Gartner ReimagineHR Conference, London: Day 1 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from the Gartner ReimagineHR Conference, taking place today and tomorrow, Wednesday, September 18, in London, U.K. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference.

On Day 1 from the conference, we are highlighting the Opening Keynote, how to deliver on the employee experience promise, what's working and what's not working for AI in HR, and adoption hacks to make HR Technology work for everyone.

Be sure to check this page throughout the day for updates.

• Culture Connectedness is Crucial for HR Leaders in Driving Culture Change: Q&A with Cian O Morain
• Gartner HR Research Reveals Only 33% of Employees Say Their Organizations Consistently Deliver on Promises

Presented by Jessie Knight, Vice President, Research, Gartner, and Russ McCall, Director, Advisory, Gartner

Organizations are on the cusp of a major reset, with expectations that new technology-fueled business models will unlock productivity and innovation, while AI-powered tools will reduce drudgery and unleash new capabilities. In this opening Gartner keynote, Jessie Knight, Vice President, Research, Gartner, and Russ McCall, Director, Advisory, Gartner, explored the pivotal role HR leaders play in helping organizations reshape employers’ and employees’ common currency: the work itself.

• “HR has the opportunity to reset in each of the three main elements of work -- people, skills and tools – via key initiatives: 
  
  • Shared Experience: Resetting the intereactions between people and their colleagues where it matters most
  • Collective Intelligence: Harnessing the collective "brain" of the organization to make the entire workforce more ready for what's next
  • Human-first AI: Reconfiguring how people interact with technology to produce more productive work. 

• “Teamwork isn’t about just sharing work, it’s also about sharing experience that creates psychological safety for innovation and performance. Shared experience drives higher network contribution and innovation.”

• “To achieve an always ready workforce and prepare for what’s next, organizations must harness collective intelligence -- the skills that exist to get the needed knowledge everywhere it’s required."

• “Rather than starting with AI and its capabilities, HR must lead their organization to a new approach – human-first AI, which starts with what the human is trying to do and then pursuing how technology can support that.”

• “When organizations take a human-first AI approach, employees are 1.5 times more likely to be high performers and 2.3 times more likely to be highly engaged.”

Presented by Keyia Burton, Senior Principal, Advisory, Gartner

As employee expectations have shifted over the past few years, many organizations have been activating their employee value propositions (EVPs) to attract and retain talent. In this session, Keyia Burton, Senior Principal, Advisory, Research, Gartner explored how HR leaders can address stakeholder and process barriers to deliver on the promise of their EVP and drive key outcomes, such as engagement and intent to stay.

• “As HR leaders have ramped up their investments in EVP, employees are not seeing the upgrades – only 33% of employees today saying their organization consistently delivers on the promises made.” 

• “Poor communication is the main reason why these enhancements are not improving how employees see EVP; 75% of HR leaders admitted they aren’t doing a great job communicating their EVP internally.” 

• “There are three key areas where communication falls short, hindering how HR leaders communicate EVP: 

  • Employees don’t understand the EVP. Just 16% of employees report knowing what makes up their organization’s EVP. 

  • Employees feel distant from the EVP. Only 18% of employees experience EVP through day-to-day work.

  • Employees are skeptical the EVP will improve. Thirty-eight percent of employees anticipate EVP offerings will improve in the future.”

• “To drive employee understanding, and better deliver on the employee experience promise, HR leaders must revamp their EVP communication strategy by: 

  • Positioning EVP in the context of the employee journey
  • Making communication seamless by embedding it into workflows. 
  • Demonstrating responsiveness to EVP shortfalls and intent to act. 

Additional information is available in the press release Gartner HR Research Reveals Only 33% of Employees Say Their Organizations Consistently Deliver on Promises.

Presented by Helen Poitevin, Distinguished Vice President Analyst, Gartner

While many organizations are making investments in implementing AI in HR, the maturity and capability of solutions often lag expectations. In this session, Helen Poitevin, Distinguished Vice President Analyst, Gartner, examined use cases and reviewed what’s working, what’s not, and what lessons have been learned from organizations that have successfully deployed AI and continue to improve its performance. 

• “The three key AI investment areas for HR leaders are: 
  • Recruiting
  • HR Virtual Assistants (HRVAs)
  • Skills Data.”

• “Of the three investments, recruiting is the most mature with many organizations utilizing AI throughout the entire recruiting process.” 

• “While HRVAs are valuable, Gartner predicts that by 2028, only 40% of employees would prefer to engage with a chatbot rather than a person for most HR tasks.”

• “HR leaders are investing in the use of AI for skills data, which has already already evolved immensely - going from being very manual to more automated - but there’s still a long way to go.

  • In the past, the challenge was getting any data at all, beyond what was available through resume parsing. 

  • In the present, the challenge is there is an abundance of unstructured data, and it’s difficult to keep track of all of it, making it hard to share metadata. 

  • In the future, the challenge will be the skills data that HR needs for talent processes isn’t as detailed as the skills data that business leaders need for resourcing/staffing.” 

Presented by Eser Rizaoglu, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner

As technology innovations such as GenAI emerge, HR leaders are looking for actionable low effort hacks to make technology work better for end users. In this session, Eser Rizaoglu, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner, revealed seven low effort hacks for HR leaders to help improve adoption of HR technologies. 

• “Despite HR leaders reporting HR technology as the number one area of investment for the last three years, human resource information system (HRIS) has an adoption rate of 30%.” 

• “Employees find HR tech clunky and hard to navigate; HR leaders can increase adoption by starting with smaller changes/hacks to help insert HR tech and processes into employees’ day-to-day.” 

• “Three key principles for HR tech adoption hacks are: 

  • Keep It Super Simple (KISS): The simpler the hack, the easier it is for people to understand and apply it. 

  • Hack where people spend their time: Focus on areas where employees are already engaged, such as entering transactions, executing processes, and entering and curating data.

  • Communicate the value: Clearly articulate how each hack will make work easier, more efficient, or more rewarding.” 

• “The seven hacks that can accelerate HR technology adoption are: 

  • Hack 1: Engage employees and managers at the selection stage of HR tech for successful adoption

  • Hack 2: Expose new hires to HCM technology for enhanced engagement 

  • Hack 3: Encourage digital side hustles to build user community and promote peer learning 

  • Hack 4: Engage senior leaders to lead change and inspire adoption 

  • Hack 5: Integrate small dosages of GenAI to enhance HR transactions 

  • Hack 6: Use simple nudge tools to boost employee engagement

  • Hack 7: Use robotic processes automation to automate simple, rule-based tasks for quick wins.”