Leave it to a friend to call you out when you need it. As I walked into the Expo Hall at #Transform2024 at the lovely Wynn in scenic Lost Wages, Nevada, tech writer and influencer Laurie Ruettimann greeted me as only she can. “You’ve got that look that says, ‘Great. Another #%&$ expo floor.” So, yeah, I had the tech conference version of RBF. Like lots of people in our world of hybrid work, I guess I’d rather be at home with my dog.
After almost 20 years of meandering through booths and mountains of swag, the thrill of the conference scene, shall we say, is gone. However, Transform is the HR tech conference buzz-event of the moment, and I felt like I needed to see this for myself. Did Transform live up to the hype? Yeah, I think it did.
The Transform hype comes down to three things:
An engaged audience of HR practitioners (or buyers, as we on the vendor side like to call them).
A better experience that makes it easier to connect with people and have real conversations.
Lots of good content in 15-30 minute bursts.
I like to spend time talking with the people in the booths because when you ask how the show is going, they will give it to you straight with no happy spin. If anything, they will trend a bit negatively. But, Transform booth peeps were all pretty positive, indicating that they were experiencing more better quality prospect conversations than you would get at most other tech events. That’s the ultimate litmus test — and it’s not one that many HR Tech industry events are passing right now.
The other thing is that Transform just feels cool. “This feels like an insider event,” said one vendor exec I spoke with. The conference app made things easy-ish to schedule meetings with attendees who share common interests. The conference lanyard had an AirTag thing that made exchanging contact information easy and kind of fun. Not that the event wasn’t without some growing pains, but attendance was up significantly from the previous year, according to several previous attendees.
What did we learn from the event?
What are buyers looking for right now? Innovation will always have a place in tech buying, but two dynamics seem to be at play right now in Work Tech. 1) Replacement. Give me a better mousetrap. Example: Payroll. 2) Headcount reduction.Klarna’s new AI tool does the work of 700 call-center reps. Gimme that. CFOs/COOs are compelled by the cost savings.
AI is more confusing than clarifying as a value proposition. The AI hype cycle may be going full tilt, but buyer attitudes about AI are in the trough of disillusionment and full-on WGAF. My favorite contrarian position: AI will change nothing because the amount of bias and data hallucinations make the output untrustworthy and unreliable. I’m not sure I would go that far, but I do agree that AI reality can’t live up to the hype. From a go-to-market perspective, you need an AI narrative, but AI cannot and should not be your choice factor or essential value. It’s just noise. The Josh Bersin Company came out strong with its Sana Labs/Galileo product. I can’t get past the brand confusion with Sana Benefits. Josh is still the hardest-working guy in the industry. I’m interested to see where the product goes.
The benefits portfolio continues its full-on revamp. The Great Resignation may be over, but there’s still a significant reason for employers to win the hearts and minds of current and prospective employees, especially in areas of financial well-being and mental health (which one could argue are related). Lifestyle Spending Account solutions like Forma, Fringe, and Compt were out in full force. So were mental health solutions like Lyra and Betterhelp. Financial literacy solutions like Addition and Origin are another way to address these issues. And, of course, earned-wage access solutions like Payactiv just keep growing. Another growth area: Student loan repayment solutions like Highway Benefits. They are reporting strong growth from employers looking for employer student loan contributions and student loan retirement matches. And finally, offering benefits is one thing; getting employees to use them is another. Glad to see Zeera running directly at the problem.
Compliance and compensation aren’t just back-office issues anymore. One of the big shifts from HR Tech to Work Tech is the evolution from back-office to front-office. Personal leave — whether for family, personal, or medical purposes — is much more fraught in the world of distributed teams and hybrid workforces. Leave management solutions like Tilt and Cocoon offer a ton of employee experience value in getting the process right. Even something that seems as boring as compensation data offers a lot of value in informing conversations with employees and candidates. Solutions like Pave are bringing a fresher approach to real-time comp data.
Employer of Record (EOR) is going into overdrive. EOR solutions like Deel, Remote, Multiplier, TCWGlobal, G-P, and others are having a moment and seem to be in position to disrupt the entire HCM ecosystem. I thought George Larocque’s trends presentation was provocative in building out that point of view. His position: The power brands of today (HCM/EOR) will likely be supplanted by a new breed of players. I have more thoughts on this than there’s room for here. But, a very interesting angle.
API players are solving the most significant and persistent problem in Work Tech. For the better part of the past 15 years, HR/Work Tech market research data has been pretty clear and consistent — solution integration is one of the top buyer pain points. A new breed of API players like Finch, Merge, and others are growing because they are making a lot of these pains go away and improving interoperability and data exchange.
Talent Acquisition is pretty much Talent Intelligence at this point. Recruitment solutions have taken a bit of a hit during the latest downturn. Hiring (especially in the tech industry) fell off significantly, but things are on the upswing. But, what’s clear is that the people analytics component that the ability to tie into any number of post-hire aspects are essential. SeekOut, Crunchr, Greenhouse, Fountain, and others are going there and telling the all-in story. Random observation: Is there a hotter brand in Work Tech than Ashby right now? Buzzy AF.
There’s a lot of learning and development market share at play. One POV from one smart consultant I spoke with — there’s no viable SMB/mid-market LMS solution right now; everything is an enterprise solution force-fit into an SMB wrapper. I’m not sure I can disagree with that right now, but there are a ton of solutions that can plug into your LMS to make it more useful. A few impressive solutions on hand were TaskHuman, Emtrain, and Learnerbly. Worth noting: Had a great conversation with Barbra Gago from Pando. She has one of the most amazing track records in the industry as an early-stage marketing leader at fast growth companies (Greenhouse, CultureAmp). What is even more noteworthy is the career development product she and her team have built at Pando. Super impressive.
Amazon making a team/employee play with books. Of course, they have a Future of Work play.
Oh, and Flavor Flav showed up at the Flo Rida show. Not that I was there. I had to get home to my dog. And … on a related note: Big kudos to the folks at Airvet. It’s like a Teladoc solution for pets. They gave me a free trial, which is actually the most useful piece of conference swag I’ve picked up in a while. What can I say? My dog eats a lot of random stuff off the ground. Having a vet on speed dial is helpful. Thanks, Airvet!
What else is going on this week?
Blueboard Abruptly Ceases Operations
A sad industry note and an unfortunate sign of the times: Experiential rewards and recognition player Blueboardabruptly shut down earlier this week. According to a LinkedIn post from a company executive, their secured lender foreclosed on assets and swept their bank accounts — which was in their legal rights. There is still some talk of an emergency acquisition.
READ IT:
A Humble Guide to Fixing Everything in Brand, Marketing, and Sales
Best quote of the week at Transform from an exec who read the book: “This said everything I’ve been thinking about how the market has changed in the past few years. This book really helps explain it to my leadership team.”
Another Transform note: I had a thoughtful conversation with HiBob CMO Sarah Reynolds about their team’s successful brand refresh and new logo. It’s great work. Kudos to y’all!
OK, we are running long today. If you want the full download on funding, acquisitions, and industry notes, check our LinkedIn feed on Monday. Did you know that we are now on LinkedIn? If not, you really oughta subscribe like right now! Back to business as usual next week.
That's it for this week!
Everybody love everybody,
Steve Smith
PS — Our friends at Aspect43 are running their annual Insights at Work Survey. No matter who you are, whatever company, category, or job level — jump in and share your thoughts! Runs until March 30.