HR organizations are faced with a widening skills gap, economic headwinds and changing expectations around work. It's no surprise, then, that burnout and exhaustion are widespread in HR, with one survey finding that 42% of teams are struggling under the weight of too many projects and responsibilities. Change starts with personnel and management, some might argue. While there's a fair amount of dissatisfaction with HR tech vendors (at least according to some data), to be fair to the tech-positive crowd, many companies see real value in HR tech. According to a recent Sapient report, over half of businesses with more than 500 employees plan to increase HR tech spending by an average of 21% into the coming year.

Gloat, an internal marketplace for corporate talent, today announced that it raised $90 million in a Series D round led by Generation Investment Management, bringing the startup's total raised to $192 million. Generation, notably, is chaired by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. In an email Q&A with TechCrunch, CEO Ben Reuveni said that the proceeds will be put toward expanding Gloat's presence, growing its team of over 250 employees and "strengthening" its R&D initiatives. The list of employee recruitment, acquisition and jobs boards products is practically endless -- see Workday, LinkedIn and SAP SuccessFactors to start. Reuveni doesn't deny that Gloat faces stiff competition, but he sums up what he believes to be the company's differentiators thusly: "Gloat is unique in that we started by powering a solution for internal mobility. Across the market, there are a number of recruiting … tools to source external candidates, but internal mobility poses unique and nuanced challenges. It requires a real understanding of transferable skills and titles that may not be obvious without the deep, organization- and industry-specific insight Gloat's technology was built to offer."

Some image recognition programs would not recognize this image as a bride. But not all brides wear white. Bias and discrimination are often used interchangeably. But they are not the same. Bias is a point of view or a preference for one thing over another.

When evaluating any new technology, first think through the current business process and how this will need to stay the same or change if using this new technology. Rachel Baghelai, senior manager of workforce analytics and insights at Groupon discusses her journey as an HR leader who focuses on both analytics and the human side of HR. Your HCM System controls the trinity of talent acquisition, management and optimization - and ultimately, multiple mission-critical performance outcomes. In this week's #WednesdayWisdom, Rachel shares Groupon's story and the way Groupon's company culture inspires innovation in all employees. She throws light on how HR analytics such as "nudge technology" drives workplace culture at Groupon.

Over the last several months, I've been focusing on the planning, execution and post-event activities for the recently concluded HR Technology Conference, which, by all accounts, was our largest and most successful event ever. It's only in the last week or two that I've had a chance to reflect on the conference--and on the year overall--thinking about the technologies and trends that have mattered the most in 2019 and speculating on what might dominate the conversations in 2020. Here's my semi-scientific look at what was important to the HR-tech community this year, and what we will probably spend more time on in 2020. AI in HR tech was probably the No. 1 tech topic and trend in 2019. There were about 500 exhibitors at HR Tech, and I bet easily over 100 of them are developing, deploying, or at least discussing, how AI is driving their technology offerings.

A "smart-automation" approach can give a typical HR organization a measurable lift when it comes to improving customer experience and efficiency, according to new research from the Hackett Group. The Hackett Group's new Digital World Class analysis found that those typical HR organizations can reduce costs by 17% and operate with 26% fewer staff hours--while also improving effectiveness and internal customer experience. The Hackett Group research advises that, by following a smart-automation strategy, typical HR functions can boost efficiency levels close to those seen by world-class HR organizations (defined as those that achieve top-quartile performance in both efficiency and effectiveness across an array of weighted metrics in the Hackett Group's comprehensive HR benchmark). For instance, world-class HR organizations currently operate at 20% lower cost and with 31% fewer employees than typical HR organizations, the research found. Smart automation--defined as approaches including robotic-process automation, cognitive automation, intelligent data capture and other leading-edge technologies--can enable world-class HR organizations to cut costs and reduce the number of staff hours needed to perform existing administrative/transactional work.

Man or machine: who will shape the future of work? Randstad CEO Jacques van den Broek shared his vision with us at The Next Web 2019. As far as HR is concerned, AI and the'human touch' are becoming increasingly intertwined. For now it's a predominantly human business, but there's no denying that this will change in the future. Intelligent machines, software and algorithms are rapidly reshaping the industry as we know it.

As an HR tech analyst, author and brand strategist, Meghan is sought after for her ideas about the future of work, is a regularly featured speaker at global business conferences, and serves on boards for leading HR and technology brands.

The awareness about Industry 4.0 and opportunities behind The Digital Transformation are sinking in at business side, with a growing attention for HR Technology. This brings many buzzwords in play, which are sometimes more a hype than a lifesaver. Meanwhile the challenges in recruiting, retention and L&D are passed the phase of denial. Note: graph does not include SAP acquiring Qualtrics for $8B, Workables funding of $50M and several others. Is your payroll cloud based? It should be if you want to reduce costs when connecting to other work-life apps.

Greg McAdoo, of Sequoia Capital, once said: "Great companies don't throw money at problems, they throw ideas at them." Substitute'money' with'technology' and you've essentially got every HR leader's worst nightmare. With a surplus of AI balancing on our fingertips, it's essential that organizations fully understand the types of software they're buying – otherwise why spend the money? "We're never going to get the value out of software unless we become more comfortable in using it," warned William Tincup, president of RecruitingDaily.com. "There are so many different kinds of learning, so many different styles. "While some people learn though audio, others through visual – personally, I like to try s***, break it, and then ask questions.