Pitchfest
Spotlights
HR Tech
Innovations
The 2018 HR Technology Conference and
Exposition® will, for
the first time, feature
Pitchfest, in which
representatives from 30
start-ups will have an
opportunity to present
their solutions before
a panel of judges and
conference-goers, followed
by two-minutes of
questions and answers.
Specifically, HR tech
start-ups will take the stage
on Sept. 11 and 12, after
which six will be selected to
advance to the final round on
Sept. 13. Each round includes
audience voting, which will
count for 30 percent of the
final score. One winner will
be selected to present in the
conference’s “The Next Great
HR Tech Company” session,
as well as win exhibit space
at the 2019 event.
Conference
co-chair Steve
Boese points
out that the
extent of start-up innovation
in the field is
staggering.
“Our Pitchfest
event gives
them the chance to showcase
their early-state solutions in
front of HR Tech’s audience
of angel investors, VCs, HR
leaders, industry influencers
and more, giving them
unprecedented exposure at
an early stage,” he says.
The Randstad Innovation
Fund, which has joined the
HR Tech Conference as a
sponsor of the competition,
will present the winner (or
if there is more than one,
winners) with up to $30,000 in
prize money.
The 2018 HR Tech
Conference will feature more
than 75 sessions, with most
spanning 11 education tracks.
Speakers include many of the
foremost authorities on every
aspect of HR technology. It
also includes an exposition
hall that features more than
400 exhibitors, including a
start-up pavilion with more
than 60 companies.
The full program for
the HR Tech Conference—
which is now in its 21st
year and runs from Sept.
11 through Sept. 14 at the
Venetian in Las Vegas—
can be viewed at www.
hrtechnologyconference.com.
IN BRIEF
Do You Know What Your Candidates Want?
Although salary is a top consideration for many people, a new
survey finds that a company’s benefits program—not pay—is the
No. 1 consideration for a majority of job seekers.
The survey of nearly 800 people, commissioned by Randstad
US, finds that 66 percent of workers agree “a strong benefits
and perks package” is the largest determining factor when
considering job offers, and 61 percent would be willing to accept
a lower salary if a company offered a “great” benefits package.
Forty-two percent say they’re considering leaving their current
jobs because of inadequate benefits packages, and 55 percent say
they’ve left jobs in the past because they found better benefits
elsewhere.
Health insurance was—unsurprisingly—prioritized by 75
percent of respondents, with retirement benefits coming in at
a distant No. 2 (just 21 percent said they’re a priority). When
it comes to perks that matter most, 33 percent selected “early
Friday releases” and 26 percent chose flexibility and remote
working as perks they’d like to see more of in the workplace.
—Andrew R. McIlvaine
Survey: HR Leaders are Strategic Influencers
According to a survey of 300 HR decision-makers at U.S.
companies with between 50 and 500 employees, today’s
HR leaders continue to have strategic influence with their
organization’s C-suite.
The 2018 Paychex Pulse of HR Survey found that between 2017
and 2018, the same number (80 percent) of HR leaders feel like
strategic partners within their organization—and 44 percent have
met with their CEO, CFO or both on a weekly basis in 2018.
The report also showed a commitment to talent management,
as 85 percent of respondents said they’re focusing on company
culture to drive results, and 77 percent feel their current HR-technology solution is improving overall employee experience.
Employee engagement is also a hot topic. In 2018, 65 percent
of HR leaders reported that at least half of their workforce is
engaged, up from 48 percent in 2017. Furthermore, of those
surveyed, 62 percent of HR leaders are measuring employee
engagement via pulse surveys throughout the year rather than on
an annual basis.
—Michael J. O’Brien
Time to Upgrade Comp Programs
New research from Willis Towers Watson finds that, among
374 U.S. employers, 45 percent are planning to redesign annual
incentive plans and 37 percent are planning on updating criteria
for salary increases. Additionally, 53 percent are considering
increasing transparency around compensation practices.
According to Stacey Rapacki, senior director of talent and
rewards at Willis Towers Watson, the results weren’t surprising,
but they did highlight enduring issues companies continue
to struggle with, such as differentiating base pay for critical
employees, funding for incentive plans and gender-pay inequity.
Effective compensation and reward programs require clearly
defined purposes, Rapacki says. Employers also need “to segment
and differentiate pay for key segments of the population,” with
a focus on the roles that will deliver the most value. Programs
should also be aligned with a company’s employee-value
proposition, HR strategy and company priorities, she adds.
HR must be able to make a business case for a budget to truly
differentiate and reward critical employee segments, she adds.
—Danielle Westermann King
Receiving a Raise
According to PayScale’s new report,
Raise Anatomy, white men are far
more likely to receive a raise when they
ask for it than people of color.
The survey of more than 160,000
employees—which included questions
about their demographics, employment and
history of pay-raise requests—revealed that:
• women of color were 19 percent less
likely than white men to receive a raise they
requested;
• men of color were 25 percent less likely than
white men to receive a raise they requested;
• no gender or racial/ethnic group was more
likely than another to have asked for a raise;
• 70 percent of workers who asked for a raise
received some type of pay increase;
• 39 percent of those who asked for a raise
received the amount they requested, while 31
percent received a smaller amount; and
• 49 percent of raise denials cited budgetary
constraints, though only 22 percent of
employees believed that reasoning.
Is There a
Disconnect in
Gender-Pay
Inequity?
Despite widespread agreement that gender-pay inequity
is a problem, a new survey
of 317 HR executives by
i4cp found that half don’t
see it as an issue at their
organization.
About 29 percent of those
surveyed didn’t know if
gender-pay inequity affects
their company, while 22
percent said it does.
Lorrie Lykins, vice
president of research for
i4cp, speculates the lack of
transparency around pay may
have something to do with
the disconnect.
“For the most part, people
don’t feel comfortable talking
about money,” Lykins says.
That is supported by the
survey, which found that 77
percent of respondents said
pay was not transparent at
their organizations; of those,
12 percent are taking steps
to make their pay practices
more visible.
Roughly 45 percent said
their organizations conducted
a pay audit to determine if
men and women are being
paid equally for comparable
work, compared to 14 percent
who didn’t but plan to and
16 percent who didn’t and
and have no plans to. About
25 percent didn’t know if an
audit had been done.
Lykins suggests
that concern over the
ramifications of uncovering
a “glaring, insurmountable
gap” in pay could be a factor
in holding companies back
from doing an audit.
—David Shadovitz
