Becoming an Adaptive HR function: An excerpt from my upcoming book

Industry 4.0 is disrupting HR as much as any other function. HR is a crossroads and change is urgent. For a long time now I have read and watched in despair how the Human Resource function is struggling to transform into a future-fit, impactful function that drives organisational agility and capability and helps leaders make sense of the new world of work.

Becoming an Adaptive and Impactful HR function will take ongoing work and transformation, upskilling and reskilling. It will take a significant change in mindset and starts with a deep understanding of the new world of work context and then the design of a competitive People Strategy for the organisation and an HR transformation journey for the function. The People Strategy should focus on co-designing compelling employee experience, modernising critical talent processes, the ongoing use of data and analytics, a dual transformation and generative change approach, the redesign of how work gets delivered and the development of future fit leaders and high performing, psychologically safe teams.

HR departments are currently undertrained, underequipped and insufficiently experienced to drive the development of such organizations. In some cases, HR may be culturally removed or even hostile to such solutions. (Orange, 2016). Why is this so? Most of the models used by HR currently were developed in a different time over 20+ years ago and HR has struggled to loosen themselves from the manual and rigid processes they have been following for so long.

”Our point of view is that we need to stop refining concepts for HR that were designed for the world of today and yesterday. The world of tomorrow is going to be so much different, that current concepts (that very often are not effective today) will be misaligned in the world of tomorrow. And if we keep refining them, our profession will become increasingly irrelevant. We do not need an evolution, we will need a disruptive revolution or re-imagination of our profession to stay relevant for the years to come.” KennedyFitch, 2019.

What do they need to do differently? Human Resource professionals will have the task of leading the workforce and capability transition and build the capabilities for the future. They will drive the “humanisation” of the organisation and the adaptability of its leaders and culture. They will have to help the organisation rethink what people can do and will use data and analytics to do so.

“Time is of the essence and today’s HR leaders need to be initiating and sustaining “the right conversations” with business leaders”, says Johanna Söderström, SVP HR at The Dow Chemical Company. “HR teams need to become “comfortable being uncomfortable” in today’s disrupted environment.” (KPMG, 2019).

As we move deeper into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), we clearly see HR changing to reflect our role as a crucial business driver. Our success in the future of work will depend heavily on our ability to effectively prepare our workforce – by fostering a culture of reskilling, upskilling and lifelong learning.

Nabil Dabal , Executive Director, HR Department, Saudi Aramco

“To support this new kind of work and the evolving and diverse workforce, HR now must be a digital partner, talent driver and key strategic partner contributing to the business agenda. The focus of HR is moving toward customized, agile solutions to digitally transform the business—creating engaging workforce experiences while catering to the needs of the enterprise.”(Accenture, 2017).

“As the fourth industrial revolution transforms work and the workforce, HR professionals must respond to proactively manage the future of work. Human resources managers will increasingly have to develop their skills and understanding in data and technology analysis, and help employees develop these skills in order to enhance their experience and encourage their productivity.”

Saadia Zahidi, Director General, World Economic Forum (in Fanning, 2020).

HR must take on the challenge of reshaping itself to become a critical driver of agility. Wait and see will not do. The future of HR is now if it transforms to a connected, digital and engaged function and reshape organisations around nimble and responsive talent. HR has to speak the language of the business and focus on how to grow the business, improve profitability and create responsiveness to changing environments. It needs to be seen as a function that is taking the lead on understanding what makes people tick and what culture helps people and organizations thrive so that we create places of work that are a true augmentation of human capability with technology. (KPMG, 2019).

“The fourth industrial revolution and its repercussions for the future of work offer the HR profession a unique opportunity to redefine its mission and advance its function. HR can achieve this by becoming, beyond employment, the referent of work as a whole, while guaranteeing the qualification of the workforce through the creation of a culture of continuous learning and skills assessment.”

Ravin Jesuthasan, General Manager, Talent and Rewards, Willis Towers Watson (in Fanning, 2020)

An Adaptive and Impactful Human Resource function helps the organisation and its leaders create value through people and a capable and adaptive workforce that can meet any future strategies and challenges the organisation faces. With the clever use of automation and digitization, Human Resources can improve employee service AND become a critical driver of transformation by focusing on critical people initiatives and developing future fit leaders and teams.

I believe the function will continue to evolve into a human centred, data-driven critical function of organisational sustainability and employee thriving. It will require significant rethinking and reskilling of Human Resource professionals. Don’t waste this opportunity.