The Paytient team was in Las Vegas this month to attended the Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference & Expo. SHRM is full of solution providers and go-to experts in the HR industry, so we collected insights from our team member, Kristina Muxo, about her SHRM21 experience.
What is SHRM?
SHRM is a huge event that allows for all things HR and work culture to come together. HR professionals from the entire country come to hear talks on specific trends relevant to the industry and scope out booths of companies and services that may benefit them and their employees. This can cover anything from benefits and payroll to work culture and retention.
What was your overall reflection from the conference?
I’m excited to better understand the dynamics of HR professionals and how we may be more flexible in helping their complex dynamics find solutions for their employees. People are looking for solutions and educating themselves on their options.
What are your top takeaways from SHRM?
- Inclusion and retention are top of mind for HR departments. Diversity and inclusion is a critical component of a thriving organizational culture, and the industry is making movements to continue to implement more resources in DEI. As always, retention is also at the forefront of HR. They are continuing to improve and foster a positive work atmosphere to promote engagement, providing competitive pay and benefits to promote the overall wellbeing of their employees.
- Leading innovation in the workplace. Generally, as an industry, HR is known for being “safe” and “slow-moving” however most of the attendees that came up to our booth voiced they were trying to stay on top of the new options in the market to provide competitive solutions in their workplace and fix stagnant issues such as rising costs of care or slow fixes to requests such as pet insurance. In my experience, HR professionals want to take the feedback from their employees and be creative advocates to deliver whatever resolutions would help their employees. However, I learned that HR professionals generally feel as though they don’t have many options.
- Empowerment is another big focus. I love that there was a session on how HR professionals can be more empowered and aware of their broker’s work and leverage their relationship to do the best work possible. Empowered employees make things happen, and so do empower HR departments.
Click here to chat more with Kristina about her.
