A new era for the business – a new approach for HR

Exponential technology is creating a new, exponential business environment whithout a linear or predictable path.

According to latest BCG research Twelve Forces That Will Radically Change How Organizations Work we are „facing a tidal wave of change“:

In an age of rapidly evolving technologies, business models, demographics, and even workplace attitudes — all shifting concurrently — change is not only constant but also exponential in its pace and scope. 

In the article If HR Transformation is dead, what is the future of Human Resources? it reads about potential consequences for organisations, referring to the phenomenon of the “exponential organization” (see book “Exponential Organizations”, written by Salem Ismael, Michael Malone and Yuri van Geest):

When we put these megashifts in the context of the exponential growth of technology, it would be a miracle if the organizations of today can handle and manage these revolutions, let alone whether they can transform from working in an “old economy” to a “new economy”. .. . There is no limit to fantasy, however, there is one certainty; the organizations that we know so well today will no longer be needed in the future and together with this, almost all our HR practices will have to change or they will become obsolete.

In same article it continues to read regarding consequences for HR:

HR of the future is a spider in a web of multi-stakeholders where on and off-payroll workers are serviced with equal importance, where they consult on corporate careers as well as on a company independent career, where they play an active role in “crowd and community management”, and this is a world where most decisions will be based on readily available data (and no longer on opinions). They will play the role of an all-encompassing talent broker, connecting leaders with top talent.

We expect a future HR context where adult people are again treated as individual human beings; in other words, it allows us to “re-humanize HR”. Building on this trend, and this is already quite prevalent today, we expect to see a significant rise in usage of the “Employee Experience”: no longer is the process telling us how we need to operate, but it will be the individualization of the HR experience.

Foreseeable changes will require a bold move, not “same-same”:

We are at the brink of a transformative change in work and how we can think of work and organisations. These disruptions require a completely new approach to HR; extrapolating the past is no longer sufficient and will quickly lead to obsolescence.

In everything, customer experience will come first: receiving end of the HR assignment are the HR customers. Given that, what could be the “right” set up of HR way forward given changing demands and needs – and thus a changing role of a new HR?

The core and decisive difference way forward could be for HR to become a platform organisation as can be read in the article Platforms, and the future of HR: 3 principles to consider respectively in the blog Future HR – platform HR.

Whatever may lie in front of us, for HR, this is a discovery journey. That journey starts today with shaping the future. So HR can be part of designing what’s next.

The mission of HR in the digital age – future HR lies in supporting people and organisations to develop and change – explicitly to prepare for and navigate through the digital transformation. Creating digital workplace experience as well as enabling digital capabilities of the workforce.

This is per se a challenging thing. On top and in parallel to that, HR needs to rethink and redo its own „house“: roles, service portfolio and tools. HR will need to let go of things it got used to and search for new ways.

To manage the transition and transformation that lies in front of HR it will be more of a different HR. This can be seen as an opportunity: being open-minded and getting actively involved navigating through the changes we will find ourselves back in a jointly created future. Of course that will be in different roles and constellations.

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