NOW of Work Mercer | Leapgen

You know how Spotify Wrapped is where Spotify listeners dive into their top listening moments of the year? We had our own version! We shared our own top listening moments of 2023 from the perspective of a few of the analysts who cover #HRTechnology. 

Hosted by Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank, we'll hear from analysts like Jim Holincheck, Madeline Laurano, Pete Tiliakos, Sarah White, Steve Goldberg, and Tara Cooper just what went down in 2023. What innovation got us excited, what are we over-rotating on, and what needs better solutions than we've come up with so far? Where is the ball going in 2024? Any guesses?

Hear it straight from the people who pay more attention to #WorkTech innovation than anyone else. It's a Special Edition of our Now of Work Digital Meetup

Consider this unprecedented scenario: the workforce now encompasses five distinct generations simultaneously. There's a pervasive market obsession with Gen Z, assuming their candidate and workforce expectations are uniquely special. Is this assumption accurate or merely a misconception?

In the quest to attract workers spanning five generations, the question arises: is it necessary for employers to tailor experiences for each generational persona, or could this approach be characterized as over-engineering, perhaps even stereotyping? Can GenAI and storytelling authenticity truly coexist? In an era where scalability makes fabrication effortless, how does a brand remain faithful to its ethos?

Our special guest, Summer Baruth, Head of Global Employer Brand & Talent Attraction at AECOM, brought her extensive expertise in employer branding and diverse candidate experiences across multiple industries and multiple generations to join Jess Von Bank and Jason Averbook in unraveling these intricacies and navigating the evolving landscape together.

So much of the innovation happening in the HR Tech space is about new ways of working. You can't just "shop for AI" and get the organization on board overnight. You can't download a skills ontology to automagically change the way your company hires and promotes people. Please don't buy a CRM just because you're having a hard time competing for talent. These are all TOOLS. Tools build what you tell them to. Don't leave the drawing board until you know the outcomes you need; then you'll know the right tools.

HR Tech providers are driving a ton of innovation, and it's all way ahead of their buyers' ability to consume it all. Should they slow down? Nope. But it does change how they go to market, how they position and sell to you, the incremental value they demonstrate and the change support they offer to help you get there. For the reallllly bright shiny stuff, it means providers have to train and educate the market more than they have before. 

Michael Johnson has dedicated a career to driving revenue and growth strategies for some of the most innovative HR technologies in the industry. He weighs in with Jason and Jess on how HR Tech providers can win the market in 2024. 

Did anyone pay attention to the HR Technology Conference & Exposition's Pitchfest winners?The big winner digitally consolidates 401(k) plans. You know, rather than manually. That's how much basic blocking & tackling we still have left to do when driving innovation for business and making all of our work lives better. Another winner we loved is CollabWORK, who also addresses a pretty fundamental talent problem. We all love hiring referrals, but we don't think outside the box when it comes to connecting with the seven degrees of separation of our high performers and hard-to-source talent.Summer Delaney, CEO and Founder of CollabWORK explains their community-based hiring approach. Yes, they use AI, but that wasn't the big story. In fact, they might have won because they take a pretty cautious but intelligent approach.



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Before you listen to this epsidoe, give yourself 5 minutes to read an incredible story. One of the defining moments of the Afghanistan War occurred in a mere second inside a single battle that raged for 7 hours. Then 37-year-old United States Army Captain Will Swenson found himself a commander in what would become known as the Battle of Ganjgal. An early morning meeting connecting the Afghan government with native elders in the Ganjgal Valley near the border of Pakistan turned into a brutal ambush of Swenson's 100-person coalition. Surrounded by as many as 60 well-armed Taliban fighters unleashing a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades, mortar, and machine gun fire, repeated calls for overheard artillery support were denied for fear of civilian casualties. Denied all day, in fact, while Swenson and his men fended for themselves under unrelenting artillery fire. Rare helmet-cam footage from a medical evacuation team caught much of the extraordinary scene. Including Swenson repeatedly waving a bright orange flag to guide a military rescue helicopter into a safe landing zone to retrieve the injured and pull out the dead. Swenson waved the brightly colored flag throughout the day, making himself a highly visible target to enemy fighters but ensuring the helicopter could load injured and dying men to receive medical attention. At one point, we see Captain Swenson loading Sergeant Kenneth Westbrook into the chopper. Westbrook, a father of three, had been shot in the neck and was bleeding heavily. He also had four broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a shattered left shoulder. He would die 29 days later from these injuries. But this day, Swenson hoped he could be saved. He is seen carrying Westbrook onto the helicopter, and the GoPro camera on the med evac's helmet captured another fleeting moment almost no one would have seen. Swenson is seen leaning into the helicopter and giving Westbrook a kiss on his cheek before the helicopter side door closes. A moment never intended to be captured on film. A moment Swenson himself hardly remembered. A moment of true leadership.

Swenson's kiss on a battlefield was a catalyst for Dr. Kirstin Ferguson to write her latest book, Head & Heart: The Art of Modern Leadership. Our own Jess Von Bank met Dr. Ferguson at Oracle CloudWorld just weeks ago. Dr. Ferguson was fresh out of books that afternoon after a successful book signing, so she sent one to the restaurant to be handed to Jess later at dinner. Jess carried the book all over Las Vegas that night, dying to tear into its pages, and today they finally bring this conversation to the Now of Work community. ON THIS EPISODE, WAIT UNTIL YOU MEET Dr. Ferguson. Former Flying Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force herself, she went on to become a PhD in Organizational Psychology, CEO of a global consulting firm, and best-selling global leadership expert on the impact of leading from the head and the heart.

Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank are back in action and they were so happy to catch up with our Now of Work community.

The past couple of months of conference season have been a whirlwind of innovation, thought-provoking conversations, and valuable connections and we are eager to share our experiences and check in with all of you. 

And in this episode, Jason poses a critical theory: that skills may be considered more valuable than credentials. Along with the amazing insight and ideas form our live attendees in the chat, Jess and Jason break down their own thoughts on the value that employees bring to the workforce and how the future of work is molding to be more human-centric.

Tune in!