SHRM 2024: 3 Key Sponsor Takeaways

The Finch team just got back from SHRM24 in Chicago, where we joined more than 26,000 HR professionals in exploring the current human resources landscape.

We met with dozens of attendees to discuss all things HR tech, including accessing employer data from HRIS and payroll systems for use cases like employee benefits, engagement and learning, accounting and financial forecasting, and more. 

Below are our top takeaways—including the biggest insights from our survey of nearly 200 HR professionals.  

1. Industry-leading providers made a splash

This year’s conference drew lots of attention from industry-leading HRIS and payroll providers like Rippling, ADP, UKG, Paychex, Paycom, Paycor, Insperity, and Bamboo. They came prepared to both educate and entertain: Paycom brought “unnecessary action hero” Shemar Moore, while Insperity hosted a speakeasy-style bar and UKG printed edible photos on cookies.

The competition is still fierce among payroll providers—the latest data shows there are 5,700 payroll companies in the US alone, and the market share of the top 10 combined is only about 55%. 

Many of the attendees at SHRM24 were in the market for a new HRIS or payroll solution. Top-tier, human-centric customer service was a big selling point for most of them, as was tech that could cater to small businesses. 

2. System connectivity—or a lack of it—is top of mind

We spoke with dozens of attendees who were excited about increasing connectivity between the HR systems they use via integrations. Our own research has found that almost half (49%) of HR professionals use 7 or more employment systems of record—so keeping information up-to-date and accessible across those databases is paramount. 

We surveyed nearly 200 HR professionals at SHRM24. The respondents were fairly evenly distributed across company sizes, though the biggest group (40%) worked for enterprise companies with 500 or more employees. The professionals ranged from individual contributors to managers and executives.

In the survey, we asked respondents about the tools they use that don’t integrate with their HRIS or payroll system—and what challenges they face because those systems don’t communicate. The biggest problems they reported were a high degree of manual work, lost time, and keeping data updated across systems.

• Too much manual work — 34%
• Takes too much time — 30%
• Difficult to keep data updated across systems — 20%
• Administrative costs are too high — 18%
• Lack of reporting capabilities — 17%
• Security risks — 14%

Finch is on a mission to alleviate these pains by creating the Open Employment Ecosystem—an open, standardized, interconnected future of employment technology. You can learn more about it—and see our market map of companies at the intersection of payroll, HR tech, benefits, and fintech—here.

3. AI continues to be a hot topic

We already knew artificial intelligence was hot from the conversations we had with HR professionals at Transform 2024—but SHRM doubled down on it. Twelve of the sessions at the conference were focused on AI and how it can help HR teams be more effective and productive. 

Much of the conversation at SHRM24 was around how AI can answer internal questions and act as a second set of hands for busy HR professionals. While AI has been around for years, companies’ investment in it has accelerated recently—and will likely be at the heart of the next wave of disruptive technologies. 

Unlock hundreds of integrations with Finch

Finch's Unified Employment API allows applications across HR tech, benefits, and fintech to integrate with hundreds of HRIS and payroll providers, enabling streamlined employer onboarding, time-saving automation, and evergreen access to the employee data you need. Learn more by scheduling a call with our Sales team, or try it yourself for free.