Themes across HR jobs of the future and strategy and technology that can drive talent mobility were the subjects of our most recent webinar featuring Jeanne Meister Managing Partner, Future Workplace and Author of HBR research “21 HR Job of the Future” and Kelley Steven-Waiss Founder and CEO of Hitch and Author of “The Inside Gig”.
Five themes that run across 21 HR jobs of the future include Wellbeing and Resilience, Organizational Trust, Leveraging Gig Workers, Data Literacy, and Human and Machine Partnerships. Our experts unpacked the challenges and benefits of each theme and took an in-depth look at how organizations need to adopt agile methodologies in order to be competitive in the future.
The impacts of COVID-19 and our new remote workforces were discussed as major factors affecting wellbeing and resilience. With remote workforces implemented as a result of COVID-19, HR executives had to pivot and focus on mental health and the whole employee rather than just performance. A mentality of “living at work” rather than working from home was found to be isolating, lacking in community, and overwhelming causing burnout at a rapid pace.
Integrating work and home and finding balance and time four ourselves has become a focus of HR executives and will become even more of a focus in the future. HR executives had to pivot quickly with COVID to nurture a holistic view of wellbeing including physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual wellbeing. Delivering on commitments is still a factor in this new economy, but with this new remote status came new challenges. For example, sales reps accustomed to visiting customers to close deals no longer have that as an option. The question becomes how do we pivot to meet goals? This pivoting speaks to our resilience and how we react to situations as they happen. In this state of constant flux, how we find bonding moments with customers and each other is the new challenge.
Organizational Trust and communicating this trust to your workforce is a theme that is building steam across most HR organizations. The constant reporting of data breaches spurred interest in the general public about how their personal information is being shared and/or protected. HR organizations manage multiple types of data from health data to performance data, and employees are concerned about the security of this data now and in the future. COVID too has impacted this area. As workforces return to offices their temperature data is collected daily and travel information is scrutinized. HR executives are finding themselves serving as officers of human bias for fairness and accountability. This is a growing challenge as HR roles look to the future.
Leveraging Gig Workers is another growing theme in HR. The Gig Economy is thriving and more and more people are jumping into gig roles to build outside skills and earn more money. The role of HR in the future is to manage more fluid talent and fill gaps in talent when needed. To do this successfully, HR will need constant evolving data that highlights the hidden skills of a workforce. Talent on demand is critical to a successful HR strategy in the future.
Data Literacy is more than making data driven decisions. It’s about using data as evidence for why we make changes. HR departments will need more than just a Data Scientist or Head of People Analytics. Data literacy needs to be found throughout HR organizations in the future. Looking at dashboards and understanding what the data is telling you will be a critical skill for HR departments. Understanding how to synthesize disparate data streams, benefit portals, survey results, and using data as a systems thinker is the future of HR.
Building off of data literacy, Human and Machine Partnerships are the future of HR as well.
Integrating the machine as a new team member and ensuring algorithms are a trend to watch in the future of HR. Our machines should make us better and allow us to do a higher level of work. Giving the machine a personality, so our interaction becomes more than transactional is a key to working seamlessly with machines in the future. Tools and resources will continue to create more jobs and will do so at a faster pace in the future, so staying on top of reskilling will be essential to all HR functions in the future. Collaboration between humans and machines will become the science of the job and integrating this technology into the job will be the art. Finding the balance is the new mission of HR executives.
Divers of Urgency to prepare for the future of HR were discussed and defined as:
- Upskilling Imperative
- Business Resiliency
- Employee Wellbeing
- Productivity and Performance
COVID has caused some businesses to accelerate and some to contract, HR has had to pivot to keep up with both. Curating content and experience, connecting human and machine partnerships, and collaborating across our organizations are major challenges facing HR now and these will continue to challenge HR organizations in the future. Three new HR Jobs reflect this:
Future of Work Leader is at the intersection of corporate strategy and HR, this role is responsible for analyzing the skills that are most important for the organization to meet their goals. Upskilling and reskilling and identifying who is best positioned to do this.
Human Machine Teaming Manager focuses on creating a seamless interaction between the digital tools and the workforce and understanding the role of each.
Gig Economy Manager is the talent management lens for the organization. This role identifies skills and capabilities and closes this gap using individuals inside and outside of the organization.
Rapidly moving markets, like we currently manage, require our workforce to be constantly evolving to keep pace. The future of HR is agile and self-directed to keep supply chains ready to achieve goals. For more information on the Future of HR jobs, contact us. We’re ready to help you get started with your transformation.