In preparation for HR Innovation & Tech Fest in July 2019, we've just returned from running our annual roundtable research sessions in cities across New Zealand. Each session was a full and frank discussion, focusing on the current challenges facing the HR and IT professionals and the enablers leading towards change.

We had a fantastic turnout to these roundtables, with over 85 HR and IT professionals weighing in on the discussions in order to uncover pain points, challenges and ideas for improvement. This year we've expanded our research groups to include Learning & Development professionals who provided some exciting new perspectives that were invaluable for creating a holistic picture of the innovation landscape.

Why Run Roundtable Discussions?

As a Program Director, I often get asked how I decide on what goes into the HR Innovation & Tech Fest program each year. What many people don't realise is that the research process starts long before the event planning even begins – usually 6 months out from the conference – when we get the community together in a series of roundtable discussion groups.

Our roundtable discussion groups are the cornerstone of our unique research methodology. For 24 years, we have specialised in developing communities of common interest for business and IT professionals. Intense research with these communities is conducted via a process known as the Circle of Customer Engagement, where both the challenges faced, and opportunities perceived are identified.

Roundtable discussion groups provide a trusting and secure setting to enable a frank discussion of both the challenges faced, and opportunities perceived. This unique research process ensures pure and accurate information is generated through debate and discussion among the community.

What Do We Do with the Insights?

We use the topics that come out of these discussions to create our annual HR Innovation Research Report, a distillation of the key challenges raised in the roundtable discussions.

From there we build the agenda for HR Innovation & Tech Fest, looking at these key challenges and finding the case studies, industry experts and thought leaders who can provide insights into how to solve these business challenges.

The following are my broad summaries of the key themes discussed at this year's roundtable discussion groups. You can download the full report here.

1. The Business of the Future – How Are Organisations Preparing for a New World of Work?

Digital disruption is changing the nature of work and our roles in HR. The rise of the gig economy, agile team structures, and automated technologies are all changing the modern workforce. HR needs to re-equip to ensure we are ready to support and engage the new norm. How will HR technology solutions reflect this modern way of working?

2. Mirroring a Self-Service Culture to Create Genuine Employee Experience

Culture was often seen as HR's job and employees expected to be served a particular experience by the workplace. But increasingly employees are creating their own culture through the technology they use and the daily decisions they make. This more organic process is resulting in HR having to balance the need for structure, whilst allowing employees and organisations to create their own experiences.

3. Developing and Executing an Effective HR Innovation Roadmap

The road to HR disruption rarely follows a clearly defined path and it can be difficult to know how far into the future our roadmap needs to look. There is also the significant challenge of needing to have a technology roadmap but being agile enough to embrace solutions when they present themselves. For this reason, project planning needs to be able to adapt quickly.

4. Becoming an HR Innovation Influencer

Our NZ research groups had no issue describing what they want to achieve; identifying disruptive practices that would make a real impact on their business. But how realistic is it for HR teams to be innovation leads and how can we make the most impact?

5. Making Innovation the New Business as Usual

Innovation is a relatively new focus for HR but the changes already experienced point to the fact that disruption needs to become the new business as usual. The future suggests a blurring of the boundaries between HR and the wider organisation. Our roles are changing and as a result we need to disrupt our thinking and lead the charge to encourage innovation and enhanced engagement for our people.

6. Winning the People Change Battle: Before, During and After Transformation

Organisations can end up drowning in innovation initiatives. Businesses must become less interested in cheap and quick fixes. To truly lead with innovation at the core, they must be able to show how the change will enable the business to do things better. Change is not forever, so we also need to demonstrate that we will remain agile, flexible and strategic. Everything we do must tell a story about how change will add value, however that may be defined.

7. Making UX Top of the Technology Wishlist

To ensure user experience is at the forefront of our HR technology design, we need to ensure we clearly understand who our users are and what is important to them. This can be difficult in a diverse and varied workforce, but the purpose of the organisation should be reflected in the priorities of each user. We should be talking to our users constantly, understanding their perspective and how they communicate. In this way we can create tailored messaging for different groups.

8. Navigating the HR Tech Vendor Landscape

Keeping up with the ongoing change of HR technology solutions is difficult. How do we navigate between the confusing vendor landscape? Which products overlap? What do we have now and what do we need to replace? Most importantly, how can we best facilitate and drive the working relationship with our vendor and/or implementation partner to ensure realistic results?

Read more about the challenges facing HR and IT professionals in driving innovation in The HR Innovation Research Report New Zealand 2019. 

About the Author

Simon Yeowart is the Program Director for HR Innovation & Tech Fest. He scours the globe for the most inspiring stories, case studies and thought leaders to showcase at the event each year.

If you'd like to be involved in next year's roundtable discussion groups, you can get in touch with Simon.