Syncing with ServiceNow: HR leaders will Drive Business Transformation

In Episode 38 of "Syncing with ServiceNow," your host Eddie McDonald, filling in for Andy Whiteside, dives into a crucial conversation on how HR leaders are at the forefront of business transformation. Joined by Mike Sabia, XenTegra's certified master architect, the duo explores a recent blog post titled "Survey Finds HR Leaders Will Drive Business Transformation."

In this episode, Eddie and Mike discuss the significant role HR plays in digital transformation, particularly in streamlining onboarding processes, utilizing AI to enhance productivity, and revolutionizing HR service delivery. They also examine how HR executives are leveraging cutting-edge technologies like Gen AI to make smarter talent decisions and drive efficiency within organizations.

Key Takeaways:

• The impact of digital transformation on HR processes.
• How AI and Gen AI are being used to optimize talent management.
• The importance of integrating technology to enhance workforce productivity and decision-making.

Whether you're an HR professional, a tech enthusiast, or simply interested in how digital tools are reshaping the business landscape, this episode offers valuable insights into the future of HR and its critical role in driving business success.

Tune in to discover how HR leaders are not just adapting to change but are actively shaping the future of work.

Transcript

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Alright. Hello, everyone, and welcome to syncing with service. Now. Episode 38. My name is Eddie Mcdonald, and I am your temporary host today. Andy Whiteside is out visiting customers. If you don't know. Andy is the CEO of Zintegra and the regular host of syncing with service now. But I've got myself and Mike Savia, our certified master architect, here with me, Mike, how are you doing today?

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: I'm doing well. Thanks, Eddie.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Fantastic.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: For the week.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Yes, yes, we like we do these every other week. So this is like, I said, episode 38. So if if this is your 1st time listening. You have 37 other podcasts to listen to. So get to it.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Today, Mike, we are gonna be discussing a blog post from service. Now, today's blog post is called survey finds Hr leaders will drive business transformation.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: as I've said on a number of podcasts up to date. I am very much into the people side of what we do. So this one is very much up my alley. Any initial thoughts before we jump in.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: No, I I think this is a good topic. It's important to a lot of people. And you know, yes, a lot of customers are focusing on it.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: but Hr. Intimately ties with that.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: You have to write to have the right people at the right time.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: You need to be able to bring those people on board very quickly.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Yes, yes, I agree. And I'll qualify this with my with a statement I've made in the past that the average organization has about 22 separate onboarding tasks to bring somebody new on. Most of those tasks are have to be tracked by the Hr. Team, and if they without a a a platform like service. Now that can be an excruciating time killer, just tracking, making sure all of these tasks and the people they're assigned to have executed those tasks.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: So service now really streamlines that. So

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: anyway, let's jump in the 1st section here says, as organizations worldwide embrace digital transformation. Hr leaders are turning to innovative solutions to make smart talent decisions, supercharge employee experience and increase operational efficiency.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Hr executives will lead the way in stepping up digital transformation to drive business transformation over the next 18 months, according to research by service now and thought lab.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: so it's a, it's a really big deal. You know. I mean, you talk about digital transformation can fall into the It group, but it also loops in the people side of the equation as well as well. Mike, what are your thoughts on that.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: No, exactly that. You know it. It loops men, and and I know that just a moment ago I was talking about onboarding, but Hr. Goes beyond just onboarding to also being able to support their their employees with their questions and requests for leave of absence or the like. So you know. Hr, it, it's natural for this to be included within that service. Now, platform of solutions.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Very much. So. So there's a graph here on this blog post that says how Hr leaders and Cios collaborate to maximize the use of technology,

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: and there's several sections here between supporting innovation, aligning technology strategies with Hr goals increase utilization automate. Hr, and it reduce people cost through technology and evaluate and select software and digital solutions.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Somebody who really understands this based on this graph is, you know, more than 50% will put you into the advanced section which

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: begs the question today. The majority of organizations are not using technology to enhance their Hr skills.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Any thoughts on that before we move the next section.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: No, absolutely, it's true, and and not just from an onboarding perspective, you know. Sometimes there are questions to the Hr. Team. What I just mentioned about leave absence, or you know, maternity leave or benefits. And we have spoken to so many customers who get an email and they track in a spreadsheet. The ability to even do case management of those Hr issues above and beyond some of those employee experiences, all very, very important.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Absolutely.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: And the next section here is titled Revolutionizing how work gets done. AI and Gen. AI are top of mind for Hr leaders across all industries and regions. According to our research, 65% of survey respondents believe AI will revolutionize how work gets done.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: There are the bottom bottom part of this section here says something interesting. It says, 65% of Hr innovators

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: who have implemented, who have implemented Gen. AI are using it to create job descriptions, streamline research generate communications and screen job applicants. The majority of Hr innovators, 73% plan to increase the implementation of Gen. AI in their organizations in the next 18 months.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: So you're a regular Hr person and you get asked to onboard. A specific person with these skill sets

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: utilizing Gen. AI to create that job description. I mean, I know my job. Description was several pages long, so you know, and I'm sure that my boss took quite a bit of time, and Hr. Quite took quite a bit of time to craft that you know. What's the value, Mike, that you see in Gen. AI. And Hr.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: It. It's interesting cause I actually was asked by my boss to create a job spec for a person. And and I started with Jen AI. I went to a chat. Gpt asked the question, got a result, and then, yes, I absolutely had to go back through that and review it and see what was applicable. You know. Time frames, you know all that stuff. But it was. It was a great time, saver, rather than spend an hour generating that I was able to do it in

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: 5 min, and maybe another 5 min to edit. And that's just an example of what could be done with Gen. AI. As part of the Hr. Business. But if we can bring that into some of the service, not capabilities, and and speed up other things, all the better for all of us.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Yeah, absolutely. And it's really funny, Gen AI or or any of the AI capabilities. They're not designed to replace people. They're they're designed to make people more efficient.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: You know, there's an old adage that says technology is cheap, people are expensive, and if you can get your expensive resources to be more productive. The value of an automation platform like service now is a no brainer, you know. People look at the initials price of the platform, and they go. Oh, well, that seems expensive. But when you work in the increased productivity and visibility of a platform like service now.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: really, it really just dots the eyes for you. It makes the decision quite easy.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: So the next section here is reinventing Hr. Service delivery.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: So while AI and Gen. AI are changing the workforce experience. Hr, specific solutions offer additional efficiency for talent management cloud based human capital management, self service portals, workforce optimization services and other digital technologies help Hr. Leaders execute their strategies. It says here that all survey respondents expect to increase the use of these solutions over the next 18 months to reduce cost.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: and most importantly, the last part is, and to help inform decision making.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: So what are your thoughts on all of the all of the efforts going into reinventing the Hr. Sd.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: I I think it's fantastic, you know. Hrc. Came out a few years ago the other day. I was thinking about, you know, service now as a platform and and all the different products it supports from it. Service management and customer service management, operations, management, asset management, security, and Hr. Is is a natural portion of that and source now in each release continues to improve on it, and AI is a natural way to extend that even further.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: you know, speed up the process of

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: creating content speed up the process of analyzing.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: what a user, you know, provides speed up acquisition. Get informed information about

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: You know how a person is being utilized within the company. Have, you know, natural language learning around a query by a user to service now, in order to get them the correct information. All those are are making service now more useful for the organization as well as the as well as the individual.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Yeah. And it's not even just about the Gen. AI capabilities. A lot of those that you just, you know.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: rattled off like talent, acquisition time and attendant management, you know, Workspaces. That's just that's part of the service. Now, Platform, you know. And then, of course, Gen. AI is the cherry on top that really hates it helps with the efficiency piece of that. So yeah, fully agree.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: In our last section here, using intelligence to inform talent decisions. Digital Hr practices have created repositories of data across organizations. Hr leaders are using this data to elevate talent management in numerous ways from filling talent gaps, improving productivity cost effect cost efficiencies and performance

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: aligning talent with their business goals, which is a big one and enhancing staff skills and mobility. The focus on data will become increasingly important as Hr. Leaders embrace reality, that 55% believe that more than half of their workforce is under equipped to help propel future growth.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: That is a crazy statistic that Hr leaders believe half or more of their workforce is under equipped to help propel future growth. What are your thoughts.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: I, i i i i don't know. I want to say, absolutely agree. But you know, we're all very talented people, and we have skill set. But you know, as

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: AI transforms the business so that we can do the important stuff that means people have to have the skills in those important stuff and service now has skill tracking those skills. Tracking would be be used for assignment rule mapping. So like, Hey, I want to have this ticket to network issue. Let me find the person who's the expert in the VPN. But it goes beyond that to you know

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: what

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: skills

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: are needed, identify people that could learn into those skills make it easy for people to get that additional training, whether it's, you know, some Hr training that we all have to do twice a year, or expose other additional training for the users, so that they are ready for the new positions.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Yes, absolutely

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: in the statistic that I that I mentioned here a second ago, half or more of the workforce is under equipped, you know. I know that you've had this experience, as have I more times than I can count where organizations are, quote over equipped, where we've got too many platforms. There's redundancies after redundancy, whether it's

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: areas of communication they might have slack and teams and chat and say and

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: whatever else that they're using, or they're keeping their customer data in more than one place. Their employee data in more than one place.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: having or being over equipped, is equally as problematic. And of course, service. Now, being the integration platform, we can take all of those, all of those items and filter that data into service. Now, so you have that single workspace where you don't have to swivel chair where it takes that over equipped out of the equation. Any final thoughts on that.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: Well, I I think it might be a little optimistic on on solving all those issues. But yeah.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: Jared.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: Ourselves. We use both slack and teams, but the ability to integrate everything into one platform and and even for slacker teams to be enabled to initiate a chat from within a ticket. All those things interlink and and makes all of us more productive, and makes our days easier because we're not struggling to figure out where we need to go.

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: 100% 100%. Alright, Mike. Well, hey, thank you for your time. And everyone. So today, we're gonna wrap up today's call. It was based on Hr leaders driving business transformation. So you know, quick little commercial here at the end, if any of you are looking for a very, very seasoned

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: service. Now, partner, we are qualified across the platform. Of course we've got Mike here as a certified master architect. Our average 10 years of architects is over 10 years our average tenure of our developers

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: over 7 to 8 years. We are not, you know. We've only been around a couple of years now, but we are a very, very tenured partner, with literally hundreds of projects under our belt. So please reach out and let us know if we can be of service, and until next time

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eddie.mcdonald@xentegra.com: have a great day.

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mike.sabia@xentegra.com: Thank you.