NOW of Work

Bruce Randall, MBA, is an AI Thought Leader and Reiki Master who explores the intersection of technology, human consciousness, and the future of work. With over 25 years of experience in cloud strategy, AI-driven business transformation, and leadership roles.Bruce joins Jess and Jason to address the influence of AI on the workforce, the importance of meditation for mental health, and the balance of perspectives on AI's future. Together they share personal anecdotes and insights, emphasizing the need for healthy dialogue, personal growth, and the integration of technology in a thoughtful manner.

Tune in for this engaging discussion on human-centric AI readiness and the evolving landscape of work in the digital age with Bob Pulver, Founder & Principal, Elevate Your AIQ. In this episode, we tackle the unique challenges of parenting in a tech-driven world, highlighting the essential role of AI literacy for the next generation. Our conversation dives into the intricacies of bias within AI systems, especially in hiring practices, and underscores the vital importance of human oversight in decision-making processes. Our speakers champion a proactive stance on understanding and addressing bias, while also celebrating the transformative potential of AI to empower individuals and boost productivity.

Charlotte Otter, Author, Speaker, Advisor at Otter Advisory, joins Jess and Jason to chat about her new book We Need New Leaders which details the role of CEOs as chief reputation officers and the necessity of storytelling in leadership to build trust and influence change. The dialogue highlights the challenges and opportunities leaders face in navigating these changes, particularly in relation to diversity and the future of work.

You know we'll never abandon our Red/Yellow/Green and One Big Thing -- the community rituals that make us a community. This week, Jason and Jess have a lot to catch up on, and they want to hear from YOU, too.Then we get into a Friday Freestyle! Jess + ChatGPT created a game for us with questions and prompts like:What's on fire this week: A headline, trend, tweet, or moment that made you laugh, rage, or roll your eyes this week. What's your hottest or most ridiculous take from this week?What's one thing you wish every CEO knew about work today?Best boss you've ever had and whyIf your HR tech stack were a cocktail, what would it be called? And what's in it?

Filip Misoviski, CEO at Semos Cloud, joined Jason and Jess to dive into the shifts happening in leadership, work, and technology, and what they're learning at Semos Cloud as they help organizations lead with more clarity, connection, and impact.

On this week's Now of Work Digital Meetup, Ritu Mohanka will joined Jess Von Bank and Jason Averbook to dig into how AI can actually reduce bias in hiring and why we should be moving away from a “matching” model.Ritu shares how VONQ's shift to a scoring system, evaluating candidates across 15 transparent, job-relevant criteria, is enabling skills-based hiring, improving candidate experience, and aligning with the EU AI Act's push for explainable AI.

Alex Zea joins Jason Averbook to share their experiences at the Unleash Conference. A key takeaway? The shift towards a more human-centered approach in HR. Then Oriana Kraft, Founder of FemTechnology, joins to discuss women's health issues, the historical neglect of these issues, and the potential of AI to transform healthcare. The conversation also touches on the impact of political changes on women's health and the need for community engagement and innovation in this space.

"What if something goes right?" — OBTs (One Big Thing), Emerging AI Tech, and what it all means for the future of education, work, and everyday life. -Jess Von Bank and Jason Averbook take a look at the new Cluely AI solution: an invisible AI-powered desktop assistant that discreetly enhances your performance during virtual meetings, sales calls, interviews, and more. What all does this mean for the future of education, work, and everyday life? As always they share their One Big Thing (OBT) to reflect on impactful moment through the week. It can be anything. Zach Husted pays a surprise visit to share his OBT about launching Pillars of Valor.

We are thrilled to have Rosemary Bova as our featured speaker at today's Meetup! Join us for an insightful session where Rosemary will delve into her new program, Legendary Managerial Leadership.Discover how the powerful combination of behavioral coaching and structural analysis can transform your leadership team, fostering a culture of transparency and collaboration. Learn how this approach not only empowers managers at all levels but also drives significant cost savings and enhances overall profitability.Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights that can help you identify and address underlying challenges within your organization. We look forward to seeing you there and embarking on this journey of transformation together!

9.3.2023

Chuck Gose, founder of ICology, is a long-time listener and now a first time guest on today's Meetup! "As someone who's admired the conversations and efforts from the sidelines, it's an honor to step into the guest seat and talk all things internal communications and employee experience." Together, Jess and Chuck get right into the critical intersection of AI, HR, marketing, and internal communications, emphasizing the importance of understanding employee needs and experiences. The conversation also highlights the role of technology in personalizing employee experiences and the need for organizations to listen actively to their workforce to drive meaningful change.

Doug Berg and Elaine Orler joined us to talk about the amazing world of talent acquisition and how they, as two pioneers, are taking it to the next level with Match2. Serial founders like Doug don't come along every day. With the insanely brilliant Elaine Orler by his side, the industry oughta sit up and pay attention.In this episode, we shine a light on how to get more value out of your existing recruiting tech stack and how to solve some of the good & bad that AI is introducing to the recruiting industry.

Do you "design" your culture? Meaning: are you thoughtful and intentional about how people receive information, contact and connect with each other, find inspiration, express values? People who build and nurture COMMUNITIES think about this first and foremost, and they have a lot to teach people who build and nurture WORKFORCES.Nikki Lewallen Gregory founded the PeopleForward Network to inspire workplaces where people thrive, and she joins the meetup today to share ideas around internal podcasting for clarity at work, what work-life integration really means, and how to do asynchronous meetings well.

March 14th is a very important day to us. Jess Von Bank and Jason Averbook launched the Now of Work community 5 years ago that day. The world was crazy. Humans were confused. People needed connection. Life needed some sort of meaning. We were thrust into a world where uncertainty was the word of the moment and it was driven by two pandemics. A social justice pandemic and a global health pandemic, COVID.5 years later, we celebrated the anniversary of this amazing community that has 5 amazing traits that we want to celebrate.* Over 5000 people in the community* Has had over 250 events both live and digitally* Have had over 1,500,000 downloads and views of our events* Has changed the lives of Jess and myself* Hopefully impacted the lives of some othersHere are come clips from our community and the people that make it special. Thank you for all of your continued support and we are just getting started. Most of all, thank you for all of the support of Leah Tanner Kristin Lynn Penney Jaycee Grider Josh Drean H. Richard Brummett Allison Wallace and many others for helping bring a dream to live.Stay with us. We have a lot more to come and hope you can join us today for our LIVE meetup and each Friday going forward. Much love!

Madeline Laurano joins us for our 250th episode of the Now of Work Digital Meetup. What a celebratory milestone, just one week before the 5-year anniversary of our community meetup. And who better to spend it with! Madeline is the widely respected founder of Aptitude Research, producing A Practical Guide to Unlocking AI Potential in HR, Global Trends in HR Technology & HR Transformation, Reducing Bias in HR Using Artificial Intelligence, and other incredible reports the market relies on to understand the world of work today and tomorrow.She just returned from Amsterdam, where she emceed the HR Technology Europe conference. (We hear our own Mercer team were shining stars in 6 standing-room-only AI sessions!) We couldn't wait to hear her road report, raise a glass to 250, and celebrate with all of you.

AI is all the buzz, but it's particularly interesting to think about its impact on software development and coding. As a coder, AI is about about 70% accurate. Not bad, will only get better—but can it do its own regression testing? And if humans aren't doing the actual coding, isn't it harder to do code review? No one better than HackerRank to help us understand how software development changes with AI, how coders and engineers become orchestrators of AI agents, and how we reconsider necessary skills like prompt engineering.

This decade will be about the evolution of enterprise HR Tech. Would have evolved quite organically on its own; AI will deliver it like a revolution and in Big Bang fashion. ☄️ Like,

Is AI capable of making ethical decisions? Can an algorithm be trained to recognize potential ethical issues in its own decision-making process, even adjust avoid harmful outcomes?Or does it come down to humans carefully curating unbiased and reliable datasets in order for Artificial Intelligence to produce the right outcome, and who defines "right?" Certainly AI models can be transparent -- updating their own understanding of ethical standards based on feedback, articulating reasoning behind decisions, flagging biased or unreliable data points from its training sets.Whether in healthcare or hiring decisions, the more DATA we have, the better DECISIONS we can make. It's not so much a question of whether AI is ready to make unsupervised decisions. A better question is how much better AI can be than humans.

Gerry Crispin returned to speak to his thoughts on the recent DEI executive order. Gerry wrote an article, Signals Amidst the Noise, that gives some important context for everyone. The weather vane seems to be swinging wildly these days, and offering some thoughtful perspective on where and how this fits into our historical timeline will be helpful for people. One step forward, two steps back, maybe three steps forward another day.We also pulled in Jackye Clayton, Founder of PeoplePuzzles to share her perspective and to spill the beans on her year-long secret: She is on the next season of Amazing Race?!

You've been hearing a lot about talent intelligence, or AI-powered insights about your workforce to optimize where and how they're deployed against work for the best business impact. It's more than data analytics, it's about getting more holistic, predictive, and bias-free insights to make the best talent decisions for business. That will change the way we work for good, but how do talent practitioners need to think differently, re-wire systems and programs, and support culture change to get the optimization and transformation they need? In this episode, we chat with Rebecca Warren about Talent-Centered Transformation.  We had a cameo, too. Brian Sommer shared his perspective on how AI changes consulting forever, and we had some questions. 

Jess Von Bank has long been a fan of ⁠Mercer⁠'s Global Talent Trends report, even before she worked at Mercer. The research is vast and deep, the insights cut to the chase. That's thanks to ⁠Kate Bravery⁠ and a big, brilliant research team. Kate joins the Digital Meetup to share ⁠Mercer⁠'s 2025 Global Talent Trends, the hottest priorities for HR this year, the real impact of AI on the future of work and how the global workforce feels about ALL of it. Could just call it TRUTH BOMBS. She was our #1 most listened to episode last year by a 300% margin. Easy to see why.

We're a tad obsessed with AI, tech, and tools when it comes to the future of work. All good. But it's good to revisit the human psychology of work once in a while, remember how people learn and communicate, and understand culture and engagement at its foundation. Music and art come in handy as a universal language and concept—ironic, maybe, since we'll throw AI at that to see what happens, too. How can we make the best of all worlds? It's fun to think about tech-enabled humanity where art, music, and original creativity is amplified and celebrated, not obliterated. Such a fun conversation with SongDivision. They believe music builds culture and connects people, Benji Harris, Client Executive, showed us how and we also played a little 'Name that Song' while we were at it.

Becoming a skills-based organization is about knowing what skills your people have, need, and want—then tying all of that to the BUSINESS. That's a lot of intel, and making it relevant and timely is a challenge of its own. But it's worth it: huge business impact and financial gains can be achieved when you get to the heart of skills, and that's exactly why TechWolf has the world's biggest companies as their clients as investors. On this episode, we have Mikaël Wornoo & Cedric Vandamme join us to tell their story and to give a better understanding of the future of skills. What a start to 2025!

Every time I think I should throw in the towel on our weekly show, someone comes out of the woodwork and tells me we saved them during Covid. Made them cry when I talked about losing my brother. Shares something important with me. Hugs me at a conference and asks about my feisty kids because they soooooo relate. Introduces their daughter to me for mentorship. Sends me a guest no one knows yet but should. Thanks me for being real when so much feels like bullshit. My favorite word has always been permission. Or maybe truth. I don't know why we need give ourselves and each other permission to be human. To be real, flawed, imperfect, hungry, trying, growing, learning, loved. We make actual business cases for it and call it recognition, engagement, DEI, belonging, culture, our shiny new EVP. You guys. When everything is changing, remember nothing has changed. The world needs our full humanity, our full community, our full hearts. And we need each other. Our silly little show grew to over 3,500+ weekly audience members because we created space for all this. I don't know why I need reminding, but sometimes I do. The Now of Work is a community for HR, work tech, AI, all of that....and humans. Not so silly, I guess. I brought my friend Thorald Koren back to the Now of Work community because you should know him. He's so human he's not even on LinkedIn.

Malcolm Gladwell avoids face-to-face interviews....too "dangerous." Interesting, right? The psychology of meeting strangers was a whole body of research he conducted over a two-year period, and we can't help but think of it when we consider a new HR Tech category that's heating up in the Age of AI: INTERVIEW INTELLIGENCE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIgm5ap3SPM On this episode we meet Mark Simpson, Founder & CEO of Pillar. What's the impact of AI on the interview process, and what are all the insights and data we get from interviews?

Are you ready to revolutionize how hiring managers and recruiters collaborate? This episode, we're thrilled to host David Nason and Master Burnett from HireBrain, where they share their innovative approach to reimagining how jobs and requirements are both defined and filled. Fresh off a win at HR Tech's Pitchfest in October 2024, they are ready to break down the pillars of hiring and talk about what it takes to build a solid foundation for talent that aligns hiring managers, recruiters, candidates, and most importantly, the business. Tune in to explore how you can remove blindspots and bias from hiring while creating a better hiring experience for everyone involved.

Have you ever watched a sports team that's got great players but just can't seem to pull off a win? There could be a number of factors at play. Perhaps they don't gel as a team, or the game-time conditions don't favor their strengths. Maybe there's a clash between the players and the coaching style. In the end, it's not that the players are bad, they're just in the wrong configuration or environment. This week, we're joined by Christian Hughes (CTO), who has built his career on formulating winning sports teams by aligning player strengths with the right conditions for success. And now Christian is bringing his science-backed approach to the corporate world where he's teamed up with seasoned TA leader, Tessa James (CEO), to deliver HireGains, an omni-directional assessment that looks at both individual candidate attributes and the environmental factors that determine a person's success. Dive in to learn what can unleash, or inhibit, someone's potential in the workplace, and explore the science behind organizational fit.

No one seems to be slowing down yet before the end of the year -- if anything, organizations are in full blown strategy and execution mode while they sort out investments and priorities for 2025. We had a fun week on the road, including time spent with UKG Labs. What a cool concept: an in-house virtual laboratory and startup ecosystem to identify and nurture early stage technologies helping to advance the future of work. Today you'll meet Colin Horsford, MBA, CPA, Co-Founder of Muse and Brent Filson, Director, Product Research & Innovation at UKG Labs.

Jess Von Bank is and joined by guest Sarah Reynolds (They/Them) Chief Marketing Officer at HiBob to explore themes of community, emotional well-being, and the importance of inclusivity in the workplace. This important conversations follows the highly charged, much anticipated major US political election during the week of Nov. 5. No, it's not all we have to talk about. It does have us wondering a few things: How is everyone? Did your workplace handle it well? If you profess to invite everyone to bring their whole selves to work, how did that go this week? How does something like a major political event spill over into the workplace from an engagement, policy, sentiment, productivity perspective? Together, Jess and Sarah discuss personal stories, the significance of honoring veterans, and the emotional check-in process. The dialogue transitions into the growth of HiBob and its commitment to modern HR practices, followed by a deep dive into identity, the concept of 'chosen self' versus masking, and the challenges of bringing one's whole self to work. The conversation culminates in philosophical reflections on authenticity and the systems that shape workplace culture.

Lance Haun, TSC's VP of Market Insights, joins Jess and Jason to chat about AI and EX. For more than a decade, Lance has been focused on all things HR, recruiting and talent management technology. So, what's on his mind lately? Lance wonders if we've taken a step back from employee experience. “Is AI the antidote or poison (maybe a bit of both)?”  Let's get into it! 

We had Mr. New York Times Himself on this Digital Meetup! If you didn't catch it, Kyle Lagunas and Hebba Youssef were a NYT feature not so long ago with a pretty blasphemous exposé revealing employees aren't the only ones who hate HR -- HR hates HR. Ahhhh, who doesn't love an irreverent headline. Kyle explains. HR is over it -- since the pandemic for sure, maybe before. Anyone else feel that? They're burned out managing everyone else's burnout. They can't be strategic because no one will let them solve tactical messes. The C-suite keeps pulling the Almighty Chair at the Table out from under them. And so ironically, they're the ones we're all looking at to drive Talent Transformation for the business, AI strategy in a new human-machine teaming era of work, and sustainable work models for the future. Transformation Realness with Kyle on this latest episode!

Bradley Schurman, Founder & CEO of Human Change & Founder of New Rules Media, returns to the Now of Work Digital Meetup to continue the conversation on labor demographics and how it's effecting the future of work. Whether we like it or not, change is in store. At Human Change, they anticipate and solve challenges associated with demographic change by providing strategic foresight and strategy in labor and consumer markets to business leaders worldwide. It's their forte to understand the impact of the Great Demographic Shift as birthrates collapse and older populations grow. Here's what they've found: The future of work is older and generationally diverse. The future of work is technology-dependent, yet remains human-driven. The future of work is reliant on "soft skills."

Thrilled to welcome Daniel Crosby, Ph.D., who writes books with the coolest titles:  Everyone You Love Will Die

In this episode, we hear the story of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and it's a great one. Because their story is a people story. They've undergone tremendous transformation you might call Digital Transformation, but "digital" is a means to an end. At Vertex, transformation serves to amplify their tremendous culture and create talent velocity throughout the organization. Tune in to hear Kimberly Rose, Executive Director of People Experience, Analytics, and Digital Innovation in Human Resources ---- if a title doesn't illustrate the literal evolution of HR, we don't know what does. Kim shares how onboarding, career navigation, and managing people are all grounded in LISTENING TO PEOPLE at Vertex, and she reminds us one size does not fit all when it comes to employee experience.

Jess Von Bank is joined by guest co-host Tara Cooper, Market Analyst at Mercer. Together the duo tackle themes surrounding AI, HR technology, and community engagement. They share their insights on AI's impact on health and wellbeing, and the role of HR in navigating these changes. The discussion emphasizes the importance of education, inclusivity, and addressing disparities in wellbeing solutions, while also exploring cultural considerations in employee experience.

Our Now of Work community welcomed Stacey Harris of Sapient Insights Group, Zach Chertok from IDC, and Stacia Garr of RedThread Research to the meetup. This uber smart panel of industry analyst friends joins us at the onset of a busy HR Tech fall conference season to help SUMMARIZE

We welcome Madeline Laurano back to our Meetup!Are we getting a little broad and loose with the term Talent Intelligence? -- YEP. Madeline will explain. She'll also share new capabilities around #interview intelligence, hot-off-the-press insights from Workhuman, and a new research effort with Torin Ellis on reducing #bias with #AI.

Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank share personal and work-related highs and lows, exploring their experiences of success, loss and powerful spelling capabilities. With a twist, Jaycee Grider, Visual Design Consultant and podcast producer at Mercer, joins as a guest to share about her upcoming, first-time trip to Burning Man. Whether you're a word enthusiast, a fan of personal stories, or simply looking for a delightful conversation to brighten your day, this podcast is a must-listen.

Jason and Jess are joined by Dan Beck, President and Chief Product Officer at SAP SuccessFactors to chat it up about the perfect storm of skills, intelligence, data, AI, and what's on Dan's radar as he completes his first year in his newest role at SAP. Together, they explain the importance of skills and re-skilling in the digital age as well as the need for a cultural shift towards skills-based planning and the use of AI to automate and enhance the skills development process. It's so important to make skills management easier for employees and to use the potential for AI to drive business value and improve the employee experience.

In this conversation, Jason Averbook is joined by Katie Jenkins, Global Product Portfolio Director - Work Architecture @ Mercer, to discuss the importance of skills in the workplace and how organizations can leverage skills to make talent decisions. They explore the difference between skills and competencies and the challenges and opportunities of implementing a skills-based strategy. They emphasize the need for organizations to identify their biggest problems and use skills as a lens to address those issues. The conversation highlights the iterative nature of building a skills-powered organization and the role of AI in inferring skills and they emphasize the importance of assessing skills to retain and engage employees, especially those with unique skills. The discussion also touches on the value of skills data and the challenges of using it effectively in recruiting. Join us on Skool! https://www.skool.com/nowofwork/about

The Digital Meetup welcomes special guest Gerry Crispin. Gerry has a bunch of well-founded data and well-formed suspicions about what education is likely to produce in the next 10 years if we don't intervene as employers. Do we need to further pique interest? Gerry borrows from the 10 principles of Burning Man, including radical inclusion and transparency as a means to demonstrate fairness. Maybe this applies to his thinking around candidate experience and expectations, but what else does it apply to? Takeaways Recruiters need to adapt and upskill to stay relevant in a changing landscape. Strategic talent work, such as workforce planning and addressing diversity, should be a focus for recruiters. There is a lack of collective leadership in the recruiting industry. Recruiters should embrace technology and think bigger about their role in the future of work.

You deserve some TLC! Wind down from the work week with Jason and Jess as they catch up on their latest conference experience in Singapore, industry updates like the SHRM DEI announcement and, of course, a much needed Now of Work community check in.

As AI hiring tools have become increasingly more common and accessible, what does that mean for the future of work? Where does AI fit in a people-first recruiting approach? In this conversation, Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank are joined by Ben Sesser, Co-founder and CEO of BrightHire, to discuss the process of hiring with assistance of AI and technology. BrightHire is an AI copilot for hiring used by hundreds of companies. Their platform transforms the quality of interviews with AI that builds exceptional hiring plans, guides interviewers, automates interview notes, enhances decision quality, and delivers new talent insights. With BrightHire's unqiue data collected from 1m+ interviews, they've identified their clients have seen recruiters save 3-5 hours per week, and across a study of 25,000 candidates, they saw a 27% reduction in the # of interviews per hire and a 19% reduction in candidate drop-off.  Ben Sesser, Co-founder & CEO, is joining today's meetup to share his thoughts on  1) How AI will change everything about knowledge work.  2) One of the most important reasons to still learn foundation knowledge even in the age of AI will be to fact and error check outputs. 3) But it will be increasingly hard to get students and young professional to learn the foundational knowledge because there will be less of a forcing function to do so.

With every period of innovation, throughout all of human history, the global workforce expands. In other words, new innovation creates new industries. Fact! Does that seem counter-intuitive? Shifting of jobs to new industries, we understand. But we might also expect contraction of the global workforce when technology drives efficiency and new ways to create value. Shouldn't we need fewer people to get work done? Or does innovation not do that? We're welcoming an expert on labor demographics and the working population of the world to help us understand. BONUS: Guess which two segments of the workforce are growing the fastest? In this episode, Bradley Schurman, Founder and CEO of Human Change, joins Jess and Jason to discuss the need to redefine productivity and effectiveness in the context of an aging workforce. The conversation touches on the challenges and opportunities of an aging population and the need for organizations to adapt to this demographic shift. They explore the relationship between technological advancements, such as AI, and the expansion of the workforce. Additionally, delving into the societal implications of an aging population, including appearance bias and the need for family-friendly policies

Could AI be like the Olympics?

Meet David Gloss, Head of Team Effectiveness at AIIR Consulting! As most of us may know, burnout has become more prevalent than ever before. And the solution isn't to avoid it, but rather it's about finding ways to mitigate its impact since it's something that everyone will experience. Teams, whether they are intact or cross-functional, play a vital role in shaping a company's culture and productivity levels. This has always been true, but as the pace of change continues to accelerate, the ability of teams to establish connections, build trust, and adopt healthy ways of working becomes an even stronger indicator of employee health and performance. David Gloss, Head of AIIR Consulting's Team Effectiveness Practice, leads a dynamic group that is dedicated to helping clients assess, measure, and enhance team performance across enterprise systems. Whether clients choose to tap into the expertise of AIIR's exceptional Consultants & Coaches or opt to license their Enterprise Team Effectiveness (ETE) system for internal use, they can rest assured that they have a reliable and trusted partner by their side.  Dave's 15-year career as a business leader, has been driven by successfully scaling venture-backed tech companies and creative agencies. He's gained invaluable insights into what it takes to both succeed and come back from failure in rapidly changing industries and markets. He leverages the psychology of high performance to empower clients with the knowledge and strategies needed to overcome challenges such as difficult acquisitions, managing big personalities, revitalizing frozen teams, and breaking free from stagnant growth.

Meet Will Sealy, Co-Founder & CEO, and Daniel Macklin, President of Summer! Summer is a certified B Corporation combining innovative technology and policy expertise to serve student loan borrowers across the country. Built by borrowers, for borrowers, Summer provides an end-to-end workplace student loan solution that is proven to reduce employee turnover and guaranteed to save employees thousands by simplifying student loans for everyone. Summer partners with employers to deliver a tailored benefit that empowers employees to save for education, better manage their student loans, find forgiveness options, and lower monthly payments.  Summer has helped over 148,000 borrowers save an average of $333 per month on their student loan payments and save over $45,000 over the course of repayment. In addition, Summer recently announced $1.15B in total projected savings for members. Their company has made huge progress since its founding, and continues to make great strides amid a complex and critical landscape. They covered: The scale of student loan debt and college costs crisis. It's not just a “student problem,” but rather one that impacts adults of all ages, and 80% of families in America The impact employers can have in the immediate term to help employees' overall financial wellness by introducing student loan and college cost planning solutions The massive potential for employers to boost talent attraction and retention by addressing this critical concern for their workforce

John Land, a Partner at Mercer, is an experienced HR & Workforce Transformation and Global Rewards & Recognition Practice Leader/Consultant with a demonstrated history of building and leading transformative HR functions; including program/process/organization design, technology enablement, upskilling, and performance improvement. He is skilled in mergers and acquisitions (due diligence through integration/standup), HR digital transformation, and building highly effective teams. John is passionate about leveraging technology to drive employee and organization innovation and improve customer outcomes by creating people-centric experiences. David Landman, an HR executive with 20+ years of experience driving business performance by enabling people to be their best selves at work. David is passionate about supporting the visionary founders, investors and innovators who are redefining what it means to thrive in the workplace and he is a prominent leader in the HR executive, startup and venture capital community.  Based on John Land's client experience as a Total Rewards practice leader at Mercer, coupled with David Landman's role running Talent programs at Goldman Sachs and now advising startups on their value and position in the evolving landscape of people and work, what is our current thinking about TALENT and ORGANIZATIONAL strategy? How do we think about keeping people (important) and keeping them happy (big difference)? 

Michael Kannisto runs a think tank called MindemicLab, which utilizes scenario planning, wargame simulation, and predictive modeling to help organizations develop strategies that will be effective across multiple possible futures. Michael began his career as a research chemist, but quickly realized that while molecules always act predictably and consistently, people rarely do. He has spent much of his career in corporate Human Resources exploring the uncertainty that comes along with having humans in the workplace. Large, successful, well-funded organizations frequently experience failure when purchasing technology or implementing new policies. This is mainly the result of unanticipated changes that occur along the way. Michael started MindemicLab as a resource to help others “rehearse” alternative futures, and thus increase their likelihood of success. Prior/ongoing work in this area includes deep dives into The Future of Work, The Future of Early Career Recruiting and The Future of Disability. Plastic Love by Mayiya Takeuchi Virtual HR Technology Conference

Dr. Amy Dufrane, SPHR, CAE, is the CEO of HRCI, and the founder of HRCI's sister organization, the HR Standards Institute (HRSI). Amy has spent her career helping businesses maximize their human capital and HR professionals maximize their careers. As HRCI's top steward, she leads an organization dedicated to assisting more than 500,000 business-leader members around the world who want to enhance their HR and expertise through learning and certification. Amy oversees HRCI's work to establish international HR standards in partnership with ISO, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the global community. She is a member of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council, the Economic Club of Washington, DC, and CEO Update's CEO Roundtable. Through these organizations, she connects regularly with CEOs, CHROs, and other leaders, giving her firsthand knowledge of the workplace changes happening in industries everywhere. Prior to joining HRCI, Amy held CHRO and executive HR leadership roles at organizations in a variety of industries, where she faced issues similar to those confronting the HR professionals she partners with today. She chairs the board for the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind, is a director of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence, and serves on the advisory board of Certree and Southern New Hampshire University.

Brian Sommer, Founder and President of TechVentive, is an award-winning IT industry analyst who covers the ERP, Finance and HR sectors. For over 30 years, Brian has been advising the world's largest firms on strategy, change, process and technology initiatives. Brian assisted over 100 of the Fortune 500 on financial software selections and continues to advise a wide array of high technology firms globally.  In his latest book, The Executive's ESG Playbook, Brian examines the numerous requirements, planning tasks, technology challenges and more that must be dealt with to meet a number of new business realities. The research for that book took several years and involved visits and interviews with global leaders in HR, Accounting, Supply Chain, risk management and other disciplines. Previously, he was a senior partner at Accenture with leadership roles in their Software Intelligence, Human Capital and Finance & Performance Management groups. TechVentive specializes in providing cutting-edge solutions to address the diverse needs of modern enterprises. Their mission is to revolutionize the way businesses operate by delivering innovative solutions that drive efficiency, productivity, and growth. They make the commitment to help their clients succeed in today's dynamic and competitive landscape by providing them with the tools and expertise needed to stay ahead of the curve. Brian Sommer is a keynote speaker in the upcoming virtual HR Technology Conference & Exposition, June 12-13. 100% free. 100% online. 100% rewarding. Register at https://www.hrtechnologyconference.com/virtual/. Stick around at the end for a surprise guest appearance from Mike Sarraille, Founder of Legacy Expeditions. Mike is a former Recon Marine and Scout-Sniper, and retired U.S. Navy SEAL with 20 years of experience in Special Operations, including the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). He joined the meetup to share some of his journey and to show our community the trailer for Triple 7, a documentary following a record-breaking, adrenaline-fueled adventure following a group of former Special operations soldiers on a 7-day epic journey across 7 continents to raise 1,400 life-changing scholarships in support of the families of fallen and disabled service members and first responders.