The essential
transformation required to succeed in the changing world of work
Today, HR is poised to
be at the forefront of leveraging ‘digital’ in the achievement of exponential
human outcomes.
The fourth industrial
revolution has changed the axis of the world of work. With globalisation,
changing demographics and emerging technologies, the world of work has become
fast paced and is placing demands on workers to be value-adding, almost by
default. This poses both opportunities and challenges on businesses as a whole,
and on people and the people function in particular.
In this age, human
beings are expected to work as who they exactly are, i.e. humans, value-adding
by understanding implications of a business strategy, deciphering latent
emotions of customers, developing talent that can perform during ambiguity,
creating possibilities through technology to help humans work
better—essentially, bringing relationships, emotions and happiness at work.
Today, HR is poised to be at the forefront of leveraging ‘digital’ in the
achievement of exponential human outcomes.
Consider this equation,
which encapsulates the three key elements of the role played by the people
function in driving superior business results. The ultimate state of the
function is where element 1 becomes hygiene and the focus shifts from element 1
to element 3, while retaining differentiated focus on element 2 through value
drivers like culture, leadership, employee care and well-being. Technologies
like robotic process automation (bots) are helping automate repeatable
processes across employee life-cycle, making HR operations efficient and people
function sharper.
While this creates an
immediate threat to jobs that are repetitive and rule-based, as they are taken
over by bots with exponentially higher efficiency, it also expands
opportunities for professionals to push themselves to ‘think, create and
sustain’, as opposed to ‘follow, do and deliver’.
The emphasis is on
‘being more human’ at work, and this transition requires bringing data-based
insight, mindshare and human emotion to work, as bots relieve us of the
operational burden. Enabling personalised experiences for employees,
demonstrating greater empathy and inspiring leadership will enhance the people
function and bring HR back to the focus on its primary responsibility, i.e.
being a culture architect and organisational change driver.
People professionals
have to harness the potential of automation in driving superior employee
experience. Analytics is helping HR get timely and specific information on
people that need personal time and attention. For the millennials, tech-led
collaboration and socialisation is a basic expectation. A smart phone-like tech
experience will be the new normal. The people function is at the cusp of an
important transformation. It needs to actively:
- Think business: Building an active
understanding of the way business is changing and using that insight to
shape people possibilities that enable business strategy & impact;
- Know digital: Appreciating existing and
emerging technology at a broad level is no longer enough. What needs to be
thought through is how these can be brought to life for a differential and
personalised people experience;
- Think future of jobs: Job profiles are
changing. HR, along with business, should be able to define and redefine
success in the context of future of jobs—what would make a data scientist
or a mixed-reality designer performs and stay inspired;
- Understand people: Today, there are four
generations at the workplace (baby boomers gen X, millennials and gen Z)
and four employee types (full-time, contingent, remote and bots). To
understand aspirations, personalities, competencies and needs, HR has to
rethink the people ecosystem;
- Empathise: The employee has to be at
the centre-stage, with policies and processes created around her. This
requires openness to rethinking, to testing and retesting ideas, to
failing fast and to using innovative (or seemingly crazy) ways to manage
the employee life-cycle.
Whether technology
resides in-house or with a provider, is new or established does not matter.
Digitalising HR is the essential transformation required to succeed in the
changing world of work. Like the author and futurist Jacob Morgan said, “When
it comes to the future of work, ‘late adopter’ is the same thing as ‘out of
business’.”
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