This series is brought to you by our partners and friends at Fuel50.
Announcer:
Welcome to PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM Technology Report. We are recording from HR Tech in Vegas, brought to you by our friends and partners at Fuel50. Here’s your host, Mark Feffer.
Mark Feffer:
This is PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM technology report. I’m Mark Feer and we’re recording today from the exposition floor of the HR Technology Exposition and Conference. And my guest right now is a well known analyst, well known observer of the industry. So Camille, could I ask just to start by introduce yourself?
Camille Prost:
So yes, coming across, I’m emerging director at Accenture and my focus area is really on digital HR, but also looking at the impact specifically of the digitization of manufacturing and engineering environments, right, in organizations, which is really fascinating.
Mark Feffer:
Are you seeing things here that are really exciting you or really have your curiosity peaked?
Camille Prost:
Yeah, absolutely. I would say definitely, talent acquisition as we all know, booming, right. So there’s a lot of focus on how to really identify and source the right talent, which is obviously critical for organizations these days. So talent acquisition is really one of a key focus area and learning, upskilling making sure that people get the opportunities to grow in the enterprise. That is fundamental these days. And as we think about the skills of the future, and especially as I mentioned in those environments which are very constrained by an impacted, I would say by the labor shortages, by inflation, by the war for talent, really it is becoming really critical for organizations to double down on those upskilling risk capabilities.
Mark Feffer:
Everybody seems to be thinking that the reason a lot of employees are moving on from their current jobs is just general and happiness, dissatisfaction, and after COVID, they’re not going to put up with it anymore. Do you agree with that?
Camille Prost:
Well, there is definitely some noise, I would say in the market, right around people living companies trying to find better jobs, better paid in the market. What we also see is a strong interest from people to be… I would say, taken care of right by organizations and really taken care of, obviously financially, but also in terms of being more marketable internally within organizations. And that’s where solutions like Fuel50 actually play, right? Because there’s a critical capability here to really enable people to thrive, right in organizations and people, if they have the choice, I mean they would prefer definitely to evolve, right? Internally and build new skills, expand the network, really being able to provide differentiate value in the organization as long as they obviously feel that they’re growing to some extent. So I would say a yes or no question, it is essentially a bit more nuanced.
Mark Feffer:
I’ve heard people say that I’m going to shift into skills and I’ve heard people say that companies have the option of building skills, buying skills, or borrowing skills. It is a logical statement, it makes sense to me, but it makes it sound pretty simple and I can’t imagine putting together our workforce with contingent workers and full-time workers and contractors. And I can’t imagine that’s an easy thing to do, especially if you’re an enterprise. What do you think?
Camille Prost:
Absolutely, and I would say it’s all of the above what you mentioned, but it’s also… I would add the bot component, right. And what I mean by bot is bringing more robotics capabilities and AI and this type of automation to work essentially along with humans. So yes, I mean there’s definitely a balance to find between those different components. And there’s organizations where it’s becoming absolutely a matter of survival I would say, right? If you take the industrial revolution going on with all the digitization of manufacturing plants for instance, I mean the work of let’s say maintenance or assembly technicians are evolving, right. So the evolving to be more digital savvy. So how do you do that? What is the strategy? Do you need to hire new talent? Do you need to rescale your talent? And how do you actually do that, how do you identify the skill gaps, right? And what carry options can you reposition your talent on?
So there’s definitely this hiring component. There’s also a big development component and focus, and again, that’s where Fuel50 is a leading solution in that space to position the talent on new gig opportunities or longer term journeys in the organization. And the last piece really are obviously considered workforce is also a key focus area, but the bots components that I mentioned, how do you actually learn to work with robotics or leading edge capabilities? Let’s say for an engineer learning to work with digital twins, how do you actually work with that, right? I mean, it’s not something that you know by nature, so you have to learn new skills, you have to learn on the job. You have to essentially be upskilled in either through gig opportunities but also some learning pathways.
Mark Feffer:
I’m wondering about the role of technology in all of this learning management systems. LXPs have been growing in important since sophistication over the last five or six years. The general vendors are doing more to incorporate and integrate outside tools to give them a longer, work share wider offering. What do you think? How are all of these dynamics going to change the approach of employers as they plot their technology?
Camille Prost:
Yeah, that’s a great question. So technology as you mentioned, obviously the enabler of all those new capabilities and really the momentum building the momentum for your workforce evolution. When I look at technology and digital within organizations, some people think about digital as just the automation component to it. There’s actually obviously much more, right? Digital is also the way you would provide access to any resources internal to your enterprise.
It’s also about the way you access data insights, right? Obviously, it’s also the way I guess you develop, you grow your talent, you create the next generation opportunities for your talent. It’s the way you flex your operating model also and you react to your business events, your acquisitions, new diversity teacher, et cetera. And it’s so the way you listen to your employees. So all those components are really part of the… I would say the digital spectrum beyond just automation. And that’s probably how the expectations from employees are evolving when say employees, it’s also business leaders driving business units or factory plants, et cetera, really having those capabilities and their fingertips to really access like workforce insights, but also have the ability to develop their talents, which is becoming fundamental.
Mark Feffer:
And there’s no shortage of data being output today. And I always wonder, and I never seem to get a good answer, but are the line managers, the middle managers in a company, are they able to make intelligent use of the data or are they being left behind?
Camille Prost:
Yeah, that’s a very good point. So obviously, data is as good as you want it to be, right? So there’s definitely, data is not going to be clean, usable, just by nature. So when you think about data, you need to think about all the governance that goes along with it, you need to think about the processes, the policies, et cetera. And middle management has a key role to play in that, right? Obviously that employees making sure they maintain the quality of their own data.
But line managers also have a role to infuse, I would say, in the organization the needs for having some clean, usable data that they can use, right? In terms of insights, I think there’s definitely a learning component for middle management to learn how to essentially make use of those data insights. If you think about… Let’s say workforce optimization in a manufacturing area and when think about the schedulers for example, the supervisors who have to schedule work shift, et cetera, how can they do that with the right data insight? I mean it’s a learning process with smart technologies for workforce management, for scheduling, you need to obviously be trained and become proficient. So there’s definitely an investment from organizations on the middle management layer also to unlock the power of data.
Mark Feffer:
And stepping back a little bit, just want to ask you something about the industry as a whole. Are there anything… I’m sorry. Is there anything that you’re seeing here that’s really got you excited that you think is going to have a major impact on how people manage their workforce and do their work?
Camille Prost:
There’s a lot of exciting technologies, I would say. Especially as I mentioned in the first place on two major themes, talent acquisition but also talent management, talent mobility, and the two obviously are completely tied together. So I think that’s probably the most exciting areas to be laser focused on right now. And that’s what our clients are talking about quite frankly right now. I think there’s probably a theme that I would love to see more and probably at some point it will come, it is more about what we call digital twins in what the people space and some organizations are going there in trying to really create a virtual model of the workforce and run some scenarios et cetera. So I think it’s probably a theme that will also come and that will definitely connect the dots, right between talent acquisition model and what you mentioned before, the build by borrow and bot components. What is the right mix? What is the right structure to really optimize your workforce? And have exactly the right, I would say talent structure, talent map right in your organization.
Mark Feffer:
Camille, thanks very much for taking your time to come and visit.
Camille Prost:
You’re welcome. Thank you so much.
Announcer:
You’ve been listening to PeopleTech of the HCM Technology Report. This HR tech series is graciously brought to you by our partners at Fuel50. For all other HR sourcing and recruiting news, check out hcmtechnologyreport.com.
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