‘Sometimes when you think about tech, HR is not the first thought to be at the table. At HPE, it is prioritized’, says Sadie Bell

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is a $29 billion-revenue edge-to-cloud tech giant.

AI is a core part of its business offerings – in fact, the strong performance of its AI technologies saw HPE raise its revenue guidance for 2024.

“Sometimes when you think about technology, HR is not the first thought to be at the table. At HPE, it is prioritized; we’re there”, Sadie Bell, VP, Innovation of People Systems, Digital Experience and Intelligence, tells UNLEASH in an exclusive interview at Workday Rising in Las Vegas.

In fact, there is an AI team within HR that really focuses on how to use the technology responsibly across the business of HR, from hire to retire.

She adds that when you look at a pie chart of the applications of AI internally within HPE, HR is not the smallest segment.

AI is not new to HPE, including with Bell and the HR Team – “we’ve been using AI for a long time”. However, there’s always a need to think about “what does the future look like for ourselves in HR, for our team members in HPE and for our customers”.

HPE, Workday and AI

At Workday Rising in Las Vegas in mid-September, the tech giant announced its next generation AI products, Illuminate.

Talking about Illuminate during the opening keynote of the conference, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach stated that enterprises are at an “inflection point with AI”, and now its time to “move from a world where it’s people working for technology to a world where technology is working for people”.

As HPE thinks about their future AI strategy, UNLEASH was keen to find out Bell’s perspective on what Workday has unveiled at Rising.

“This week has been a pivotal moment for Workday in explaining and connecting things that seem different and disparate,” notes Bell.

At HPE, the HR team is always experimenting with AI use cases, but “it’s difficult to see the end state”, and that can be a challenge.

Therefore, Workday showing “a picture that is helping to connect some of those dots, and allows for connectivity to other systems and tools is a positive for Bell.

“Workday is not the only platform that we use in HR”, but being able to leave the data where it is, and still “get the effectual use of AI”, and present that back to the end user, is a great user experience.

The walk to the mainstage at Workday Rising in Las Vegas.

However, Bell said she would like to see Workday and other vendors stepping up more to support HR leaders with getting to grips to with evolving AI regulation.

“It’s always helpful when you have a partner who is right there with you”, and guaranteeing “at the very first handshake, everything is safe, secure and meeting all of those human rights obligations”, continues Bell.

The future of skills at HPE

As Workday’s CLO Chris Ernst states in his UNLEASH interview at Workday Rising, “you’ve got to be doing skills today to help prepare your organization for AI tomorrow”, the conversation turned from AI to skills.

Bell and HPE take a similar approach between the link between skills and AI – “you can’t talk about AI without talking about what you’re doing with skills and why you should pay attention to it”, Bell tells UNLEASH.

Three years ago, HPE made a strong pivot to hiring based on skills “not just on minimal requirements or having a college degree”.

This wasn’t something that HR team pushed down the company’s throat – leadership wanted to look at hiring differently and thinking about “internal mobility for the betterment of business” to ensure HPE stays “at the cutting edge of technology”.

For instance, the tech giant’s technical employees have skills that are “sought after, are competitive, not only externally, but internally as well. We want to be able to capitalize on that”, shares Bell.

“Upskilling and reskilling is part of our culture. We struggled with being able to identify who has what skills, and how do we help them grow and find a place as they continue through their growth journey,” notes Bell.

So HPE looked at several solutions to help the tech giant over come this challenge, and settled on Workday Skills Cloud, Workday Learning and Workday Talent Marketplace and Career Hub.

These technologies use people’s skills to suggest new roles, mentors, and gig or project opportunities, as well as nudge HPE’s 60,000 employees to think about where they want to grow and develop,

“It brings a new level of connectivity to the company” as workers have visibility of the opportunities outside of their own function or location.

When it comes to gigs, they’ve been so successful that Bell often gets “high fives in the hallway”.

“The gigs are good for the people leaders, they’re able to get talent that’s excited about learning and developing differently”, and do it at speed. “It’s a win win”.

As a result of this new focus on skills-first, internal mobility, internal hiring has increased 40%, which is up 8% year on year over the last few years.

Bell’s advice to HR leaders who want to emulate this skills success is “take a breath, don’t feel overwhelmed, it’s good to start small”. “

“What’s a problem that’s really bothering me that I wish I could do something about.

Then ask yourself for a brief moment, can technology help me? Not AI, technology.”

If it can, then leverage your IT team and your vendor partners, and “talk to others who have already gone through the journey”.

Be inspired at UNLEASH World

The world’s most influential HR event, UNLEASH World, returns to Paris, 16 to 17 October, and it is the perfect opportunity for HR leaders to learn from fellow trailblazers shaping the future of work.

We’ve got speakers from the likes of Zurich Insurance, Chanel, L’Oréal, PepsiCo and Google sharing their top tips on navigating HR challenges, and how to create thriving workplaces.

It’s not too late to join us – you can grab a pass here!