Human resources professionals are crucial to every business’s success because they manage an essential asset in the value chain: the workforce. The chief human resource officer’s responsibilities include building agile and resilient workforces that are a win for all stakeholders: the employer, employee and customers. Nothing has changed about their responsibilities. However, everything has changed around the assumptions of what mindset and skills will be needed.
The Harvard Business Review reports that the CHRO now has the opportunity to expand responsibilities and shape the future of their organization. CHROs and other executives are acknowledging the need to reskill and hire professionals in HR who are aligned with the new reality of a dynamic and fluid workforce. HR is rebalancing from a mostly reactive strategy to a proactive management strategy. The difference comes down to workforce planning and using data to manage a different type of workforce.
Strategic Initiatives
HR needs to become a strategic talent management technology hub. The inability to operate in a digital environment will be a significant career challenge for HR leaders who do not upskill and reskill. Digitalization is changing everything, from core functions like the way employees get hired to how talent is developed.
Workforce Planning
Recruiting will be an ongoing process, not a moment in time. There will be a rise in "superjob recruiters." Responsibilities will include the ability to use technology to make the candidate and employee experience as seamless as possible in every stage of the process — recruiting, onboarding, existing employee, exit and rehire — in order to create brand ambassadors and loyal customers. Part of customer service will involve the use of artificial intelligence technology to monitor employee happiness and engagement.
Continuous Learning
Organizations are strategically changing to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving global economy. This change has created a misalignment between the current workforce and the workforce needed going forward. According to the global research firm Gartner, the scale and velocity at which companies have adopted new technologies during Covid-19, is “triggering massive skill shifts," with more than 58% of workforces reporting skill transformation.
This type of transformation is what Accenture refers to as a "liquid workforce," where companies are "looking at technology as not just a disrupter, but also an enabler to transform their people, projects, and entire organizations into a highly adaptable and change-ready enterprise." In other words, it's a team with a highly agile skill set in a world where digital transformation and flexibility rule. I believe creating a fluid workforce will be at the core of the CHRO management strategy.
Many companies already use career coaching chatbots internally. "Superjob" skilling will require a different type of career coaching. The employee learning coach will be a human partnered with technology to deliver data-based coaching based on growing skill demand areas.
Diversity And Inclusion
In 2019, 88% of companies globally already used AI in some way in the hiring process. HR professionals are increasingly embracing AI tools for employment assessments to blind hiring to writing inclusive job advertisements. The use of AI tools creates a new job on the HR team: the algorithm bias auditor. The algorithm bias auditor will be responsible for understanding the datasets used to create the algorithms. Were certain groups underrepresented? While in use in real life, are unintended biases showing up? They are responsible for creating a framework for continuous best practices for reviewing which AI tools are used in the hiring process.
So How Technical Are The HR Technology Hub Jobs?
The Cognizant Center for Future of Work and Future Workplace conducted a three-year study to determine the top 21 HR jobs that will emerge in the next decade, in response to "the era of AI, algorithms, and automation.” Fifty-five percent of the jobs are classified as mid- to high-tech. Cognizant takes it a step further and outlines the necessary skills needed for each role. Some examples include experience with biometrics, virtual and augmented reality, and structured and unstructured datasets, as well as the ability to work within the cloud and understand coding languages like Python.
Just as the C-suite is rethinking the HR department's role as mostly reactive to a more proactive strategic partner, HR professionals must pivot and rise to the upskilling and reskilling needed to be a member of the new HR technology hub. While hard skills are essential, soft skills will continue to be equally important.