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...

Summer Davies, Founder of LeaderShop, is an accomplished leadership expert with over 15 years of experience in transforming aspiring leaders' lives. Summer specializes in fostering thriving work environments and empowering emerging leaders to lead with impact and confidence. With her extensive background in coaching and teaching leaders globally, Summer brings a wealth of knowledge on essential mindset shifts, tactical skills for modern leadership, creating empowering work cultures, and...

JESS VON BANK, and Jason Averbook are joined by special guests: Sarah Mink, Principal Consultant & Advisor, Mercer; Traci Tenkely, IT Project Manager at City of Chandler, Arizona; Kristen Poe, IT Project Manager at City of Chandler, Arizona. On this episode of the Digital Meetup, we discussed how the City of Chandler has successfully built and maintained a strong organizational culture, as well as exploring the potential benefits of a new ERP system in enhancing employee engagement and...

Please join us in welcoming Andrew Hartman, Founder Time Boss! Burnout, stress, and anxiety are omnipresent in the modern workplace. But it doesn't have to be this way for business leaders looking to make an impact while balancing their professional and personal lives. Andrew Hartman is the Founder of Time Boss, an organization that helps leaders and their teams reinvent their relationships with time to get more done with less stress and anxiety. For the last 2 decades, Andrew has been a...

After a decade as the Founder/CEO of Jibe and then serving as an executive at iCIMS, Joe Essenfeld is embarking on a new entrepreneurial adventure as Founder & CEO of Fora, an innovative executive relationship management (ERM) platform poised to transform C-suite decision-making through cutting-edge AI technology. In today’s corporate environment, there’s a relentless influx of data which places a high demand on executive bandwidth. Fora addresses this challenge directly by sourcing...

Please join us in welcoming Skai Dalziel and Joe Facciolo, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Guusto! Today's discussion will delve into Guusto's history of building a culture of recognition from the head office to the frontlines. Old pals, Skai Dalziel and Joe Facciolo, go all the way back to 1988 when they grew up together in a small town just north of Toronto. They both attended the University of Western Ontario, where Joe studied Psychology and Sociology, while Skai studied Engineering and...

"Everything I do, I believe in challenging the status quo... I believe in thinking differently." Chris Long is an experienced and forward-thinking leader in human resources and people strategy, with over 20 years of expertise. Recognized for his innovative strategies in improving company performance, Chris provides specialized consulting, advisory, content, and research services through Elev8’s unique offerings like Acceler8, Calibr8, and Articul8. These modern solutions offer businesses a...

The Founder & CEO of Raven Intelligence, Bonnie Tinder, along with Mercer Senior Principal, Jim Holincheck, join Jess Von Bank and Jason Averbook for this special epeisode of the Now of Work Digital Meetup! They talk about all things Enterprise Software Implementation, Projects & more! Raven Intelligence is a free online community that helps customers select the best consulting partner for their HR software project and ensure success. It was created to help customers make an...

Tune in for a lively discussion about the changing nature of the employment relationship. Why and how is trust eroding, anger increasing, and apathy apparent everywhere? This is the hard reality, but we have to talk about it to make #work better for employees and employers. Susan LaMotte is the Founder & CEO of exaqueo (ex-ACK-wee-o), an employer brand and experience consulting firm. At exaqueo, they understand that work is not just about earning a living, but it also brings purpose and...

Lara Jones is a powerhouse speaker, award-winning Grit Performance Expert, and the creator of the groundbreaking Global G.R.I.T. System™. As the founder, and CEO of Be a Legend, Inc., and GritGlobal™, Lara has propelled companies into multimillion-dollar empires with her unparalleled expertise.With prestigious accolades like the WORLDWIDE STEVIE® Awards, Lara has transformed the performance of leaders, teams, and organizations. She has collaborated with Fortune 100 companies, the US military,...

In the latest episode of the Now of Work Digital Meetup, Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank welcomed Donald Knight, Chief People Officer of Greenhouse. Donald is a high energy innovator with a reputation for moving businesses into the future through organizational transformation. He connects with people at all levels of the organization, and is a firm believer in people analytics and cross-functional partnerships. His passion for building high-performance teams and company culture allows him...

Introducing the latest episode of our Now of Work Digital Meetup Podcast, Jess Von Bank and Jason Averbook kick off this episode diving into the power of vulnerability and authenticity by sharing personal anecdotes from the perspective of their kids on evolving world of technology. They explore the challenges faced by solution providers in a market driven by specific use cases, and share insights on how to break free from traditional categories. Don't miss out on this uplifting and inspiring...

Compa just announced $10M in Series A funding to make compensation fair and competitive for everyone. In other words, it's SEXY to PAY people.  We couldn't agree more. In fact, Mercer's latest Global Talent Trends report confirms human-centered productivity MUST be anchored in trust and equity. Put plainly, people want to feel valued. And when people say valued, they really mean they want to be treated EQUITABLY. Fair pay would be a big enough conversation on its own, but 98% of...

Meet two founders of Arist, a global pioneer in message-based learning. Ryan Laverty, Co-founder & President and Michael Ioffe, Co-founder & CEO, along with their incredible team, help companies like Amazon and WHO make learning accessible by meeting people where they are: on tools like Slack, Teams, and SMS. Since 2018, they've delivered millions of courses and behavioral pathways to students, frontline employees, and managers alike. Today, Arist is used by the world's leading...

In the latest episode of the Now of Work Digital meetup, hosts Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank lead a captivating conversation that explores various aspects of work and personal growth. As always, they kick off with the beloved community check-ins, one of which is for everyone to share their "one big thing" from the week. Jess shared that her One Big Thing that she learned while volunteering for her daughter's middle school musical...& why this musical is the epitome of an...

As someone who values dedicated time hours for deep work and has a strict no-Friday meetings policy, Stacia Garr, Co-founder and Principal Analyst at RedThread Research, rarely breaks her rule. However, for this episode, she made an exception for our amazing Now of Work Community! Stacia's expertise and contributions have been recognized by prestigious publications such as Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Forbes, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She has also been listed as a...

Anita Lettink, Founder of Strategic Management Centre, joined Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank to talk about Anita's brand new 2023 HR Tech Investment report! Are you curious how the startup market performed last year? Tune in to learn: how tough was the market really? were companies able to secure new investments? And if so, who? what were the most active service categories? how are HR Tech startups outside of the US doing? what is the outlook for 2024? An exciting chat, with lots...

We're kickstarting 2024 with special guest Kate Bravery, Advisory, Knowledge, and Insights Global Leader at Mercer. She joins Jess Von Bank and Jason Averbook to get into the details of global trends as we move into 2024. Together they address topics such as: Key findings from Mercer's Global Talent Trend Study, Preventing fear by gaining trust and building psychological safety in the workplace Advancing technology such as human-machine teaming. And so much more! Tune in.

Our Now of Work Digital Meetup hosts Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank, closed out our last digital meetup of 2023 with our NOW Community. Along with our active community members in the chat, Jess and Jason held an overview of 2023 regarding HR and HR Tech industry shifts, buzz words like Gen AI, and where they think (or hope) the ball will continue rolling in 2024.

You know how Spotify Wrapped is where Spotify listeners dive into their top listening moments of the year? We had our own version! We shared our own top listening moments of 2023 from the perspective of a few of the analysts who cover #HRTechnology.  Hosted by Jason Averbook and Jess Von Bank, we'll hear from analysts like Jim Holincheck, Madeline Laurano, Pete Tiliakos, Sarah White, Steve Goldberg, and Tara Cooper just what went down in 2023. What innovation got us excited, what are we...

Consider this unprecedented scenario: the workforce now encompasses five distinct generations simultaneously. There's a pervasive market obsession with Gen Z, assuming their candidate and workforce expectations are uniquely special. Is this assumption accurate or merely a misconception? In the quest to attract workers spanning five generations, the question arises: is it necessary for employers to tailor experiences for each generational persona, or could this approach be characterized as...

So much of the innovation happening in the HR Tech space is about new ways of working. You can't just "shop for AI" and get the organization on board overnight. You can't download a skills ontology to automagically change the way your company hires and promotes people. Please don't buy a CRM just because you're having a hard time competing for talent. These are all TOOLS. Tools build what you tell them to. Don't leave the drawing board until you know the outcomes you need; then you'll know...

Did anyone pay attention to the HR Technology Conference & Exposition's Pitchfest winners?The big winner digitally consolidates 401(k) plans. You know, rather than manually. That's how much basic blocking & tackling we still have left to do when driving innovation for business and making all of our work lives better. Another winner we loved is CollabWORK, who also addresses a pretty fundamental talent problem. We all love hiring referrals, but we don't think outside the box when it...

Before you listen to this epsidoe, give yourself 5 minutes to read an incredible story. One of the defining moments of the Afghanistan War occurred in a mere second inside a single battle that raged for 7 hours. Then 37-year-old United States Army Captain Will Swenson found himself a commander in what would become known as the Battle of Ganjgal. An early morning meeting connecting the Afghan government with native elders in the Ganjgal Valley near the border of Pakistan turned into a brutal...