Now that Human Resources is knee deep in the future of work, it can start grappling with how to settle into the new frontier. Hello ChatGPT! Hello Metaverse! But it is more than simply understanding advances in technology. It's also about taking a human-centric approach to work. The idea is to make talent central to business strategy. This elevates employees and Human Resources.
WATCH: HR and Future of Work
Of course, with this kind of shift, comes other changes, too. Specifically, employees expect more empathy from leaders. They want to feel valued and recognized. Most importantly, they are seeking opportunities to grow professionally and personally. Work must have meaning - or they will not do it. At the recent HR and Future of Work event, HR Exchange Network invited thought leaders and influencers to help HR manage this workplace transformation. Here are the highlights:
On Skills-Based Hiring
"It's scary. The average career span is up to 70 years. People change. People will change careers up to 10 times. Think about how much upskilling is involved in that."
“People, across the board, want to feel understood. They want to feel they have the power to make a decision on a day-to-day basis. They feel that their work is appreciated. It matters. They can see themselves in the big picture of the organization. I think that's really an important piece today. We're seeing more and more about organizations being purpose-driven. And that is what is guiding people into working for an organization or not working for an organization right? The other thing that we're seeing more and more of is that people want to feel as if they are an investment for the company.”-Sonia Malik, Global Programme Lead, Education and Workforce Development, at IBM
On the New Design of Work
“I think an interesting thing to know is when you're working in a remote environment. People get back in average of 72 min back into their day. When you take up the commute time, and maybe having to go out for lunch, and all those things. So, you know, to give your workers back 72 min in a day. That's a serious gift to everyone...Companies are providing other locations to work such as We Work Regis offices for their employees to use. And just speaking personally as a guy with two kids, whose wife also works from home, it's great from time to time to be able to go to another location to escape the noise and honestly, just to get a change of scenery. Employees are also using coffee shops quite frequently as a place that they can meet.”
What about when people must head to the office? "Make the office a destination,"-Matt C. Kroos, Regional Sales Director, at G-P, formerly Globalization Partners
On the Post-Pandemic World
“It's then going back to mentoring and coaching the leaders on really having a giant mindset shift from the previous way of working because before the pandemic, they were used to having people sit near them, and a lot of people are not very independent, and they like people to always be around, to do things and to juggle ideas, and whatsoever in a creative agency that happens a lot. The pandemic changed the way they were looking because it was all screen time. And so on. So, they shifted their mind again. And now we came back to office, and we say, now you have to shift the way to do it.”-Gayatheri Silvakumer, Chief Talent Officer APAC, McCann Worldgroup
On Benefits Related to Menopause
Menopause is perhaps the last taboo subject. But just as fertility treatments became more ubiquitous, menopause is the new frontier upon which HR is considering offering relevant benefits. Did you know 42% of women in their 50s are unable to discuss menopause with providers? Or that 45% of women take sick days because of menopause?-Maven Clinic
On the Metaverse
"The Metaverse is a parallel world where you assume one or multiple identities. You can imagine anything like flying cars and there is an economy with four factors: capital, land, labor, and entrepreneurship..."-Dirk Lueth, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Uplandme, Inc.
REPORT: State of HR
On Hybrid Work
Breaking news: It's more likely Gen X or Baby Boomers, who prefer working from home all the time and not Gen Z.-Jose Maria Barrero, Assistant Professor of Finance at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) Business School
On Resilience
"Our bonding connections have gone up but our bridging connections, which drive innovation, have vaporized," -Greg Pryor, Founding Member of Connected Commons, while interviewing Lauren Whitt, Head of Global Resilience at Google
Photo by cottonbro studio for Pexels