NEW on the HR Happy Hour Network: Oracle Grow Connects that Learning, Skills Growth, and Career Mobility

With organizations and business leaders cognizant of the need for better data, which is critical to the success of their organizations, many don’t believe they have the tools to be successful, which is eroding their confidence and ability to make timely decisions.

A new study called The Decision Dilemma by Oracle and Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, New York Times bestselling author, surveyed more than 14,000 employees and business leaders across 17 countries and found 85% of business leaders have suffered from decision distress – regretting, feeling guilty about, or questioning a decision they made in the past year. This distress impacts the ability of organizations to respond quickly to changing business conditions and even impacts their ability to utilize their talent in the most optimal manner.

But having better data is not only important for leaders – every employee in the organization values data and information, particularly as they consider their employment options, seek to learn and develop new skills, and grow in their careers. Data is so valuable for these workers, in fact 78% of survey respondents indicated that an organization that uses technology to make data-driven decisions is a company they’re more likely to want to work for.

Putting better data and more powerful, personalized, and impactful workplace technology in the hands of employees and leaders is the goal for all organizations, and the topic of the most recent HR Happy Hour Podcast. This week we were joined by Chris Havrilla, VP of Product Strategy for Oracle. Chris is an experienced HCM leader, and an old friend, despite her affinity for the Georgia Bulldogs, and she works to help businesses, and HR and ITleaders with talent, strategy, technology, and leadership programs.

While HCM technology has improved markedly over the past ten years or so, many leaders and employees have not realized the benefits and potential of these technologies. Additionally, many of these systems are not designed with the employee and their needs at the center and do not have the needed user experience, intuitive design, and personalized decision support features that are valuable and needed – particularly to help employees with their skills development and career planning.

So, while organizations have made investments in HCM technology, and have access to tremendous capability, these design and data shortcomings often lead to limited returns on these investments. It’s often that the user adoption piece, both driven by the user’s lack of perceived value of the new solution and, in the case of too complex systems, their inability to understand and become accustomed to the new technology and capability is lacking.

These issues are why we were excited about the news from Oracle Cloud HCM about the release of  Oracle Grow, an extension of Oracle ME, its employee experience platform released last year. The elements and aspects of what has been announced with Oracle Grow and its ability to drive value for both employees and the organization overall is what is encouraging. Oracle Grow is designed to show value for employees in a way that is easily adopted and can be utilized quickly and easily.

On the show, Chris shared how Oracle Grow takes all these great capabilities around employee skills, learning and development, career plans, and using a powerful AI engine behind it all and develops user experiences that meet specific use cases for employees and managers – for their career growth, skills development, and more. And the key is that the design, the native integration, and the user experience make it much easier for all employees to take advantage of these capabilities.

When employees take time to think about what their next career move might be, or perhaps they are just trying to master the path they are already on and develop their existing skills to make their current job easier, sometimes they don’t know all the resources available to them and the best set of actions to take to meet their objectives. On the podcast, Chris shared how with Oracle Grow, employees can see a visualization of their skills, where they can focus their development to meet their career goals and see their progress against their personal as well as organizational requirements.

Additionally, we discussed how powerful it can be for the organization when using a solution like Oracle Grow in that it helps managers and leaders adapt and remain agile in a changing and evolving environment. And it gives them visibility into skills and capabilities needed, compared to what is present in the organization in real-time.

With the average shelf life of any kind of technical skill only being somewhere around 18 – 24 months, organizations must think more creatively and react more quickly to changes in their environment and to the introduction of new technologies and methods of working. The traditional LMS, while still important, needs to be augmented by more innovative, intelligent, and personalized tools that help the organization and its people continue to develop, foster growth and alignment across the organization, and seamlessly integrate with the full HCM technology platform.

If your organization has been looking for modern technologies, new platforms, new capabilities, I recommend you listen to the conversation with Chris and learn more about Oracle Grow, and the full Oracle HCM platform. It’s encouraging to know that HCM technology is adapting to help organizations keep up with the challenges of rapidly changing technology, employee growth and development, the need for agility, and the expectations of the workforce for modern, user-friendly, and personalized tools that not only help them succeed in their current role, but also enable them to see and create successful futures in their organizations.

You can listen to our conversation with Chris anywhere you get your podcasts (just search for “HR Happy Hour Network,” as well as using the link and widget player below.

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Thanks so much Chris for joining us!