Day two: done and dusted. It was another informative and enriching experience thanks to our stellar line up of speakers.

Here are three sessions indicative of the calibre of what was on offer for the HR & L&D community today.

Josh Bersin, Renowned Corporate Learning & HR Thought Leader and Analyst (USA)

Theme: HR Technology Market 2021

Premise: The pandemic has caused many companies to shift technology-related planning and investments. Some purchases have been delayed indefinitely, while others have been accelerated. Solutions that might have been considered nice-to-have options have become essential, and everyone is looking to technology for help in keeping employees engaged, connected and involved as businesses adapt to conditions changing daily. Josh Bersin reviews the state of the HR technology market in the COVID-19 era.

Keynote Key Takeaways:

HR technology is moving from the search for the right product to the right platform. It’s all about being able to adapt more easily.

AI is here. It’s not making jobs go away it’s changing them, so consider it a transformation more than a disruption.

The focus is on employee experience: workflow management, ease of use, knowledge management, case management, transition programs.

2021 and beyond will see a lot more talent management apps. The talent acquisition philosophy is evolving and so is the technology. The talent management technology market is crowded.

VR is becoming a mainstream technology for training and to help with diversity and inclusion.

Capability academies are the next wave after self-directed learning.

Well-being and resilience is becoming central to the entire HR function – it is no longer a perk or benefit.

Quote of the session:

“We’re going to be in a hot recruiting phase in 2021, so I would try to rationalilse down some of your old tools in the next year. Make sure you’re investing in the new ones so you have some good sources of data and you can really find some good people in the market who are good matches for your jobs. Jobs are changing and you need a good AI tools.”

Brandon Carson, Director of Learning - Delta Air Lines (USA)

Topic: Impact! L&D's Playbook for the Digital Age

Premise: The digital age has created a massive increase in the speed and complexity of business, fundamentally disrupting the workplace. In this session, Brandon discusses how and why the corporate learning organisation needs to reorient itself to the digital age and take a more proactive leadership role in driving the business transformation from a performance perspective.

Key Takeaways:

Prior to the pandemic Delta Airlines moved 705,000 people around the world in one day.

But as COVID-19 hit, 97% of their revenue disappeared in 30 days.

The number one message from Delta leaders was ‘we must look after our people’.

The future of L&D: increased investment, restructure, reposition and rescope.

Quote of the session:

“The number one dependency the business has to achieve digital maturity, is the workforce and its ability to execute on the digital strategies that every business is formulating.”

Bernd Zimmerman, Global Head of Organisation Development and Innovation - Siemens Healthineers (Germany)

Topic: A Tech-Driven Approach to Employee Engagement Strategies

Premise: how Siemens Healthineers in Germany have successfully enhanced employee engagement by integrating it with the company's (wish) culture. How they did this while preventing blaming and finger-pointing-to-the-board mentality.

They integrated analytical and continuous improvement processes into normal management routines, implementing continuous improvement and agile visual management philosophies while engaging with their teams in such a way that has allowed for efficient data-driven decision making.

Key Takeaways:

Why should you only care about employee engagement every two years?

Engagement starts with the individual.

Data helped drive impact orientated proactive conversations about employee experience on a bi-weekly basis.

Use a combination of proven engagement survey questions with diversity & inclusion oriented questions.

Quote of the session:

“We would really like to leverage employee engagement to other analytics and data to connect the dots, measure correlation, measure impact to continue the data driven decision-making. Maybe in the future culture, strategy and employee wellbeing will sit together and not fight for breakfast among one another.”

SIGN IN at 10am on Wednesday, 9 December when we'll do it all again. Familiarise yourself with the session agenda - so much content!