Snack-drawer dilemma meets HR tech: staples are must-have workflows, funky flavors wow in demos, ghost-pepper gimmicks gather dust. Learn how AI hype, investor FOMO & copy-cat crunch bloat feature lists, and snag a buyer checklist to pick tools that actually boost ROI, user adoption and people analytics performance.

Jevons' Paradox in HR simply puts an official name to what we have known all along: HR has not saved money from technology; it has reallocated that money into more sophisticated strategies, insights, and tools. This mirrors Jevons' Paradox—efficiency doesn’t reduce consumption; it often fuels more investment and higher expectations.

In the past year, I’ve picked up a few things in contract reviews and negotiations that I didn’t always think about when I was in my HR role (because, hey, Legal’s got it, right?), and now wish I could pass this onto my past self. So, here is to hoping that my pain is your gain when it comes to lessons learned in contract reviews

HR functions are struggling to stay relevant in their organizations. As a result, more HR teams are requesting their solution providers to help them prove the ROI on technology. Here’s the problem: HR’s ROI cannot be calculated by external parties in isolation of each solution purchased. In other words, if you rely on your vendors to help you calculate ROI, you are going about this the wrong way. ROI is something that HR people need to help themselves with first.

Human tenancy plays the most significant role in any implementation program. You can have the best technology, the best implementation team, and the most abundant resources available, but if you don’t address some basic human tenancies, the implementation program will become challenging

“We just don’t have time for this right now” is a common theme in HR. It feels like no matter how hard HR teams work, the work is never done, and some projects get pushed out further and further. While technology promises to alleviate some of the team’s workload, reality can often be different—the more technology you plug in, the more work your team takes on. This is incredibly counterintuitive. So, where and when does it stop?

Just like doing pull-ups at the gym, becoming an HR Tech professional doesn’t happen overnight. We all have to start with knee pushups. While I cannot teach you how to go from knee pushups to full pull-ups, I can summarize the thinking patterns of some HR Tech and People Analytics pros out there so you can use them to become a pro yourself.

HR cloud tech has been around for over two decades. Yet, some HR leaders are still struggling to understand their technology landscape and how technology is integral to their overall strategy. So much so that I have heard the words, “We’ll just let the techies deal with this” in meeting rooms. If we can’t “get it” as a function in 20 years, do we stand a chance of fully understanding and utilizing tech in HR in the next five years?

Throughout my career, I have always heard two opposing ideas in HR Tech: 1) technology ignores the Human Touch, and 2) technology is needed to ensure the Human Touch experience continues. How can both ideas exist at the same time? I have started to make sense of it this week, and I'm inviting you to join me in deciphering the Human Touch Fallacy in HR.

I have calculated, finessed, and recalculated the ROI case for HR for over a decade. Yet, very little has changed in the conversation about allocating a sufficient budget to invest in the HR tech stack. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to get myself out of this rut until this conversation made me realize something: While HR’s role in the organization has matured and its functions and processes have become more complex over the past decade, how we view HR productivity hasn’t changed.

It's about what works best for you. We've all duct-taped and super-glued things around our house that really should not be super-glued together, and sometimes, you have to do what you have to do to get through the next quarter. Whatever decision you make, make sure you do it with your eyes wide open and that your stakeholders are well aware of the pros and cons of that decision.

Have you ever wondered what is actually going through your prospects’ heads as you look at their muted icons on the conference line or watch their eyes move across multiple places on the screen as you present to them?

Regardless of whether you are a founder, business development rep, or account executive, here are some observations I’ve made from being on the receiving end of way too many HR tech sales calls, and suggestions I have from an industry buyer’s lens that might help with your future conversations.

I decided to sit with the file and go through it line by line with them. I am sharing my train of thought during parts of last night’s conversation in hopes that it will help someone else think about how to design their system to better facilitate data collection and analytical insights in the future.

There are many ways to categorize HR teams and HR leaders. In my (possibly overly) simplified view of the world, I usually like to categorize based on the Span of Stuff. The Span of Stuff, in my perspective, is defined by the amount of periphery topics and projects HR chooses to participate in that do not present as HR problems in the beginning but can have significant impacts on the organization.

I usually have a few ideas that don't quite make the cut for each article I publish. Since we are already ten articles into the series, I thought creating an "honorable mentions" list for the thoughts that didn't quite make it to the article stages would be a good idea.

Ask anyone who’s been in the HR Tech industry for 3+ years and they will tell you that the market's complexity and pace of growth is greater than ever before. The speed at which new vendors are coming to market, and well-established vendors are launching new functionality is astonishing.

As someone who has been either on the Tech side of HR or the HR side of Tech for most of my career, I have observed both sides extensively and understand both perspectives. Most of the time, both sides are reasonable. Sometimes one side just doesn’t get it! This article focuses on the perspective of the Tech side (I promise I will write one for HR soon).

When it comes to relationships, partnerships, conflict resolution, etc. I borrow my views from a Chinese proverb that roughly translates to ‘you can’t clap with one hand’ (trust me, it sounds better in Mandarin!). In practice, this means that in any sales conversation / partnership, it takes both parties to create a pleasant (or poor) experience.

This one is for all the Account Executives and Sales Professionals out there: your customer is just a human looking to connect with another human.