Building Partnerships and People-Centric Solutions: Mosaic’s Secret Sauce

Speaker A: Welcome to what's up with Work Tech By Mercer, where we explore how technology is transforming the workplace. As a leader in digital solutions, Mercer examines emerging trends and innovative HR technologies. Join us for insights from industry experts on the intersection of HR and technology and how Mercer is shaping the now of work. Enjoy the episode. Hi everyone. Welcome. Thank you so much for being here. In this episode of what's up with Work Tech, we are featuring one of our partners at Mercer, Mosaic Consulting Group. They are one of our partners that we work with from a employment, uh, perspective. So super excited and of course I have to do a bit of a blurb for Mosaic as I brag about them. Mosaic, um, Consulting Group is a woman led organization and the 2025 UKG Partner of the Year. With 250 experts across the US, UK, Canada, India and Australia, they deliver end to end UKG implementation, managed services integrations and support. Backed by more than 1,000 collective years of HR and workforce management experience and dual UKG certifications in technology and services, Mosaic focuses on long term client partnerships, tailoring solutions that streamline processes, strengthen workplace culture and drive lasting success. Their culture focused people centric approach ensures clients receive exceptional, exceptional guidance and a seamless UKG experience. I am super, super excited to introduce Kristin Sadler, CEO of Mosaic Consulting Group. Thank you so much, Kristen for being a part of the show.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: How are you doing today?

Speaker B: I'm doing wonderful. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to share a bit of our story along with my own as well. So thank you for having me.

Speaker A: Amazing. It feels like yesterday when you and I last saw each other at UKG Aspire, uh, you're hosting an amaz party, kicking things off for the full week. And uh, yeah, today, I mean it's really going to be a, ah, easy conversation. I, I definitely want the audience to learn a bit about you, the business, the company. Um, so with that let's kind of get into it.

Speaker B: Let's jump in. I love it.

Speaker A: Um, all right, so as many of you have listened to this show before, uh, I definitely want to start off with, with a question where people get to know you a bit. Mixing a bit of fun and personal and work of course, and how it all melds together because there, there really is no separation between the two in, in today's world. So out of curiosity, what's a hobby that might surprise your colleagues or clients and how does it influence your work or creativity?

Speaker B: Love this. It's interesting when you get asked the question like, do you have any hobbies and so you think, oh, okay. I, um, lead an incredible team, incredibly successful team that takes up, as you can imagine, some time, have two brilliant sons, um, that keep me very busy. So my husband and I usually are juggling, you know, who's taking who to practice, at which day, at what time, on what field. So I have, um, two sons. One is 10 and fourth grade. His name is Austin. And then I have Garrett, who's in first grade. Um, and as you can imagine, for those of you that believe in, like, the order of your, you know, children, like, he's. He's a special little soul that keeps me on my toes. Whether he's climbing a tree or, like, inventing something new, I'm chasing him around everywhere. So, uh, when you say, like, what hobbies do you have? That is, I'm on a ball field. Whether it's baseball, uh, basketball, football, soccer, it does not matter, karate. I, um, am somewhere, um, supporting my children. Um, I love them getting to understand the individual, hard work it takes to be successful, while at the same time, how do you play well with the team? Um, and so very much enjoy. My weekends are usually completely filled with, um, being. Being a mom, which I think as you take that into work, you know, how many of you sitting here listening to this are thinking, yep, I do the same thing. I juggle, uh, both my work and my, you know, life. And, yeah, there's a lot of different philosophies on work life balance. Is it really work life balance is just, you have one life. It's not two different worlds that come together, which I fully support. Uh, but what it does and what I love is so for all of you out there listening, if you're in a leadership capacity and you have people that you manage and that you lead every day, they're watching to see what work life balance you bring to work. And so I have no problem saying, hey, I'm on the ball field. I can take this call, but I got five minutes because I want to be present for my kids. It's telling them they can do the exact same thing when it comes to how they manage it. So, um, when I bring on new leaders and I bring on new team members, I'd like to remind them that, you know, you're just one person. You're not split between two different people. So the work life balance that you need, um, you just have to be vocal about it and set those boundaries. And so I love when I get the, you know, out of office that say, I'm supporting my son on xyz or my daughter or my parent, whatever it may be. Um, I love being able to see that we're able to have that balance so that we can, um, support each other at a human level. So that's my hobby, is my kids. Um, we love all things sports as well. I was just sharing with Karina before this. We were at ut, um, homecoming this weekend. Um, and we're a little bit of a divided house between who's the real UT in the SEC world. So my husband, M, and my youngest are Texas Longhorn fans, which I married into. Uh, we happen to go into the UT system school. My oldest is an avid fan and thinks he will be the first one to ever play in all sports. Um, or at least three sports. Excuse me. Um, at ut. Ah, and an engineering school. So we'll see what happens there. I'm, like, not going to crush those dreams whatsoever. But he'll. He'll figure that out. That's where we were this weekend, was cheering on, um, UT Tennessee at their homecoming game.

Speaker A: That is so fun. And, I mean, you're setting a great example for your family, setting an example for your clients. Right? And I think everything comes full circle. It's having that right communication, um, you know, talking through and setting the right expectations. And so I love that. Um, and it's funny, I'm thinking, smiling when you said, who's the real ut? I feel like you could turn that into a song.

Speaker B: You know, I'm surprised somebody in country music hasn't written that. Let's just go ahead and put that out there in the universe.

Speaker A: Amazing. Amazing. Well, I love how you kick this off. I mean, this already segues into. But I really wanted to touch into as kind of the first couple of areas because I'm so passionate about culture and people and, and, you know, how companies run. And as. As a female leader, um, you know, just kind of setting the right example across the board. So as we kind of se this, I mean, can you share a bit more about the Mosaic culture, how the company came to be? What's the history behind it? I mean, it's been wonder wonderful working with you and the extended team on different projects.

Speaker B: Well, thank you. I will say the story starts, uh, well, before me. Um, I've been with mosaic for eight years. When I joined, uh, we were number 45, um, or I was number 45. And at that point, um, you know, I entered an organization that already had a rich history of growing year over year. And. And so Vicky Hill, who is our founder and then CEO, um, is One who instilled the culture in this organization. And she previously had worked at Ultimate Software. Um, eventually, at some point said, you know, I want to branch out and try the consulting side, um, of then Ulti, now ukg. And what was exciting was to listen to her tell the story. As a payroll practitioner, as a person, um, who understood how to implement this payroll, this HR and payroll, uh, technology and make it successful for clients. She got heighteningly focused on, um, she used to, um, literally say, if a client asks you to put up a Christmas tree, you say, okay, let's, you know, you got two hands and two feet. Let me go and help you figure it out. But while we're doing it, let's talk about how, you know, how do we improve? So she's always been focused on business outcomes. How do we help clients solve and improve business outcomes? And what's incredible about that is if you, um, study employee engagement. So I have an HR background before this. So I was, um, Mosaic's head of HR at, at the time when I came on board eight years ago. Um, and so when I joined again, we were on this incredible growth path. Um, and it just felt like every year you're running, every quarter you were running, but you got to see the impactful work you were doing with clients. And so when I came on board, at that point, it was just a focusing on, um, ultimate software. Um, a few years, um, back in 2021, UKG was formed and you saw ultimate and Kronos come together. What's incredible about those two organizations is the rich culture that their leaders set in place. And so what you find within the UKG ecosystem, there are a lot of US partners who started with, whether it was a Kronos background, ultimate background, doesn't matter. They all have this care and love and feel for their team, which then translates to their clients. And so as much as I want to say, like, oh, we're so special because we do this, what I love is that this ecosystem is actually surrounded by others that believe in that same philosophy. And so at that point, um, you know, when I came on board, we. I was the, the first HR person really putting together a strategy. We also implemented Pro. And so as I implemented Pro into, um, um, into this, you know, ukg, or excuse me, as I implemented the PRO suite and took my strategy for talent and infused it into the technology, um, we kept looking for ways to improve an ad. And so a part of, um, my journey with Mosaic is, I'm going to say, my claim to fame, right? The Thing that I love seeing still have a life today that I help influence. Eight years ago was our focus on not only building a talent strategy, but one that had a continuous loop where you ingest the voice of your team, the voice of your client, while at the same time balancing with your partnership and with your financial model. And so what that translates to is um, this passion around employee engagement, which I'm sure we'll dive much more deeper into that. But as we focus on it, the employee engagement, again, it continues to translate to our clients. So I'm just going to again, because I know we're going to dig in even deeper into some of those, um, to kind of finish out our Mosaic story. You know, we were fastest growing, um, privately um, held organization, you know, four years in a row on the Inc. 5000. We have many um, awards that we uh, fortunately have received. And I like to remind people we got those because we had incredible talent doing incredible work with clients. And so it's a team that is a team sport. When we win any of those awards around innovation or um, white glove service or um, you know, collaborator of the year this year, partner, um, of the year, which we're so proud to receive, it's because of the hard work of our team. Um, and so 2021 we decided to have our first acquisition. Um, we acquired a um WFM group called Westward. And we welcomed on those 13 team members. And um, at that point really we had a focus on how do we infuse the innovative spirit that they have that how do we always solution for clients and find ways to say yes. That was something we gained um, from that acquisition. And I love the experience that we had. We also had a lot of lessons learned and then really prepared for um, you know, how can we continue to scale as a business? How do we scale our technology, our processes, our org structure, our financial model? And so we became heighteningly focused in 2022 and 2023 around just that. Um, we gained some incredible advisors that helped us really understand different ways to look at how we scale. And so in 2020, um four we acquired three organizations, incredible organizations. Um, one was a carve out of the Agilia's workforce management team. Another was called D and E Consulting. And what I love about this story is um, Ed and Donna used um to work alongside of Vicky back at Ultimate Software once again. Another example of a firm that um found it very similarly grew on its own, um, and again had incredible HCM and some tech talent that we welcomed to the team. And the last One is, uh, Project Genetics, which is, um, an organization that had honestly the best WFM talent out there. Um, and when we welcomed them to the team, um, we are slightly crazy. I will admit that. We did these three acquisitions in four months. Um, and I realized how crazy that sounds when you say it out loud. Um, and again, we prepared for two years for this at the same time had some great lessons learned after that that said, okay, next time we go to acquire, you know, how do we, how do we do this smarter? How do we do this more efficiently? How do we do this more welcome. Welcomely. Is that a word I'm allowed to use? Um, how can we do this with more of a welcome spirit? Yeah. Um, and so 2025 has really been focused on, um, supporting clients and bringing teams together under one delivery model and being able to um, help clients really achieve the results that they were looking for in this technology. Which by the way, half the time technology is a huge support of that. The other is your adoption to it and how you um, make sure that you're focused with your team on the training and development around how do we utilize this piece of technology consistently so we get the results that we want out of it. So we've built an entire practice that's really focused on helping with, um, the adoption optimization of, of the technology. Um, and love seeing the success stories. We're watching clients give us quotes back around saving a million dollars in one year by leveraging the UKG tool in a, in a different way. Um, and looking at whether it's their, you know, PTO policies, it's their scheduling, it's their um, um, um, there's, you know, engagement strategy. We're able to help them move the needle forward and they're getting real results and that, that impact, that meaningful work again plays back into engagement. So Karina could just keep going. You're gonna have to interrupt me. Get really excited, get very passionate, uh, about that.

Speaker A: Actually I have some more questions for you because of some of the things that you have highlighted. I definitely want to touch on optimization and the adoption area. Maybe we can touch on the end, but I know you're quite modest. Uh, as, as uh, we've, we've been working together. So I think, um, you know, the thing that I want to highlight as you were talking about awards, uh, it is not just a simple award but is really, ah, a couple of key big ones and feel free to add it, but it's a great place to work for five consecutive years and you made the top 100 for America's professional services. So I just want to highlight that because it is not an easy, um, easy thing to do to get this, this kind of uh, award winning status and to be able to talk about that.

Speaker B: Yeah. Like, yes, I so appreciate that. I know when we dig in a little bit more too, of, of how. Right. The, how to make that happen. Um, this is a topic that Jessica Fuller, who's my VP of people and culture, um, her and I have shared this passion for years. Um, she's taken some of the work that I did originally and she has so advanced it and her, her detail to the analytics and to the data and finding statistical correlations, you have to say that slow, um, is absolutely incredible around this space. And what I find is most HR people struggle with, um, they have the answers in front of them or they've done the survey and they have all this information. How do you actually bring it to action? And so we had the opportunity and were invited by a great place to work, um, to do a webinar series with them, um, to have a case study written, to do a recorded interview. And we got to go out on stage a great place to work summit, um, this year and be able to share more of our story. And the story is really around how do you, how do you connect those dots? How do you connect employee engagement to CSAT to revenue? And how do you actually have this conversation with a CFO of how you're actually impacting the P and L and where to find it on the P and L? Um, and that is something we are definitely passionate about. Um, and at the same time it's our people who have given us the ability to have that recognition for the last five years. Right?

Speaker A: Yes. And you have, I think if I remember correctly, you have a very high CSAT score.

Speaker B: We have high csat. We have, um, we've had incredible, um, enps and um, making sure I say all the things right. So Jessica doesn't um, kick me. She, she likes to remind me like, Kristen, you did all this for like 15 years. I'm like, yes, but I haven't for the last four. So anyways, um, for nps, for CSAT and our engagement so score, we also track um, employee satisfaction as well. And um, what's again, what's incredible is the correlation when you're having a fabulous year where that engagement is high and people feel that they're doing meaningful work and they have autonomy of what they do, they have growth opportunities, they're making an impact. Right. They feel connected, which by the way is how we measure under those five, um, employee engagement. But when that's up, so is the csat. Our employees feelings at work have a great impact on the work that clients are receiving. Um, and with that again revenue is going to increase. So it's, it's been fun to be able to see that. I m know on Raven, right, we've got the five out of five, over 200 reviews. Um, what I appreciate and love and I'm going to go ahead and quote her because why not? But Rachel Barger, who's the, the president of Go to Market, has said I've, I've talked to many of your clients, Kristen, and every one of them, every Mosaic client raves, raves about your work. And as much as I'm like, yes, a lot of that too is expectation setting and accountability both ways throughout a project. Because if any of you have ever implemented in a, um, any of you have ever implemented a new technology, what you know is when you do the build and then you go through testing, I've ah, yet to see 100 pass, fail. Right. 100 of everything was set up exactly the way that we originally intended to nine months ago. Right. Because it is so fluid. You're still learning a business as you go. So um, it's about setting those expectations along the way and being in the trench with your clients side by side. So there are, there are bumpy moments just like there are with every, you know, experience going through, um, that implementation. But the whole goal is to get to the other side and for everybody to feel that impact.

Speaker A: I love that. And, and what would you say is that um, I'm going to call it like secret sauce. I mean you've made quite a number of acquisitions. There's a lot of different teams and different dynamics coming other. But from a client perspective, I mean they are happy, they see the end results. You're delivering, your teams are delivering, um, but then you know, behind like I imagine there's so much work that needs to be done. So what are some of those few things as you've made some of these acquisitions, um, you know, any unique challenges and you know, how have you overcome those?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think one of the first, as much as we prepped, um, getting everyone on the same systems was actually the easy part. It was like a sprint, right, to get to the end of the year, make sure everybody's on one system. Um, I think everybody can relate to that. Right. You don't want to operate out of three different accounting tools and three different payroll tools and Three different, you know, CRM. So, um, we were, we were prepared for that piece. Um, what is interesting is it's not the go live, right of a Jan one. It was the adoption of your language, adoption of, um, your playbook around, like, how do we do business? And it was wild because I remember sitting in a meeting and I kept hearing everybody say the same things. And I finally was like, wait, wait, wait, what does that mean to you? You're like, what do you mean? I'm like, no, seriously, executive sponsorship. What does that term mean to you? And we had three different answers. And there you could give example after example. So what I found to be successful is you got to know when to press the pause button and really focus on the basics and the foundation. Um, and that is when you've got to do the, the reorientation or the, um, you know, relook at how you physically operate as one. Which, by the way, is your culture. Right? Culture is every conversation internally and externally. It's how you work together, it's how you operate. It's what do I expect? So what's interesting is, is if you've ever been through an acquisition, right, there's a lot of fear because you just don't know. And people fill in the blanks. Psychology will tell you they will fill in the blanks if you don't fill it for them. And so I found that it was heighteningly important to increase, um, communications. My team will still tell you to this day we could be better at communicating. And that's fair. We, um, increased our focus, um, again on one delivery. So we made it a quarterly goal to go back and redefine the swim lanes of how do we operate as one. Well, I also noticed that some of the what, what you would think a business would call nice to haves, I would call our non negotiables, um, have really went on pause so everybody could focus on getting everyone operating as one team. Um, and so notice that about mid year and said, okay, guys, we got to get back to opus, which is our innovation um, committee. We also brought back otsc, which is Ownership Thinking Steering Committee. And that is a group that's really designed to be a continued voice for your people, but they're actually part of the resolution. It's not just handing my issues over to leadership for them to figure out how to fix all the things. And so, um, this is one where, if you've ever read the book Ownership, um, thinking it helps build the voice of your team, but fights against entitlement, which I have made that mistake before in my career. It's just really built up entitlement, and it happens without you even knowing, but it happens. Um, and so what I found is through acquisitions, you come with different cultures of the team. You need to honor the past, but be avidly focused on the future. And so we have, um, I think we have found ways to be able to honor some parts of those cultures and move it forward. You still have to have a very intentional, Intentional culture. An intentional way you deliver as one, an intentional language around how we work. And so, for instance, the word teamwork was so interesting because, like, how do you define teamwork? And you think it's pretty easy. And then you find that other teams, based off of their past experience and their past reward systems and their past, um, experiences, when you bring that forward, it doesn't always translate to the same thing. So we were heightly focused again in 2025 of just how do we operate as one? How do we have an intentional culture? Still a work in progress, because that is always the work of leadership. Right. Is to continue to move that forward. It will always be a work in progress. Um, so I think I answered your question, Karina. Absolutely. I love this. That's 2,025. We also did something, I think, incredible with 2025. In order to keep up with our growth, um, we went through the process, and, um had an opportunity to find a PE partner named UM Avessi, based out of Connecticut, who are fantastic to work with. And now they're giving us even more ideas around how do we continue to scale and grow. And so we're quite in the position to be able to continue to do that.

Speaker A: And one of the things that I wanted to really highlight that you had talked about is pushing the pause button. Uh, I think a lot of US are running 100 miles an hour. We're. We're going so fast. Strategies are being thrown left and right. There's pockets of strategies. But putting that pause button, thinking about, what do we actually need? How do we move forward? And, you know, in your example, you have, you know, multiple acquisitions, um, that you've made. But really honoring parts of those cultures are so important. You know, I think in our times, in our industry, we see so many acquisitions, and it's almost like you acquire them, take nothing of the culture. You just want either the resources or some of the infrastructure. You keep those. But in reality, that's not really how it works. I really appreciate the time and the energy and the patience that you've put in thinking about, okay, how do we really bring this team forward to think about the future moving forward? So that pause button is one that I think all of us need, uh, kind of that reminder and thinking about how it all comes together because we, everyone's running so quickly with so many demands on their plate. That's, that's coming up back and forth.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Um, and the pause doesn't mean you stop moving or stop growing, but it does mean you get very intentional with where you put your focus to make sure that, you know, the hero on fire thing over here, that's always going to be there and it's always going to be a different fire isn't what gets 90% of your attention. And that is difficult. And so, um, part of listening, uh, to my leaders, which, um, you know, we had opportunities to welcome leaders from, from those acquisitions, which has been very, I think, helpful with some of that, you know, making sure that there's, um, voices heard at the leadership level as well. Um, what I found though is we have, um, you know, I remember bringing an issue like, hey guys, we got to solve this together. I'm not close enough to it. I need your input. And right when we got done with that leadership meeting, first of all, they solved it because we have incredible leaders. And yes, they were the right people to solve it. No, it wasn't a team of executives that, you know, again, weren't close enough to it. And, um, I will never forget, like, I got a ton of pings afterwards that were like, that was a so much fun. I'm like, good, because that was actually an issue we had to solve. It was a big issue. So good job. Love it. You love it. But the second was, it's been a minute since I have looked up and looked out. I've been so far into the weeds with my team. This was a good reminder that I need to make sure that I'm not just absorbing all of the, the, um, weed level work and respectfully. Right, because you do need to make sure you have people in your organization that are looking for and that are driving the strategy forward. If nobody's focused on the strategy and all you're doing is focused on the day to day, like, you will get stuck there. Um, and so that was a cool lesson learned to kind of see pop up where it was, you know, bringing back to life that like, full focus of, like, how do we do this differently? Especially as our, you know, client group grows, as our team grows, we want to be intentional. Um, so we're coming together in December for Our leadership meeting. I've had a chance to do our annual planning with our exec team, um, again, but it's. What's the five year plan? What's the one year plan? How do you break it down by quarter? How do you not take on too much? And we're notorious for being like, yes, we can do all these things, but how do you shrink it so that you will get this done in front of you?

Speaker A: Being intentional. Um, this is one that again, like, carrying through. Like, I think we, everyone could like, think about it, take it away, give themselves a reminder. This is one that's really, really key. I love, I love the approach that you've taken throughout this journey because I imagine probably looking back or looking in the rear view, rear view mirror, it feels like it was either a long time ago or it feels like yesterday. Maybe both.

Speaker B: Maybe both. Yes, it does.

Speaker A: The days.

Speaker B: What, what's the phrase? The years are long, but the days are short. Um, and I know that's meant for children, but I know business world too.

Speaker A: It's like, um, someone, someone else mentioned, like, it's like dog years. You know, it's kind of like that. Um, well, certainly you've provided a well rounded view. Um, you shared the culture, um, different aspects of it. But from a, from a overall, um, perspective, what makes it Mosaic different that you feel is like the, you know, the one takeaway, especially for clients. I mean, they love you, but, you know, what is that thing that comes to mind?

Speaker B: Yeah, um, we're focused on building partnerships. Um, I learned a few years ago you have to weed out vendorships. Mosaic's incredible at being a partner with multiple relationships. Right. And it's important for us to have that for a few different reasons. A huge portion of that is also to be more connected with what are you trying to get out of not just this relationship, but this piece of technology for your business outcomes like where, where are we going and how can we help get you there? Because at the end of the day, you know, our, our kind of methodology around teamwork is more heads are better than one. And so how can we bring that, you know, support to a client? Um, I would, I can't not say this because it's just on the mind. Um, we have incredible talent. We have incredible talent that can handle very complex, um, clients. And so when you think about, you know, multi billion dollar organizations that have multiple sites across the world, how do you have somebody that can help and meet you where you're at? And it's not just a one size Fits all. And so what I love about our team is the talent that we have, have been doing this for years. They have put in the reps, they have seen the weirdness that can come from setting up a new system that's very complex. And so we, we make the complex simple, which I think is powerful. Um, and, and again, we, we do that while building partnerships which are very important to our business. Um, it's interesting when I talk about, when I talk to my team and I will ask, like, we get incredible client stories that we bring back and we celebrate, right? We celebrate the success of our clients, and we also celebrate the success of our teams. And so when we have those individuals that are called out by names, by client feedback, uh, like we do feedback bonuses for unsolicited, because you're getting to see the exceptional service that we train, that we talk about, it's live and in action. And when it actually represents, at the end of the day, like, why we do what we do, it's to make a difference and inspire confidence. And so when you literally read the client reviews, like, when they come back and they're like, I just want you to know your team did this. When I see the words like, confidence, you've made a difference. And it's like literally living out, living out our vision, it just makes my inner purpose, right? It makes my day. Um, so to take a step back, right, and answer your question very directly, we make the complex simple. We, um, keep it very human. Our tagline is where HCM meets humanity. Um, because at the end of the day, humans are complex and you need somebody to help you figure out how are you managing that full talent strategy, how are you bringing it forward and making it successful in the technology? How do you gain adoption? How do you optimize continuously? Because, let's be real, regulations change, compliance is difficult. You may have a new HR leader that comes in and says, I have a new strategy around recruitment. Now you got to go back and reconfigure to make sure that it aligns and it stays connected. Then to onboarding that thing is connected to, right? How you develop and how you retain your employee base. Um, and there's so much more, you know, to that behind that. Their schedules are very meaningful. Mobile apps are very meaningful. You got to meet the employee where they're at as well. So I believe that we help clients, um, be successful in doing that.

Speaker A: Exactly. And I love that the tagline, making complex simple, that is another area that, um, you know, in my day to day, as I'm working with different clients and different, you know, vendors, uh, that I think, you know, we're trying to stuff so much and message so much that often at times people forget, you know, what it is that they're trying to deliver to the client. So it's so great that you have that reminder that the clients see it. Now, as I mentioned before, I definitely, um, want to touch on adoption and optimization for a bit because it all comes full circle, making the complex simple. And often at times when you have a go live or as we call it, within verse or go begin, because it doesn't just once the system's live, um, that really is that continuous journey. And so one of the things that I wanted to touch on because I know your clients love you, is for those who might be thinking about an SI or their UKG journey, like what, what should they expect from Mosaic in the adoption and optimization cycle and how do they, how should they also think about making the complex simple? So I don't know if you could share a bit about that, um, and kind of the journey to help ease them in that process.

Speaker B: Yes, love that. So, um, when we look at optimization, first we'll do a review. And it's not just review of the UKG system, it's much more extensive than that because we want to understand the flow of technology. We also want to look at, um, even past adoption. What does the leaders or executive team in this organization view this to do? What are the actual day to day administrators, um, what are their challenges? What's their, you know, current state versus where they need it, future state. But even the users, right, the user experience is important to this as well. It's always interesting to see the huge gap that can be, uh, communicated in such an event where you have the executive team saying, well, this is what we bought, this was the ROI that we were promised and this is what it should do. And then you have your users down here going, I literally just want to be able to change, you know, my shift on my phone and it's not doing it right. And so when, if you think about just how many touch points are in there, um, this strategic system review kind of takes a full glimpse of that full current state and looks at where do we want to go and what are some of those gaps and challenges. And so what we find as kind of like those common denominators, um, is yes, there is sometimes where systems, um, need to be updated. There are sometimes modules that may have been purchased that we didn't quite touch because we were running Towards a. What do you call it? Not a go live, a go beginning.

Speaker A: I love that.

Speaker B: Go begin. Uh, go begin. Okay, I might adopt that. Unless it's trademarked. Um, that's fine. If it is. We, when we look at that, typically what then happens is. Let's talk about phase two or phase three, and we're in making sure that you're in, um, a situation where you didn't do what we call lift and shift. This is how it was set up in my old system. That's, you know, not where I'm putting in my current system. A lot of times employees do, or I'm sorry, not employees. A lot of times clients do that because they're up against a deadline and they may have underestimated the system schedule to be able to put a new piece of technology in place. So what we like to do is go back and say, you know, what, what did you think that ROI would be as well? And then essentially, how do we meet that gap? Um, some of the more common items that I see is around training and adoption. And so if you think about it, you have to train the administrators, you have to train the managers, you have to train the end users. And all three of those are very different experiences. A lot of times you just focus on the user right before you are putting it into place. And then you're trying to show them like, this is now where you're going to clock in and out, or this is now where you're going to request pto, or this is now where you're going to be able to change your schedule. At the end of the day, that is just one piece of the bigger picture around adoption. And what we also find is like creating, creating an SOP isn't enough. Making sure that there's time for adoption there, there's that continued feedback and that you're looking from a, uh, Q of standpoint. The amount of times that I hear from clients like, well, it's just bad data, so I can't even use it. Like, okay, but that's the whole point. You have to have good data in as good data out. And then when you have good data coming out of that system, the analytical tools that are built in, the advancements of AI, the advancements of analytics in general around hcm, are absolutely incredible. That is getting that into your hands where you can make better business decisions, that's where the gold is, right? Using it for the intent is absolutely table stakes. Right? But what you do with that data afterwards, that is what I think is so important. Around even adoption.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: You got to train your people how to use it, use it well, use it often, have consistency of how you're using it so that you have good data going in to get good data going out. That's everything. So for example, we use it ourselves. I remember the first time they came out with Employee Voice. Um, and Employee Voice used um to have an old name. That's its current name. Employee um, Voice was one of those tools where felt like it was a bit ahead of its time. Even at in that day, I'm trying to remember, it was like six years ago if I'm not mistaken. And so we built our engagement strategy out of it. What's incredible is it has, especially today, it has a ton of surveys that are already pre developed and not only are they pre developed, but it also has data actually backed by Mercer. So that's a nice little plug. I mean again, right. And not the reason why we're doing this, but it doesn't hurt. Um, but what's incredible is it also shows you like based off of the industry that you're in, is this average or is it not? Because it's one thing to get results but then like what are you comparing this to? It's like saying we have 80 utilization. Okay, compared to what? What was it supposed to be? Is this good, is this bad? You know, same thing when it comes to your people data. And so the, the tool itself, what it's done for us is it gives us a, a common language, you know, two to one time a year depends on how often you want to run your strategy or your survey strategy. Um, but we have consistently used the same questions for six years. And so not only can we know how do we mark up against our industry, we also can mark it up against our point in time, in our, in our history. And what's really important there is again we were able to find statistical correlations to revenue and to CSAT and be able to see the, the impact of the focus on employee engagement. We're to which reduced turnover. Right. And so again the tool itself gave us the capabilities to not only track it, but also to on a heat map show us trends that we should be focused on. That then gave us the ability to go back and train managers. Um, specific to like how are you giving feedback? Because your team is reading a bit different than the rest of the organization on this and it's reading low. So I realized I just went complete full circle on you, Karina. I jumped ahead. I apologize. I get really passionate about that. Topic to go back from a client perspective, like, that's. We want them to be able to get to an end result where they're using it consistently. They have good data coming in. Right. Their people are physically using it and understand how to use it and how it helps improve their engagement. And at the end of the day, it should be improving revenue for, for the client.

Speaker A: See, I love hearing this, which is why I wanted to touch on it, because I, I love your passion. I feel your passion. So I want to make sure that we touched on it here. Um, and thank you so much for sharing your journey. I know it's been an incredible, incredible ride. Um, and I just want to highlight a few things that you've talked about, um, during your time with me. Um, making the complex, simple, um, pushing the pause button, honoring parts of the culture. All of this is a combination of the successes and the care that you have for the clients and really bringing that together. Now, I know you and I are both very excited for Christmas. There's going to be a lot of things going on, and all this from a work perspective. We're also planning for 2026. So one of the things that I, I really, um, wanted to ask you, as we kind of close this out, is Looking ahead in 2026, what are you most excited about?

Speaker B: Oh, I literally just got chills. Um, yes, I literally just got chills for 2026. This is. Is so fun for us. Um, what I am seeing in the market is there's still a heightened sense of connecting, you know, HCM across the board to their strategy, to their strategy as a business. And how do we actually infuse that? I don't know if you track compensation, but what was wild is over the last two years, HR market data has actually surpassed finance crazy. And so when you think about what that even means in the market, what we're seeing is HCM strategy and how we continue to build upon it and how it's a business partner. Right. Not just a HR department. Um, I am loving the trends that, that we're seeing in the market that show the heightened importance around building a talent strategy and making sure that you do have a tool that can leverage that. Right. And so back in the day, we used to say, you know, it's. It's HR getting a seat at the. In the boardroom. Right. Or a seat at the table. Um, and I remember that day when I got a seat at the table and I never wanted to take it for granted and clearly have not. Right. So at the end of the day want to continue to see, um, the talent strategy advance for Mosaic 2026 is going to once again be a year of growth. Uh, again, there has not been a year. Uh, we will also celebrate our 15 year anniversary, which is pretty exciting as well. Um, and so on our path and our plans, you know, we're solidifying, um, those, those plans in this moment. But what's been exciting is to really think about the market. How do we advance in our market share within ukg? How do we support the bigger picture of HCM and be the experts of hcm? And so that's where I really get excited, because it's a bigger picture, right, and how we can step into that bigger picture. Um, we have continued to help more complex clients over the last 18 months. I see that continuing, but it's bringing it back to our team and to our clients of how do we continue to advance that service line? How do we continue to advance the experience both for team and client? And we, we have a heightened focus on the client journey, um, that'll continue on into 2026 and probably even a different way. Um, there's a book called the Power of Moments that has just been on my mind for years. I read this years ago, and we're finally ready where we have very intentional moments that matter for our clients and identifying those and bringing them to life. Um, so client journey is going to continue to advance, um, in a positive way. And our team is always a part of our heartbeat, um, that will never go away. So I'm excited for 2026. We have our theme. I'm not. I haven't quite shared it with the team fully yet, but we've solidified our theme. We've solidified, um, the growth plans. We've solidified the what, and now our leaders are the ones that are creating the how. And so when we come in together in December, we will share those plans. And then again, how do we skinny it? Because we always get very aggressive in everything we want to get done. But how, as a team, can we figure out this is exactly what we need to do to make that happen?

Speaker A: I see what you did here. This is fun. You're leaving a bit of a teaser. I want to know what the theme is.

Speaker B: Call me in January. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: January 1st.

Speaker B: January 1st. Right.

Speaker A: What's the theme?

Speaker B: What's the theme? It is. It is there. Um, I'm very much enjoying this process. Right. Of getting ready for 2026 and what that looks like.

Speaker A: That is incredible. Well, thank you so much, Kristen. I really appreciate you being a part of this. And, and thank you for leading the way and. And, um, you know, covering everything from both the work life, all of it. I'm excited for 2026.

Speaker B: I am, too. My last, I guess my last parting. Um, if I can add, um, for the. For the. I'm going to say the working moms, working parents, or even just the leaders. When you have those moments that you just don't feel like you're being enough, you are. Give yourself some grace. Because it's even. Even the way I describe the company. Absolutely. Because I believe that passionately about, you know, the culture and the people and how we help our clients. There are bad days. You just got to focus on those good days and how do you continue to advance past. Right. So just. Your work is amazing. Keep doing it. Don't tear yourself down. It's very easy to do. Um, but anyways, I just felt like I needed to share, like the. You. There are great days or bumps, and the great days are what carries through those bumps.

Speaker A: Working moms. Do you hear that? This is why. This is why I give you a big heart. Thank you, Kristen. Thank you for listening. Please subscribe, share, rate and review this episode. If you have questions or are looking for more information, reach out at the the link in our bio. We can't wait to connect with you.