Earlier this month, I attended the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas, both to learn form and connect with colleagues and to present EdAssist's use of technology and higher education as  a measurable talent management strategy.  I was truly overwhelmed by the attentiveness of over 8000 attendees and their enthusiasm for our unique approach to education assistance.

1. Cutting Edge Approaches to HR Challenges

Technology by default should be "cutting edge," but the HR Technology Conference buzzed with new possibilities. Josh Bersin spoke about the power of potential recruiting applications that run on wearable devices like Google Glass. New technologies are driving the HR profession toward a major shift in how we recruit, retain, and develop our employees - and big changes may be coming sooner than we expect them.

2. Demolishing the Stand-Alone HR Building

Over the course of my career, whether I've been working in HR or with them, Human Resources has felt like a siloed, standalone entity. My peers across industries seem to maintain that view of HR as well. HR Tech and its attendees this year, however, were focused and driven on changing that perception. Some key phrases I heard were, "Making HR an equal partner in the growth of the organization" and "It's time to change the stigma of HR in big business." Technology and data are the tools of choice in demolishing the walls that isolate our HR departments. It was eye-opening to see applications, strategies and thought leadership that will make this a reality.

3. HR Professionals are Ready for Tech

EdAssist had a booth this year, supported by our top experts in strategic organizational growth. I was lucky enough attend alongside such impressive colleagues. We focused our efforts on demonstrating how, with our support and technology, businesses and hospitals would see an immediate positive impact on their tuition strategies. Measuring the success of these conversations can be a challenge, to say the least, in this type of setting. Yet, I heard phrases like "I get it", "We need to talk more", and "How can we connect" a few times every hour. We even had directors bring their executives back the next day for follow up.

My Takeaways

This conference clearly demonstrated to me that HR professionals are ready to adopt new tools to measure success. They're actively seeking technologies - like our tuition assistance management and reporting platform - that provide them with accessible, actionable data. Data is clearly the future of the Human Resources profession.

EdAssist's technologies fit squarely into this wheelhouse. By taking a high-tech approach to tuition management - and thereby the important HR initiative of skill building via education programs - we're able to transform these programs into not just benefits, but efficient strategies.

To sum up HR Tech in a few words, the HR industry is changing right before our eyes and the tech experience will pave the way.