Last week, the Zaddons team joined thousands of UKG customers, partners, and innovators at UKG Aspire 2025 in Las Vegas. From our joint session with Unifi to the countless conversations at our booth, one theme echoed throughout the event: the future of work is shifting from managing people to activating them.

At Aspire, UKG unveiled its next evolution as a Workforce Operating Platform (WOP). A bold move that redefines how organizations connect their people, data, and processes to drive performance and purpose.

Here are our key takeaways from a week filled with insights, innovation, and meaningful conversations:

1. A New Category: The Workforce Operating Platform

The Workforce Operating Platform represents a fundamental shift from workforce management toward workforce enablement. At its core lies workforce intelligence, AI-driven insights that help leaders understand what’s happening in their business and across their industry in real time.

Through UKG AI and their upcoming voice-enabled assitant called Project Alto, organizations will soon gain access to predictive insights, benchmarks, and contextual guidance for better decision-making. Yet despite all the AI buzz, UKG’s message was clear: “Technology doesn’t transform business. People do.”

This is people-first AI. Technology built to elevate, but not replace, the human experience.

2. Taking Care of People Is Good Business

Economic pressure and evolving employee expectations are reshaping the workforce. Here’s an eye-opening data point that was shared at Aspire: turnover can increase by up to 150% when employees consistently work fewer hours than expected.

This insight underscores a powerful truth: fairness and predictability in scheduling directly affect retention. When employees don’t get the hours they need, financial strain and disengagement follow.

For us at Zaddons, this data point reinforces why activation matters. When systems are integrated and automated, managers gain the visibility to assign hours fairly, employees gain the predictability they depend on, and the organization gains stability.

At the end of the day, the most advanced platform in the world only succeeds if it helps people feel secure, seen, and valued.

As UKG put it best: “When we take care of our people, we take care of our business.”

3. Humanity at the Center: Lessons from Hoda Kotb

Keynote speaker Hoda Kotb brought warmth and authenticity to the stage, grounding the event’s technology themes with deeply human lessons. Her reflections were a reminder that behind every platform and process are people with stories, struggles, and purpose.

Her words were a reminder that every data point represents a person:

• You only need one person to love you.
• Life changes in an instant.
• A stranger can change the course of your life.
• Don’t hog your journey. It’s not just for you.

At Zaddons, we see those points being reflected daily. Behind every automated process or bidding engine, there’s a person whose experience at work improves when technology finally works for them, not against them.

4. Integration Over Perfection

In our joint session with Unifi, we explored what it takes to activate technology in the real world, and our message resonated:

Don’t get hung up on perfection. Integrate first, then innovate.

Implementation success doesn’t come from overplanning; it comes from progress. Start small, integrate tightly with your existing systems, and let real-world feedback guide the next step.

We’ve seen it across industries: when you reduce complexity, you create adoption. When you integrate rather than replace, you accelerate ROI. And when you activate your existing systems, you build innovation on a foundation of trust and data integrity. Listen to the session here.

5. What’s Next: From Management to Activation

Aspire 2025 marked a pivotal moment for workforce technology. UKG’s WOP vision confirmed what we’ve long believed: the next frontier isn’t about adding new tools; it’s about making the ones you already have work harder for you.

We’re proud to be part of that evolution. Our Enterprise Activation Engine (EAE) extends the power of UKG by embedding advanced scheduling and bidding automation directly within the platform: no extra logins, no disconnected data, no workarounds.

Because when your people, processes, and technology move as one, everything becomes possible.

That’s the power of activation.

Activate Your UKG Platform

Discover how Zaddons helps organizations turn their existing HR systems into engines of efficiency, fairness, and engagement.

Learn more about the Enterprise Activation Engine (EAE).