150+ speakers, 200+ partners, 25+ startups and 3,000+ attendees. People Matters TechHR 2018 has been a blast.
With speakers from the Yoda of HR Tech Josh Bersin to Senior HRs from the likes of Microsoft, Nestle, Accenture and you name it, the event really opened my eyes to the world of HR Tech.
It was made easier since my fixation has always been the Singapore market. So it is quite mind blowing when I get to know that a “startup” like PeopleStrong has more headcounts than all the HR Techs in Singapore combined.
The event was held at The Leela Ambience Gurugram Hotel in New Delhi. In it’s fifth run, the event occupies the half the lobby and the entire level 2 (walkways and ballrooms).
You might be wondering why this isn’t held in a convention centre. According to the organiser, there isn’t a suitable venue that is big and suitable enough to house their event. So they did the next best thing – to book down the entire hotel!
This trip was more of a work trip for me as we aided a couple of Singapore HR Tech to participate as exhibitors.
The first one is Impress.ai – an AI-powered candidate screening chatbot. That’s the back of Impress.ai CEOÂ Sudhanshu facing the camera.
Next we have the folks from pymetrics – applying proven neuroscience games and cutting edge AI to reinvent the way companies attract, select, and retain talent.
That’s their Sales Development Manager Cliffton Lee who made their participation happened.
India HR Techs
At an event that is held in New Delhi, the Singapore delegates are just a speck in the Indian Ocean. There were more than two dozens startups showcasing their ideas and many solid solutions that have been proven and validated by the market.
In fact, some of them would be heading to Singapore soon.
Here’s a few that caught my attention:
1. Mettl
Mettl is one of the largest and fastest growing online talent measurement solution provider globally, and has been at the forefront of online assessment technology since its inception in 2010.
It enables organizations to build winning teams by taking credible people decisions across two key areas: Hiring and Development.
More than 1,500 global corporate and 15 educational institutes in 80+ countries have benefited from its award-winning solutions.
What I like about their solution is that they aren’t just using one single assessment to measure every different individuals.
Their strength is their ability to customise assessments according to vocations.
For instance, they have hiring assessments for insurance sales people, security guards and even maids.
2. Belong.co
Belong is the world’s first predictive outbound hiring solution.
Their data-driven hiring solution helps growing companies spot candidates who best fit their requirements and are most inclined to move, and engage with them through personalized interactions.
With data that one would not typically make use of (e.g. who you retweet on Twitter), the combination of all these data points will make certain inference that might make sense hiring wise.
What is even better is their pairing of that with an automated email outreach module. Similar to Reply.io, a tool that I used heavily for mass outreach, candidates would get highly customised outreach emails without the massive time needed as automation (plus a human QC) will take care of it.
3. PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong is a leading human resource (HR) Solutions and Technology company from India, that is enriching experience at work for over 200+ customers and over 600,000 users.
Delivering its technology and services in one offering, it has distilled tens of thousands of hours of ‘natural research and development (R&D) — a decade long experience of servicing the HR functions of top Indian companies.
With more than 1,000 employess (200+ of them developers), PeopleStrong is on fire. I never had good impression of Enterprise level HR solution as I’m just too spoiled as a user. I don’t want to read a 100 pages user guide and a 2-day workshop so that I know how to switch on the system.
PeopleStrong user-first interface reminds me of the elegance of iOS – something that feels so dead simple but is powerful enough to manage millions of devices at any one time.
Josh Bersin
The Yoda of HR Tech, I learned a lot from his writings and I went into fanboy mode when I finally get to see him in person.
Although his presentation lasted only 20 minutes (please give him more time in the future), he provided a very good condensation of the foreseeable future of HR Tech and their users.
A few pointers which I took note of:
- Talent Management is done (cue TM solution providers sinking into their seats)
- ERP Vendors are stressed in keeping up and is spreading themselves too thin
- Core HR Platforms are shifting their focus towards Performance, Engagement and Experience
- Explosion of new, intelligent talent platforms that will focus on productivity, not simply HR
- Talent Acquisition Tool are reinventing themselves for AI-Based Intelligent Recruitment Automation
- A new breed of performance management tools are arriving – hint: continuous feedback
- Workplace culture is hot – linking wellness with performance
- People analytics are shifting from experiments, models, studies to practical, useful dashboard and tools
- HR Tech Architecture of the future is built for the employee experience
- AI has arrived – and it works
The 3-day event was truly amazing I can’t wait for the next one.
In fact, the next one would be much better as it won’t involved a 6 hours flight to New Delhi. Instead, it would just be a 20-mins drive to Marina Bay Sands.
Yes, the next People Matters TechHR conference would be held here in Singapore!
The exact date isn’t firmed yet but I will be working closely with them to provide any needed support.
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See you at the event! 🙂
