In preparation for HR Tech Fest in November, we've just returned from running our annual roundtable research sessions in cities across Australia and New Zealand. Each session was a full and frank discussion, focusing on the current challenges facing HR leaders in moving forward with HR technology strategy.

We had a fantastic turnout to these roundtables, with over 50 senior HR and IT professionals weighing in on the discussions in order to uncover pain points, challenges and ideas for improvement.

There was one clear theme that emerged quite early on in the discussions:  The current climate is right for engaging senior management in long-term HR strategy and ensuring our organisations are set up for continuous improvement. And technology is the key enabler of this transformation.

The following are my broad summaries of the key themes discussed. You can download the full report here.

To succeed in launching an HR Tech project we need to be on the same strategic page as the business. So how do we begin to build business cases? How do we get everyone around us focussed on HR innovation? It can be difficult to sell the need for ‘'internal'' investment at the expense of customer facing or revenue generating projects. To get the business on the same page it's essential to start talking the same language. The HR strategy must be an all-encompassing business model – all facets of business must have a line of sight – not just the HR team driving things.

Technology is nothing without successful implementation, harmonised business processes and internal champions driving utilisation. A company's culture can have a huge impact on the success of technology projects. HR has an important role to play; but so do many other areas: IT, Finance, Project Team members etc. Each has a direct impact on the potential success of a project but if you're smart you can use HR technology to bring an accelerated journey towards organisational change.

There are a number of HR technology products and services from around the globe that have the potential to help drive business value. But how do we ensure we're embarking on the right projects and engaging the right external partners, in the right way, to make these projects a success? In an ideal world, we would have true partnerships between businesses and vendors, not just be ‘'sold to'' all the time: Partners need to add value – not just layers of complexity and confusion.

How do we get key team members on board to help us succeed in our HR innovation projects? Building successful project teams is difficult while we're maintaining business as usual priorities and keeping up momentum during stressful times. We need the project team to invest in our strategy and see the project through without losing the passion. Giving clear direction and facilitating culture change is key. We want our stakeholders to drive great behaviour by focusing on leadership skills that empower people to achieve our goals.

Often we introduce new ideas for business transformation but internal teams don't want to take them up as they're fatigued. Have we lost sight of what makes people tick? The goal is to make the experience of using HR technology habitual and future-proof. But with so many barriers to sustainable user adoption, how do we achieve this? It's clear that usability drives adoption. If we can embed processes with minimal training requirements and self-evident navigation, it enables us to focus change management efforts on the “whyâ€' rather than the “howâ€'.

There is significant activity within the HR technology marketplace and a reduction in the lifespan of HR systems once they are integrated. It is clear we need to be constantly looking for ways to update, improve and sometimes overhaul our HR systems. The goal is to find technology which can demonstrably improve the lives of employees and offer true value to the business. Ultimately we are searching for simplicity – technology which is easy to use and effective in delivery.

After the lively discussions, all the participants were asked for the areas which were key to exploring how innovation and technology can transform the business. Here are the results ranked in order of importance:

1. Data
2. Learning
3. Talent/Recruitment
4. Pay/Rewards
5. Social
6. Systems/Payroll

About the Author

Simon Yeowart is a Senior Conference Director at The Eventful Group. We like to think of him as our very own Sherlock – he scours the globe to find the people and stories that make up the wonderful HR Tech Fest program. From the international big hitters to the local success stories, Simon hunts down the world's most exciting speakers to create a truly inspiring program of sessions.