The future of HR: A recap of SAP HR Connect Dubai

Dubai, UAE, a city known for its innovation and dynamism, recently played host to the first SAP HR Connect event in the MEA region, a one-day, in-person experience hosted at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jumeirah, Dubai, on 6 March 2024.

As an Innovative Sponsor of SAP HR Connect Dubai, EPI-USE Labs had the opportunity to connect and interact with HR professionals from across multiple countries within the region – right in the heart of the beach district of Dubai (who said conferences can’t be fun?).

Natali Bezan Stajner, SAP SuccessFactors Director ME South, set the stage for the keynote sessions, touching on evolving HR challenges: the role of leadership in the AI era, and the part technology plays in reshaping the workplace landscape. From discussions on digital transformation to insights into talent management and employee engagement, the keynotes provided an impressive overview of the evolving HR ecosystem and its impact on talent retention and sustainable business success.

Throughout the event, including workshops and panel discussions, we kept returning to the overarching theme of the day: building a future-ready workforce. In the exciting setting of exploring the latest AI innovations and learning from real-world success stories, it was hard not to imagine what the workforce could look like in the next few weeks, few months and even few years!

So what’s the future of HR, and a future-ready workforce?

We know that HR landscape transformation will be driven by AI, whether it be generative AI, conversational AI or deep-learning AI. We were lucky enough to see some AI applications in action, such as Joule from SAP SuccessFactors, which can deal with HR tasks such as employee and manager self-services. We saw how managers and employees can use Joule to perform business tasks like this in a conversational context. Innovative developments like this would make anyone excited about the future of HR management.

As EPI-USE Labs, we understand that every business is different. It’s easy to be impressed by SAP SuccessFactors innovations that will embed intelligence and flexibility into HR management, but it can be more difficult to know where to start. The first steps are to brainstorm the responses to questions like this:

• What does investment in SAP SuccessFactors look like for my company?
• What does employee retention mean in my line of business?
• How will more effective talent management affect my business and succession planning?
• What does our HR digital transformation roadmap look like?

Two key take-aways from SAP HR Connect

There were two key takeaways we took from SAP HR Connect Dubai to guide all HR managers in their transformation process:

• Step away from the hype and understand that your path has to be unique for your requirements; there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. EPI-USE Labs offers transformation services and products that can assist your business, regardless of the options you have today, or where you decide to focus your resources.
• Understand that a future-ready workforce is what you need it to be. It could be enhanced digital literacy, continuous learning and skills development, or it could be ethical and social responsibility. Whatever it may be, it’s important to you and your business, so that should be your focus.

In closing, a huge thank you to SAP for hosting a collaborative and engaging event. We had a great time connecting with people from across the region to understand more about digital transformation within the HR space, and we’re excited to continue the conversation throughout 2024 at the rest of the SAP HR Connect events.