Paycor’s inaugural Connect+ customer conference attracted more than 300 customers. It was an amazing time, and we look forward to next year’s Connect+ in Orlando. Here are the top insights and A-HAs from 3 days of presentations and conversations (and be sure to check out our highlight reel here).
Paycor listens to customers. (Raul Villar, CEO)
Paycor’s mission to empower leaders is more important than ever. In a competitive job market, it can take a pay raise of more than 20% to poach employees who are engaged by a manager they trust and respect. To make sure we’re on the right track, Paycor is always listening to the feedback from our customers, and we are committed to listening to and growing from that feedback. Raul was excited to share progress in building a community of users. Our early adopter program grew 30% year over year. Our online community, the CORner, now boasts more than 2,000 advocates. Even more exciting, there was a 117% growth in the breadth of Paycor’s HR platform last year and 860% growth in platform usage.
Paycor is Open for Business. (Ryan Bergstrom, Chief Product & Technology Officer)
As we build out our roadmap for Paycor to deliver on our mission of empowering your leaders, we focus on three key pillars to guide our investment and thinking.
- Beyond the Basics – The basics are the parts of the Paycor system that must be accurate and on time, every time: Payroll, Compliance, Workflows, and Notifications. Our customers depend on these areas of the system for their daily work lives.
- Powering People & Performance – With a rock-solid foundation in those basics, we can then help customers transform their people into their company’s super-power. From performance management, to surveys, to coaching, to career planning, to micro-learnings that drive constant improvement, our platform arms customers with a suite of tools to transform managers into leaders.
- Flexible Technology – We made 11,000+ updates to the system last year, 963 of which were customer ideas. Of all the strengths of the Paycor platform there’s one that stands out from the rest: Our openness and ability to connect with other systems to power our innovation AND our customers’ businesses. With 310+ partners and 130 APIs in our ecosystem, our platform is focused on putting people data to work by helping seamlessly connect the Paycor system to other business systems. It reduces extra work, improves accuracy, and enhances security, enabling a truly connected, data-driven business where HR is a strategic partner at the heart of it all.
“Informative sessions. Innovation table and expert connect were great resources! Overall, I was very impressed with Paycor’s energy and openness to feedback.”
Connect+ 2024 Attendee
The Future of HR is Here (Paaras Parker, CHRO)
Paaras shared her Top 5 Ins and Outs for HR leaders in 2024. The Outs list included:
- Antiquated Performance Reviews–Kick out what isn’t working and welcome updated ways of helping people know the basics.
- Hiring Bias–With all the advancements in AI, we have an awesome opportunity to pay attention to bias in new ways.
- Ignoring Employee Well-being–Employees have so much to think about inside and outside of work, and it’s not slowing down. Pretending like well-being isn’t a thing won’t get us anywhere.
- Lack of Diversity in Leadership–Diversity of thought, experiences, communication styles all matter in driving key aspects of business such as innovation, belonging, and inclusion.
- Monotonous Onboarding–Onboarding is such an exciting time to show people what it means to work in your organization.
The Ins list focused on:
- Remote work Evolution–What worked in 2021 is so played out. Keeping how we work fresh and relevant is key.
- Embracing Diversity–Connection continues to be important to engagement and ERGs are a great way to help drive that outcome.
- Winning with Data-driven Decisions–Anyone can read a report and share what happened last year. Using what you know to impact what you will do better differently in the future is when data-driven decisions really shine.
- Being the Employer Everyone Wants to Swipe Right On–In addition to your people, what makes your organization special? Do you know? Are you talking about it all the time? Can people feel it when they come to work?
- Benefits that Make Your Heart Skip a Beat–Listen via surveys. And then act on what employees say they want.
“The intention and thoughtfulness put into the event was wonderful.”
Connect+ 2024 Attendee
Reimagining the Customer Experience (Brett Meager, CCXO)
Brett focused on the improved customer experience that streamlines customer interactions and delivers proactive solutions. Paycor has been very intentional to not change for change’s sake, but to transform in ways that will have a meaningful and positive impact to customers. She emphasized the following points:
- You are busy and we need to be easy to do business with.
- You are pulled in more directions now more than ever and we need to bring you solutions to complex business challenges.
- You have deadlines and we need to be transparent about timelines and meet them.
- You are an expert at many things but you need us to supplement your team.
- You need to be at your best and serve your employees and we need to empower your teams.
Paycor’s significant investments in the customer experience have led to faster, higher-quality issue resolution, AI-driven enhancements, and programs designed to ensure customers’ early success including the architecture of Paycor’s personalized customer training program Accelerator Services, which focuses on Discovery, Decisioning, and Delivery.
Keynote speaker Sebastian Terry encouraged us all to “live our lists.”
After Sebastian lost a good friend at an early age, he became determined to live life to the fullest. He wrote a list of life goals—everything from “marry a stranger in Vegas” to “deliver a baby”—and he’s pursued them. Sebastian reminds us that we are capable of more than we think and that often, all that holds us back is our lack of imagination.
The Voice of the Customer
Senior Vice President of Client Success and Loyalty, Mark Wilson, hosted 7 customers on the main stage who gave their insights into Paycor products, user experiences, and opportunities. Key quotes include:
- “We implemented a compensation structure that rewards longevity in the roles and have seen a decrease in voluntary terminations from 93% to 31% from 2022 to 2023.” – Cortney Hollinger, Head of HR & Marketing, CLEANCause
- “We have worked to look at what our target talent pool wants in a career and build that into our jobs. For example, GenZ wants paid on the job training. We do that with all positions so they can learn our processes and procedures, so we leverage our onboarding and training programs in the recruiting process.” –Steve Caldwell, Director of HR, McElroy Manufacturing
- “Leveraging technology to enhance the employee experience involves implementing a comprehensive system that serves as a one-stop shop for all their needs. By offering easy access and intuitive mobile capabilities, employees can seamlessly navigate various aspects of their work life, from HR inquiries to accessing training resources.” –Liz Bradham, HR Director, E&H Hardware
“Great week overall, accommodations, food, entertainment, variety of sessions, and a lot of the content was relevant for my goals in 2024 and 2025.”
Connect+ 2024 Attendee
For more Connect+, check out the highlight reel!