In this episode of the MHR Show, hear from our Head of Sales Support Claire Pegler as she discusses her key takeaways from the CIPD’s Festival of Work 2025.
Having attended every year for the last 15 years, Claire’s no stranger to the Festival of Work! She notes that this year there was a massive increase in the amount of people attending, meaning more conversations and more connections.
A changing attitude to AI
AI was a standout theme, with many organisations now starting to put together AI strategies and building a clearer vision of its capabilities in the workplace. Our on-stand poll revealed that most people are in the stage of exploring AI; not ready to fully adopt it yet but not shying away from it either. Claire noticed that this year, more people were coming to the stand with clear goals for AI usage, so discovering People First and its AI functionalities was a priority for many visitors.
Real-time payroll and its capabilities
AI wasn’t the only topic of conversation; as put by Claire, real-time payroll was of real interest to the stand’s visitors, who were “blown away by it”. Real-time payroll is completely changing the way organisations pay their people by providing detailed, accurate insights and ensuring employees get paid on time, every time.
Some of the benefits of real-time payroll include:
Reduced risk of error
Ability to make quick adjustments without disruptions
Employees have real-time visibility of their earnings, allowing them to financially plan in advance
Anomalies can be identified straight away before they escalate
Later payroll cut-off date
The importance of wellbeing and workplace happiness
The importance of wellbeing and happiness in the workplace was also a key conversation happening throughout the event. Applied futurist Tom Cheesewright delivered a keynote talk in partnership with MHR on the science behind happiness at work, discussing how happiness leads to high performance and how accessing ‘flow state’ is the key to feeling satisfied and happy at work.
If you missed Tom’s talk at the event, register now for our World of Work 2050 webinar series and you’ll get on-demand access to the episode as he shares his top tips for investing in employee happiness. One registration also gets you access to the rest of the episodes in the series, meaning you’ll never miss our insights on the changing world of work.
