What We Learned at KY SHRM 2025

Last week, the Parita team headed to the Kentucky SHRM Annual Conference. This year’s focus was clear: HR isn’t just supporting organizations anymore, we’re leading them into the future of work.

From the opening session, Built by Us: How HR Is Leading the Future of Work with Dr. Brad Shuck, attendees were reminded that the human side of work—belonging, purpose, flexibility, and connection—isn’t a luxury. It is the strategy. Shuck challenged HR leaders to see themselves not as responders to change, but as builders of what comes next.

That charge carried through the week and reached a peak in Carol’s keynote, Get Your Brave On: Empowering HR Professionals to Lead with Courage, Authenticity, and Impact. Her B.R.A.V.E. model offered a practical blueprint for showing up fully, speaking up boldly, and leading with heart at a time when complexity, burnout, and transformation are colliding.

Across sessions and conversations, the message was consistent: HR’s greatest impact lies in leading with people at the center as we shape the future of work.

Freeing HR from the Administrative Treadmill

One of the most common threads in conversations we had? HR teams are still spending too much time buried in administrative tasks. From compliance paperwork to manual reporting, the weight of these responsibilities often keeps HR from working on what really matters—shaping strategy, developing people, and anticipating workforce needs.

The challenge is clear: how do we give HR the time and space to think big?

Technology, automation, and smarter processes can help lift the administrative burden. But it’s also a mindset shift—organizations need to stop seeing HR as “the department that fixes problems” and start seeing it as the team that drives future growth.

Making Data Work for Overloaded Teams

If you work in a mid-market organization, chances are your HR team is lean and already stretched thin. Everyone is juggling recruiting, onboarding, employee relations, compliance—and then comes the mountain of data.

Here’s what we heard loud and clear: data can either be a burden or a breakthrough.

Most HR leaders we spoke with don’t need more reports or dashboards—they need answers. For example:

• Instead of a turnover spreadsheet, which groups are most at risk of attrition and why?

• Instead of endless headcount reporting, where are we short on critical skills and how should we respond?

• Instead of backward-looking metrics, what’s the next action HR should take that aligns with business priorities?

For mid-sized organizations, the opportunity isn’t in having more data, but in making the data you already have simple, actionable, and tied directly to strategy.

Overcoming the Tech Adoption Barrier

Of course, none of this matters if the tools we bring in never get adopted. That was another pain point we heard throughout the conference: it’s not just about buying technology—it’s about getting people to actually use it.

For overloaded HR teams, the biggest barriers to adoption are:

• Complexity → If a tool takes weeks of training or requires IT just to run a report, it’s already a non-starter.

• Change fatigue → Teams are tired of “the next big system” that ends up adding work instead of removing it.

• Lack of trust in outcomes → If HR leaders can’t see how the insights tie directly to strategy, adoption stalls.

What works instead is keeping tools intuitive and fast, starting small with high-value use cases, and aligning adoption with real strategic priorities. Technology isn’t impactful because of bells and whistles—it makes a difference when it becomes part of the workflow and is truly adopted across teams.

Summary - Why This Matters for HR Leaders

At KY SHRM, one thing was clear: HR is at an inflection point. Leaders can no longer stay reactive; the future belongs to those who free themselves from administration to focus on human connection in an uncertain world. We left Lexington energized to partner with HR leaders in shaping the future of work.

• Lead with Purpose: Make belonging, connection, and purpose central to organizational success.

• Free Up Capacity: Reduce administrative burden to focus on strategy and people development.

• Make Data Work: Turn insights into clear, actionable steps aligned with business priorities.