Clare Hickie. Image: Workday
Workday’s Clare Hickie discusses her role as CTO for the EMEA region, the shift towards a skills-based economy and the company’s commitment to sustainability.
Clare Hickie is the chief technology officer (CTO) for the EMEA region at Workday. As an IT specialist, Hickie has extensive experience in tech areas such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Prior to joining Workday in 2018, Hickie worked at various organisations including General Electric and GlaxoSmithKline.
As well as her role as CTO, she also serves on the board of directors for Workday and advocates for greater diversity and inclusion both in the workplace as sponsor of Women@Workday as well as in the wider tech sector through her involvement with Connecting Women in Technology Ireland.
“I was always very interested in technology and what it could change,” says Hickie. “My role is a mix of technology and people: time with prospects, existing customers, and our product and technology teams. With customers, it’s really about understanding their most critical business challenges and how we can provide and develop innovative solutions to solve those.
“Software is ultimately about problem-solving.”
What are some of the biggest challenges you’re facing in the current IT landscape and how are you addressing them?
Talking with customers, the biggest challenges – and opportunities – are around the tectonic shift of AI. Fundamentally, adoption and success around AI requires trust. Our recent global study Closing the AI Trust Gap found that both leaders and employees lack confidence in, and understanding of, their organisations’ intentions around AI deployment within the workplace. Some 23pc of workers said they are not confident their organisation puts employee interests above its own when implementing AI.
So, I see three key steps to help build that crucial trust. Firstly, while AI provides ample opportunity to automate business processes, its purpose should be to augment humans, not displace them. Always ensure that human judgement remains in the pivotal role as the ultimate decision-making factor.
Secondly, enforce the highest data security and privacy standards. This will encourage greater confidence and ultimately adoption. Finally, check that the data being used is both accessible and transparent.
Speaking of data, many organisations today still have data sitting across disparate systems. This can severely limit the ability to use AI effectively and ultimately impact decision-making. The ideal solution is one single, unified system providing intelligence based on real-time data. Organisations that have a strong data foundation will get better insights, leverage AI fully and deliver optimal results for decision-making.
‘When you take a transformative technology like AI, no one organisation has all the answers’
What are your thoughts on digital transformation in a broad sense within your industry?
I believe the focus has moved swiftly from digital transformation to being a digital business. Many organisations have already made the investment in tech to drive transformation across their business – now, it is about adopting continuous innovation to become a holistic digital business.
When you take a transformative technology like AI, no one organisation has all the answers. It requires a multidisciplinary approach from many fields – technology, the humanities, ethics, the arts. It is the convergence of many things.
We are digging deeper into that and are collaborating with Technological University Dublin and Trinity College Dublin to establish the Workday Professorship of Technology and Society, examining topics ranging from AI to STEM. The initiative will also involve five PhD students and three staff members, and a total commitment by us of €2m. The research, thinking and policy that will emerge will be useful for building better understanding and awareness of the challenges and opportunities of new technologies such as AI.
Sustainability has become a key objective for businesses in recent years. What are your thoughts on how this can be addressed from an IT perspective?
Absolutely and it is only growing in importance. There are two sides to it: what we do as a company ourselves and how our platform is being used to deliver and implement sustainable practices.
As a company, we have some big commitments around sustainability. For example, Workday continues annually sourcing 100pc renewable electricity. We have also achieved net-zero carbon emissions and provided all of our customers with a carbon-neutral cloud.
In terms of our technology, we can help not only jumpstart but also help measure and improve sustainability initiatives and give companies real-time information on their ESG efforts. For example, Accelerate2zero – built by Deloitte on Workday Adaptive Planning – helps organisations capture Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.
What big tech trends do you believe are changing the world and your industry specifically?
One trend I am very excited about is the major shift towards a skills-based economy. We are seeing organisations move away from managing labour and talent based solely on traditional degrees and the typical, linear career progression, and move towards skills-based hiring. In fact, organisations who utilise a skills-based approach in recruiting are far more likely to outperform their traditional counterparts in the areas of innovation, efficiency and adaptability.
We are a skills-based organisation so that we are agile and can move quickly to the demands of the market. This agility is always important within a business, but especially at times when there are so many external factors at play in the world.
But, while there is a solid business reason for skills-based hiring, we also see this shift as our responsibility to look after our employees and enable them to reach their full potential. We believe investing in skills is a great way to help our employees succeed in their current roles and grow professionally, boosting employee engagement and satisfaction.
What are your thoughts on how we can address the security challenges currently facing your industry?
If you go back, say, a decade ago, people thought of security in terms of defence. Today, we have to look at it much more holistically, fostering a security mindset from the very start of the product development process. It really comes down to awareness and knowledge, driven by constant education.
For all organisations, regardless of industry, having a strong culture of cybersecurity is essential. Security should be embedded into the fabric of the organisation such that every person understands their responsibilities and how it applies to their specific role. Additionally, understanding the type of data you are protecting and the current threat landscape guides the creation of appropriate controls.
This need for awareness and education is why we encourage cybersecurity upskilling within Workday. In Ireland, our partnership with TU Dublin has enabled us to build a network of ‘security champions’ across our Product and Technology organisation. These ‘champions’ can then advocate for security and ensure it is baked in at the start of any conversation or innovation.
In this programme, employees can undergo security CPD training, consisting of one core module to achieve certification, with the option to complete an additional two modules and research project to achieve a MSc in applied cybersecurity. This initiative is just one example which highlights the importance for organisations to enable and encourage upskilling within their business.
Find out how emerging tech trends are transforming tomorrow with our new podcast, Future Human: The Series. Listen now on Spotify, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
