SuccessConnect was finally back in person after three years. Thousands of attendees came to Las Vegas to celebrate the HR community, discuss what work will look like tomorrow, and share new ideas to change work for good. Indeed, from the mainstage keynote and breakout sessions to networking with customers and partners, it was an exciting couple of days. If you weren’t able to attend this year’s event, you can catch the latest product announcements and select content now available on demand.
Here are a few takeaways from this year’s SuccessConnect.
Build a Future-Ready, Sustainable Workforce
The world is experiencing changes and economic pressures not seen in decades, including high inflation, a competitive labor market, and low unemployment. For talent development to be sustainable and impactful, HR leaders need a clear understanding of their workforce capabilities to ensure their people are properly skilled, engaged, and aligned to the right opportunities so that everyone can reach their full potential at work.
This was a key theme of the keynote session, where Amy Wilson, senior vice president of Products and Design for SAP SuccessFactors, showcased the latest innovations to SAP SuccessFactors Human Experience Management (HXM) Suite focused on enabling organizations to solve the skills gap of today while expanding opportunities for all workers. Product demonstrations shed light on how bringing together data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) can provide organizations the necessary talent intelligence to align their people to the changing needs of the organization while enabling personal growth that’s more equitable.
The Time for HR Digital Transformation Is Now
Legacy HR systems often can’t keep up with the demands of a more permanent hybrid workforce model, ongoing market needs, and employee expectations. Investing in talent alongside technology is equally important to scaling HR operations for long-term growth. Special guest Josh Bersin, global industry analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, joined Meg Bear, SAP SuccessFactors president and chief product officer, for the keynote session to discuss how organizations can develop their people to meet the emerging demands of the future of work and the role of technology in transforming how organizations both support and empower their people.
At the event, HEINEKEN shared how it was able to transform its global HR infrastructure within just three years through the adoption of SAP SuccessFactors solutions, optimizing the employee experience. HEINEKEN was proud to highlight that its workforce has fully embraced the new data-driven HR program, with a 95% user adoption rate. In addition, Stacie Overbaugh, group vice president, Product Management, SAP SuccessFactors, led an HXM technology road map and vision session where she shared exciting innovations related to suite integrations, extensibility, security, system administration, analytics, and more.
A Powerful Cloud Foundation Drives Value Realization at Scale
Establishing a cloud-based HR foundation delivers value for both HR and the business. Organizations that enjoy successful HR cloud transformations realize a number of significant benefits, including higher productivity, increased employee engagement, improved data security, and greater cost efficiencies. At the event, Vodafone Group Plc. outlined how it embarked on a global transformation, positively impacting thousands of employees across multiple countries. Now the company provides talent management capabilities at scale with SAP SuccessFactors solutions, realizing the benefits of hyper-automation and mobile-enabled services in increasing efficiency and delivering an excellent employee experience.
Details on moving HR to the cloud were also front and center as part of this road map session where attendees learned about the investments SAP is making to meet customer needs plus key resources including guides, tools, assets, and an ecosystem of partners. Also at the center of the discussion were the available transition paths and tips for determining what may work best for your business when it comes to successfully migrating to the cloud.
Connect HR with the Rest of Your Business to Improve Performance
Your people impact every aspect of your business, from production to sales, finance, and more. But when your organization is lacking a strong connection between HR and other business operations, your opportunity to improve business performance is hindered by latent data, incomplete insights, and siloed processes and experiences. This disconnected and reactive operating model is quickly becoming obsolete. Organizations of all sizes are making the shift to a connected cloud HXM and enterprise resource planning (ERP) approach to achieve better for their organization and their people. It all starts with having a single source of real-time data that allows business leaders to make more informed decisions from workforce supply and demand plans and forecasts to diversity and turnover.
Carrie Klauss, director of Solution Marketing, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, brought this to life as she shared a number of insights from SAP SuccessFactors customers that, through the power of SAP S/4HANA and SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite, have broken down the silos to achieve better data and insights, better processes, and better employee and customer experiences. As Klauss said, “This is when real change comes – when you can change work for good, both for your business and your people.”
Everyone Plays a Role in Co-Creating an Inclusive Future of Work
People are the critical element to moving business forward. When you make it possible for people to bring their authentic selves to work every day, you create the kind of engagement that drives a better business and a more sustainable world. During the closing keynote at SuccessConnect, Baratunde Thurston, writer, producer, and TV host, led an engaging discussion with thought leaders from Microsoft, The Female Quotient, and SAP focused on how leaders and employees can co-create a future of work that cultivates new levels of engagement, productivity, well-being, and innovation by building a culture of purpose and belonging.
Couldn’t attend the in-person event? Be sure to access select road map sessions, product demos, and other content now available on demand.
Lara Albert is global vice president of Solution Marketing at SAP SuccessFactors.
