Podcast: Simply Get Results’ Simon Haines Talks Skills

Skills Meeting

Transcript

Mark:

Welcome to PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM Technology Report. I’m Mark Feffer.

My guest today is Simon Haines, the CEO of Simply Get results. They help businesses and individuals navigate today’s skills gap. We’re going to talk about skills of course, and also people, data and decision-making on this edition of PeopleTech. Hello, Simon. Welcome. Tell me what Simply does.

Simon:

Yeah, sure. Simply Get Results, or Simply as we call it, is a skills intelligence platform. So that means we’re combining global labor market data with our customers’ workforce data and combining that in a powerful analytics tool. And our strap-line really is to make sure that our customers and their workforces have the skills they need to deliver their strategy. So it’s our decision support tool for senior HR and business leaders in large corporations.

Mark:

Now, there’s a lot of talk obviously about skills right now, and I can’t help but wonder sometimes, has this conversation been going on for decades and we just happen to have changed the language?

Simon:

Oh, that’s really interesting. I think that conversations about skills and capabilities have of course been going on forever in the HR world and the business world. Skills are fundamental to doing work and being useful at work.

I think the big thing that has changed in the last few years is the use of data around skills and the impact of the use of data around skills. I’ve been in the human capital space and the analytics and the workforce planning space for a long time, and five, 10, 15 years ago, if you were looking at data on people and a few data points on people and you are analyzing that and making good decisions, then that was good. When you start looking at data on skills it multiplies the complexity dramatically, and that’s where using data and analytical tools is so important.

When you start looking at skills in relation to people and work and delivery of strategy, it adds to the complexity, but data is the fuel that drives decision-making around skills. So I think use of data is the key thing that’s changed over the last few years.

Mark:

Which leads conveniently to my next question. When you think about HR departments, and I mean both leaders and on-the-ground practitioners, are they really comfortable working with data today?

Simon:

Well, do you know, they tell you that they’re not. But what we’ve found in quite a lot of time of helping HR people of all levels in all sizes of companies get to grips with data, is that actually lack of confidence is the biggest blocker as opposed to real capability. The vast majority of things that you need to do with data around people to make better decisions, to drive success in the workforce and success in your company, is based on smart, logic and choices.

Sure, there’s one end of the data and the analytics spectrum that is very, very sophisticated and you’re using PhD level skills to do some very complex analysis, but that’s pretty rare. The majority of great decision-making about people, certainly in my opinion and in my experience, is about just asking the right questions and answering them, being evident with data. And do you know what? People like to do that, they’re comfortable doing that. So I think an awful lot of the fears in HR functions are a fear of the unknown. And actually, when you help them with it, they find that they can crack on, which is a good thing.

Mark:

And when you talk to them, do you find they want data solutions or are they thinking about just solutions? They want a product that’s going to give them what they need and they don’t really care about what’s going on under the hood?

Simon:

Well, look, everybody wants outcomes. And so what we’re all working towards, whether we’re looking at data or technology or consultancy or anything else, is we’re looking towards how do we get those outcomes. And from my point of view, I think a combination of good use of data, good use of technology, good use of consultancy, decision-making, that combination is very powerful.

And I think probably there’s different degrees of uncertainty out there. “There’s a lot of technology, what should I use? There’s a lot of data, what should I use?” So part of the journey I think for any HR leader in this space is figuring out what the options and choices are, and obviously we want to be part of helping them with that.

Mark:

It seems like HR people really have got a lot of new knowledge or specialized knowledge that they have to have. And I’m wondering, for example, to use Simply, do they need to know data? Do they need to know skills in order to use the product at all?

Simon:

That’s a great question. Short answer is no. We design software and present data and structure our approaches so that busy senior people can get on and use these tools and make decisions and achieve outcomes. The last thing we want is having people needing any special training or knowledge, which they don’t, or struggling with complexity. This is all about, as the name might suggest, cutting through the complexity, presenting the information that’s really useful to make decisions, and then making those decisions and getting on with actions.

Mark:

And related to that is, skills has worked its way everywhere into the HR discussion. Do you think it’s really a shift, like the introduction of data was a shift? Data’s everywhere now and people are using it. But has looking at skills with every job in workforce planning, is that here to stay?

Simon:

I think skills is the next big thing and I think it’s here to stay. I’ve been working in the human capital space since the ’90s, for my sins, and have seen some very big trends arrive and stay. Use of enterprise HR systems, looking at outsourcing and offshoring and shared service centers, looking at data analytics. And I think the next huge thing that’s arrived and is going to grow and is going to stay forever, is getting to grips with the world of skills within HR and business. So yeah, I think it’s absolutely here to stay.

Mark:

What’s your view about the market? Meaning, is Simply going to keep growing, do you think? Will there be more companies competing in that space? Basically, what do you think the competitive landscape looks like?

Simon:

Well, I think from a customer’s perspective it looks complicated and confusing, and I understand that. I think there’s been a proliferation of technologies and providers and lots of great things, to any customer who’s sitting there going, “Blimey, I wonder what I should do next.” I think all of us have to be clear on what we offer within this complexity, and we do our best to make it clear that Simply is a very strategic tool that helps senior leaders in large organizations make better decisions, and then it sees that through to execution. So we’re pretty clear on our positioning.

What I think might happen in the market, look, I think there’s going to be more tools and providers and vendors are going to emerge. Some will succeed, some will fail. I think there will be consolidation, but I think there’s room for a bunch of vendors. There always have been in the HR tech space and I’m sure there always will continue to be so. And I guess what we want to do, we want Simply to be part of what we think is a serious revolution in the world of skills. And wherever possible, we seek to be at the forefront of that with really usable solutions for leaders in large corporations right now.

Mark:

I would imagine this would be a great place to talk about integration, and by place I mean the business. It seems to me like what you do is very specialized, but a lot of the larger solutions providers would want to be able to offer some flavor of it. Is that true?

Simon:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the special things about skills data, is skills data is disintegrated. It is all over the place. It sits on your resume, it sits in your applicant tracking system, it sits in your HR system, it sits out there in the market from a candidate’s perspective or a competitor perspective. So skills data, more than most types of people data, is by its own definition disaggregated.

Your question’s about integration, you do not have to integrate all of that data into one place to get value from it. You can pick and choose. However, the ability to join skills data together is enormously helpful. So yes, one of the things that Simply does is it provides an easy way to integrate between the data in your HR system, the data in your applicant tracking system, the data in your market, all of which will be slightly different and imperfect and incomplete. So we live in the world of reality, not requiring perfection.

Whereas some might say, and I know there is a philosophy out there that says the best way to get value from all this data is to connect all of it up perfectly and mine it for insight. And there are a small number of organizations that are capable of doing that. But I think for most people, for most leaders, for most organizations, our guidance is to pick and choose the data that matters most. To pull data from different sources into one place to answer specific questions that are important to you. So yes, integration, but integration with some really clear intent.

Mark:

And the last question is, when you look at what’s going on in the world and in the business and you look at where Simply is right now, what do you think is the next big thing for products like yours?

Simon:

Yeah, it’s the million-dollar question really, and I’m afraid I’m going to give you an answer that there might be a few options. And, look, what do those options include? One is absolutely that integration that we talked about a moment ago. To have affordable tools like Simply, which provide an integration layer over some, let’s face it, much more expensive tools that are rattling around in most big corporations. So integration is an important part of this.

I think domain-specific analysis. What do I mean by that? Getting really focused on finance skills or IT skills or sustainability skills, or frankly all of those. I think domain expertise is increasingly a thing. And as you might expect, we’re focusing in some of those areas ourselves. Look, I think beyond that, I think the whole customer experience around skills, that’s the different users that need a lens from board level to employees and candidates and everybody in between, I think getting a nice, understandable, streamlined and aligned customer experience through all of this has to be on the roadmap for companies like Simply. And so it is.

Mark:

Simon, thank you very much for your time today. It was great to talk with you.

Simon:

Mark. It was an absolute pleasure. Thanks for including me today.

Mark:

My guest today has been Simon Haines, the CEO of Simply Get Results. And this has been PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM Technology Report. We’re a publication of Recruiting Daily. We’re also a part of Evergreen Podcasts. To see all of their programs, visit www.evergreenpodcasts.com. And to keep up with HR technology, visit the HCM Technology Report every day, we’re the most trusted source of news in the HR tech industry. Find us at www.hcmtechnologyreport.com. I’m Mark Feffer.

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