Webinar Recap: Building the Connected HR Ecosystem Behind Today’s Most Effective People Teams

• Disconnected systems are driving unnecessary work.
  Across hiring, onboarding, compliance, payroll, and benefits, fragmentation forces HR teams to re-enter data, reconcile systems, and double-check work. The result is inefficiency, delay, frustration, and increased risk.
  
• Manual work is crowding out higher-value work.
  Live audience polling reinforced a familiar pain point: too much time is spent on repetitive, administrative tasks, leaving less time for judgment, problem-solving, and human connection—the work HR leaders actually want to be doing.
  
• AI is creating urgency—and uncertainty.
  Many organizations feel pressure to adopt AI quickly, often before they trust their data or agree on the outcomes they’re trying to improve. The panel emphasized that without connected data and clear governance, AI can just scale existing problems faster.
• Some moments should stay human-led.
  While automation can and should handle routine tasks, decisions that affect dignity, life events, or trust require human accountability. The goal isn’t removing people from HR, but protecting the moments where people matter most.

As these challenges took shape, the discussion naturally turned to structure, and specifically, how HR teams are organized to deliver outcomes.

Tara shared how Mercer’s newly released Operating by Design framework responds to these pressures by shifting focus away from tasks and functions and toward outcomes, with technology acting as connective tissue rather than a collection of tools. For many attendees, the framework helped put language around a shift they’re already feeling: the need for HR systems and teams that can flex, integrate, and evolve without constant rip-and-replace disruption.

Hands, heads, and hearts

One of the most resonant moments of the webinar was a simple but powerful way of describing how HR work actually shows up day to day, and how clearly that maps to where automation helps and where people must remain at the center.

• Hands work is the routine, manual work that keeps operations moving: data entry, status checks, handoffs between systems, compliance steps, and administrative follow-ups.
  
• Heads work is the thinking work: judgment, analysis, pattern-spotting, decision-making, and problem-solving.
  
• Hearts work is the human work: empathy, connection, care, and trust-building, especially in moments that affect people’s dignity or livelihoods.

Disconnected systems and fragmented workflows, even with the addition of AI tools, only increase the hands work, pulling time and attention away from heads and hearts. Instead of enabling better decisions or deeper human connection, too much of HR’s energy is spent in rework, reconciling data, checking accuracy, and managing exceptions that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Protecting what should stay human 

The panel was clear: When automation is applied thoughtfully to the right hands work, it does exactly what HR teams need it to do. It reduces friction, eliminates duplication, and ensures consistency and accuracy without constant human intervention.

Routine tasks like moving data between systems, triggering next steps in onboarding, validating information for compliance, or answering common questions don’t require human judgment, but they do require reliability. When those tasks are automated well, HR teams are no longer stuck babysitting processes that should run on their own. 

At the same time, the panel strongly agreed that not all HR work should be automated.

Moments that affect dignity, life events, or trust—employee relations, accommodations, difficult transitions, sensitive conversations—require visible human accountability. These are not “edge cases.” They are the moments that define how employees experience their organization.

When hands work is automated reliably and heads work is supported with connected, trustworthy data, HR leaders have the capacity to show up fully for the moments that matter most with context, clarity, and care.

Establishing the right structure and systems  

As the conversation wrapped up, it was clear that this balance can’t be achieved through tools alone. It requires systems that actually work together, and operating models designed for outcomes, not just tasks. 

• Too much hands work is crowding out heads and hearts
• Disconnected systems are at the root of that imbalance
• Automating the right work—and only the right work—is how HR gets time back

A connected HR ecosystem makes that balance possible. It’s what allows automation to do its job quietly in the background, so HR teams can focus on insight, judgment, and the human moments that define great employee experiences.