How HR Can Win Today’s Business Challenges: Insights from the Sprout Innovation Roadmap

HR leaders in 2025 are facing a new set of challenges. The workplace is changing, employee expectations are shifting, and businesses need smarter ways to stay ahead.

At the NextGen HR Summit 2025, Gian Dela Rama, Chief Product & AI Officer at Sprout Solutions, took the stage to break down how Sprout’s latest innovations are solving today’s biggest HR and business challenges.

From AI-driven automation to fintech-powered benefits, this session covered everything Sprout is rolling out to simplify HR processes, boost engagement, and create a seamless experience for employees and HR teams alike.

Here’s what you need to know!

Before charting the future, Gian spotlighted Sprout’s 2024 achievements and the numbers say it all:

• At the start of 2024, Sprout had already processed ₱92 billion in payroll and was closing in on the ₱100 billion mark.
• Sprout ended 2024 with over 276,000 users on the platform, 84,000 of whom actively used Sprout’s mobile app.
• Financial wellness was also a major focus. Through ReadyCash, Sprout facilitated over ₱220 million in salary loans, providing employees with easy access to emergency funds.
• Sprout Inbound, the company’s AI-powered lead facilitation tool, helped businesses generate 2,165 warm and hot leads, translating to nearly ₱3 billion in potential sales.

But Gian made one thing clear: These milestones signal a growing shift in how HR and payroll management were evolving.

HR teams have long juggled siloed systems for payroll, timekeeping, compliance, and more. Enter Project Olympus: Sprout’s most ambitious transformation yet.

Gian shared, “We’re bringing everything together—HR, payroll, and our AI solutions—into one unified platform. No more switching between different systems.”

What does this mean for HR teams?

HR leaders often struggle with onboarding new systems and keeping employee data consistent across different tools. Project Olympus eliminates this struggle through:

• Integrated setup from Day 1 – No more separate implementations

• Employee Hub – A centralized, customizable record for every employee

• Shift Center – Built-in planning tools for complex scheduling needs

• AI-powered self-service – Leave filing, payslip access, and more, automated

• Workflow automation – HR, IT, and finance processes now streamlined—no third-party tools required

Olympus is built to reduce admin burden, improve accuracy, and empower HR to lead with strategy.

Why This Matters for HR Teams

HR’s role has evolved from just managing employees to driving business strategies. To do that, they need the right tools.

Project Olympus is here to help HR teams:

• Reduce time spent on manual processes
• Improve employee experience with seamless, AI-powered interactions
• Ensure compliance and accuracy by keeping all HR data in one place

HR teams spend too much time answering repetitive employee questions and handling manual payroll tasks. Gian introduced two AI-powered solutions built to simplify HR operations and payroll processing: Sprout Concierge and Sidekick.

Sprout Concierge: 24/7 HR Support

Sprout Concierge is a 24/7 AI assistant that helps employees with payroll questions, leave requests, and HR transactions, all through natural conversation.

Gian explains, “You can ask questions about setup. You can ask questions about problems that you’re facing, and hopefully, it can give you the resolution that you desire. But if you don’t get that resolution, you can also now ask Info to schedule a call with a human expert automatically or even request for a call immediately.”

By reducing HR support tickets, Concierge helps HR teams focus on bigger priorities.

Sidekick: The Future of Payroll Processing

Payroll has always been a time-consuming, manual process. Sidekick changes that as the world’s first AI agent trained to fully process payroll on Sprout with minimal human intervention.

“Introducing the world’s first fully autonomous AI-powered payroll processor called Sidekick. Sidekick is an AI agent trained to use Sprout to process your payroll.”

It can:

• Process payroll with minimal supervision
• Verify salary adjustments and deductions
• Upload payroll files to banks
• Automate payroll tasks from start to finish

What This Means for HR:

• Less time spent on repetitive tasks

• Error-free payroll

• Faster, AI-powered employee support

Instead of HR teams manually inputting changes, Sidekick handles everything except the final approval.

On Sidekick, Gian shares, “So, you only need to tell Sidekick, ‘Okay, I increased the salary of this employee by 10,000.’ It knows what to do. It will do everything within Sprout. It will make sure that upon the 15th, it will process the payroll, run Sprout, and then even upload, potentially, the .dat files into your bank’s platform, if you allow it to, and this is done with minimal human supervision.”

Sprout’s AI solutions are not to replace HR teams. Instead, they help them work smarter. As Gian emphasized, Sprout is constantly evolving to make HR simpler and more efficient.

Financial stress impacts productivity, retention, and overall employee well-being. Gian unveiled Sprout’s next step in financial wellness: moving beyond salary loans to help employees save and grow their income.

Beyond Loans: Helping Employees Save and Invest

In 2024, ReadyCash processed ₱220 million in salary loans, giving employees quick access to emergency funds. But loans alone aren’t enough. Employees need a way to build long-term financial security.

That’s where ReadySaver and ReadyInvest come in:

• ReadySaver – A high-interest savings account where employees can grow their salary while keeping access to their funds.
• ReadyInvest – An investment tool that lets employees allocate part of their salary into mutual funds, helping them build wealth.

“This year is all about growing your salary—not just accessing it,” Gian emphasized.

These tools shift the focus from borrowing to building financial stability.

Smarter Payroll, Smarter Money Management

One of the most requested features from employers? Automatic payroll disbursement into multiple accounts.

With ReadySaver, employees can:

• Automatically split their salary into savings, bills, and personal expenses
• Send funds directly to family members—without handing over their ATM
• Earn interest effortlessly

By integrating savings and investments into payroll, Sprout is making financial wellness part of HR.

Why This Matters for HR Teams

Companies that prioritize financial wellness help employees and build a more productive, engaged, and resilient workforce.

With ReadySaver and ReadyInvest, Sprout is giving employees the tools to:

• Save more, borrow less
• Reduce financial stress
• Take control of their earnings

HR leaders can empower employees to build a stronger financial future starting now.

HR leaders need real-time salary insights to stay competitive. But many companies only use benchmarking tools a few times a year—making full platform subscriptions impractical.

Gian introduced Benchmark On-Demand, a new way for HR teams to access salary data only when they need it.

Instead of paying for constant access, companies can now request salary insights for specific roles, industries, or job families on demand.

This means faster, more cost-effective salary benchmarking, helping HR teams make fair and competitive pay decisions, without the extra cost.

Seamless HR Integrations

Many companies use multiple HR platforms, but disconnected systems slow them down. Sprout is now making it easier to sync HR, payroll, and workforce data tools.

“We want every system to speak the same language. That’s what seamless integration is all about,” Gian shares.

With seamless integrations, companies can:

• Sync employee data across systems automatically
• Reduce manual work and errors
• Improve overall efficiency in HR processes

Why This Matters for HR Teams

With Benchmark On-Demand and seamless integrations, Sprout is helping HR teams make informed decisions faster and simplify their workflows.

Now, companies can:

• Stay competitive with real-time pay data
• Ensure HR tools work together effortlessly
• Save time by reducing manual processes

As Gian highlighted, Sprout is focused on building solutions that make HR easier, smarter, and more connected.

Sprout is celebrating 10 years of innovation, marking a decade of growth while looking ahead for what’s next.

“The Sprout of 10 years ago is different from today—and 10 years from now, it’ll be different again,” Gian concluded.

With AI, fintech, and automation driving HR’s transformation, Sprout is at the forefront — helping businesses simplify processes, improve employee experiences, and make smarter decisions.

The future of HR is already here. Are you ready to lead the future of work?

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