture across the candidate journey.

3. DEI is here to stay

Perhaps Cynthia Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, said it best in her keynote on breaking down barriers: you need to think of “the person first and employee second.” (Nice job cracking the glass ceiling btw). Lots of folks who stopped by our booth had great questions about finding talent to add diversity to their workforce. How do you ensure a more diverse talent pool to reach DEI hiring goals? We’d love to show you.

4. Data, data everywhere

From digital transformation to AI and automation to analytics, data is driving the next gen of every business and every business function. Both Stacey Harris, Sapient, and Lisa Buckingham from Lincoln Financial, discussed how the CHRO of the future will need to be conversant with people analytics across the employment journey, making big tech decisions for a more data-driven world. This generated a lot of interest in our booth for demos of our talent funnel analytics and our talent mapping functions.

5. Not your same old CRM

In conversations with analysts from IDC, Deloitte, Valoir, Aspect43, and others, we heard the same themes driving the future of HR Tech: automation, analytics, and AI. These technology trends will transform the candidate relationship management process. Next gen CRMs will automate more processes to raise the talent team activity from tactical to strategic. Talent leaders will require analytics across the candidate journey without having to build it themselves. AI has tremendous potential as long as companies understand how to minimize bias and apply it ethically.

6. Why you need to hire more engineers 

A look at the trends highlighted by Josh Bersin made us think: everyone needs more engineers! A talent team’s ability to hire, retain, and grow their engineering teams will be key to digital transformation and business success in the future. Of course, all your people play critical roles and bring tremendous value to your organization. But software engineering, data scientists, data engineers, and management for these teams will be the foundation for digital transformation. 

7. It’s great to be in person again, again!

This is so important that we’re putting it on the list twice! Beyond the conversations on the show floor and attending sessions (things we could technically do virtually), we got to have fun together! Thanks to everyone who stopped by Eyecandy for cocktails with Findem and Recruiting Daily. We can’t wait to see you again next year! 

Leaving you with a few pictures of Account Exec Soa Cho and CEO Hari Kalam tee off into the sunset. 

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