The future of work – can HR catch up?
Eighteen months ago I wrote an article on the need for a revolution in Human Resource Management practice, but I could not find much evidence that the transformation I flagged as necessary was underway. Now however I can see some green shoots starting to sprout that indicate change is happening in a small percentage of HR units. The question is, will this produce the transformation that is needed, or does it just signify Marketing terminology is taking over HR?
How is the HR conversation changing?
In a recent KPMG paper entitled Future of HR 2020: Which path are you taking?: How HR organisations across the globe are shaping a workforce and people function fit for the future, the writers describe a trend in what they call “pathfinding” HR functions which resembles in some ways the kind of change I said was long overdue in my article It's Time for an HR Revolution. At the same time, topics in the recent on-line global HR conference by Hacking HR on HR Innovation and the Future of Work showed this same trend towards a transformation in HR thinking.
The emerging HR conversation is about topics like –
All these topics challenge traditional views of HR’s scope, value add, processes and HR “best practice”. And they call into question many HR-managed processes and assumptions that underpin activities such as workforce planning, recruitment, performance management and reward, assessment of potential and career paths, HR information systems, the boundaries between employees and non-employee workers, and the lack of individualisation in many HR administered processes such a payroll and training. It also points out a merging that is happening between Procurement, Marketing and HR responsibilities and thinking.
As an example, consider the impact of gig workers and changing workforce trends where 40-60% of people in some organisations are contractors or temporary workers. Contractors are usually engaged, paid and performance managed via the procurement function rather than the HR function and contract and temporary workers are often treated as second class workers, missing out on activities or benefits that permanent staff take for granted. When these gig workers comprise half your workforce and HR usually is not involved with them, what does this mean for your culture and performance and for the relevance of HR? What does the casualisation of the workforce mean for HR areas of focus like recruitment, culture, engagement & empowerment, training, career paths, performance management systems, rewards and benefits?
Contractors are usually invisible to HR and bypass most of their processes and employment conditions. The boundaries of the organisation are changing and the role and mindset of HR needs to change with it. It appears the “pathfinders” are realising this and are already making the change.
What does the future of work look like and what are the warning signs for HR?
From the KPMG research, three in five HR leaders believe the HR function will rapidly become irrelevant if it doesn’t modernise its approach to understand and plan for the future needs of the workforce. The HR function will cease to exist if it continues to operate or deliver in the same way. But from the KPMG survey sample, only about 10% of organisations were taking action to make this change.
They summarise this emerging trend in HR as focused on four key themes:
In looking at these trends however we need to be careful we go in well-informed with our eyes wide open and not just approach this as the latest business fad.
Shaping the workforce of the future and social well-being
We are told that 65% of jobs that people will occupy in 10 years time do not exist today and 40-60% of workers are, or will be, gig workers. This has major social ramifications that go beyond the organisation into issues to do with people’s economic security and their sense of social well-being – not to mention social stability. What role should organisations, HR and values-based leadership play in this trend that is shaping society?
Purpose-driven culture and the 50 years of evidence
There is nothing new in the evidence that a common purpose is a powerful force in unleashing human performance. Dan Pink in his 2009 book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us summarised the 40 years of research evidence that existed then on the topic. So why is purpose appearing on this list as if it were a new discovery?
We know individually focused financial incentives and recognition have been the mainstay of HR “best practice” in encouraging people’s motivation and performance for decades, despite all the evidence about the problems this can create. So why this focus on culture and purpose now? Could it have anything to do with the overwhelming everyday evidence surrounding us all on the power of social media, of branding, and of crowd pressure in shaping individual behaviour?
Worker experience (WX) not employee experience (EX), aligned to customer experience (CX)
The interest in the “employee experience” with its trendy acronym “EX” again looks like we are seeing a belated borrowing from the field of marketing which appears to be way ahead of HR in applying the best research on human behaviour to understand what is important to human beings and what drives engagement. But human-centred design and design thinking has been around since the 1980’s starting with the early work of the IDEO founders with Apple on Apple product design. Has it really taken 50 years for HR to see how human-centred design applies to HR practices!
The term “employee experience” (EX) is already old thinking for any organisation that relies on contingent workers or that needs to prepare for the workforce trends described above. Rather than EX, HR should be talking about WX (worker experience).
Evidence-based insights and unintended consequences
If you’ve got to here in this article – you can probably guess were I’m going on this topic. Yes, HR’s strength is clearly not using evidence-based insights to underpin its practice. In fact, from my experience many HR practitioners have very little research knowledge in the areas of their practice or in the research on the social psychology of human behaviour that should underpin their practice as the people and culture experts. By contrast, such research appears to underpin the practice of advertisers and marketers as any viewing of the ABC’s Gruen program highlights. Is it any wonder that Marketing is now informing HR terminology and practice?
Although this new-found interest by HR in evidence is to be applauded, much of it probably stems from the new business fascination with “big data” and AI. HR practitioners need to be aware, if used wrongly and by the unethical or ill-informed, the use of data has the potential to reinforce prejudice and poor decision making. Robert Elliott Smith in his recent talks and his 2019 book Rage Inside the Machine points out the scary possibilities of AI for people and culture. As an AI expert, he points out AI is the domain of an 82% male dominated IT profession and works via the applications of complex, non-transparent algorithms that simplify and generalise to produce the “data”. He points out the potential of this process to emphasise bias and prejudice in unintended and non-transparent ways. HR needs to become far more data savvy if it is to avoid becoming an uninformed accomplice in promoting prejudice and discrimination.
Conclusion
So, in summary, as we increasingly talk about the future of work, employee experience and AI, as if these are bright new discoveries, HR practitioners need to be careful of being swept along again on the latest business fashion wave and becoming a party to producing a range of unintended, ill-informed consequences. We need to take time out to do some deep thinking, to have an enquiring mind, and a curiosity for the facts. We need to find the wealth of research evidence about what creates healthy performing human beings and social groups and ask ourselves about our values and the kind of organisations and society we want to be part of creating as we help shape the future of work.
Susan Kehoe
Change Leader | Interim executive |Consultant
How is the HR conversation changing?
In a recent KPMG paper entitled Future of HR 2020: Which path are you taking?: How HR organisations across the globe are shaping a workforce and people function fit for the future, the writers describe a trend in what they call “pathfinding” HR functions which resembles in some ways the kind of change I said was long overdue in my article It's Time for an HR Revolution. At the same time, topics in the recent on-line global HR conference by Hacking HR on HR Innovation and the Future of Work showed this same trend towards a transformation in HR thinking.
The emerging HR conversation is about topics like –
- employee experience (EX) aligned to customer experience (CX)
- human-centred thinking rather than “human capital”
- design thinking and “moments that matter” in HR practice
- evidence-based and data-informed HR
- organisations as ecosystems that extend beyond organisational boundaries
- team rather than individual performance and the power of social groups and networks
- accessing rather than owning talent and what this means for culture and engaging workers
- purpose-driven culture and the socially responsible organisation, and
- digital technology’s impact and the impact of AI on the future of work.
All these topics challenge traditional views of HR’s scope, value add, processes and HR “best practice”. And they call into question many HR-managed processes and assumptions that underpin activities such as workforce planning, recruitment, performance management and reward, assessment of potential and career paths, HR information systems, the boundaries between employees and non-employee workers, and the lack of individualisation in many HR administered processes such a payroll and training. It also points out a merging that is happening between Procurement, Marketing and HR responsibilities and thinking.
As an example, consider the impact of gig workers and changing workforce trends where 40-60% of people in some organisations are contractors or temporary workers. Contractors are usually engaged, paid and performance managed via the procurement function rather than the HR function and contract and temporary workers are often treated as second class workers, missing out on activities or benefits that permanent staff take for granted. When these gig workers comprise half your workforce and HR usually is not involved with them, what does this mean for your culture and performance and for the relevance of HR? What does the casualisation of the workforce mean for HR areas of focus like recruitment, culture, engagement & empowerment, training, career paths, performance management systems, rewards and benefits?
Contractors are usually invisible to HR and bypass most of their processes and employment conditions. The boundaries of the organisation are changing and the role and mindset of HR needs to change with it. It appears the “pathfinders” are realising this and are already making the change.
What does the future of work look like and what are the warning signs for HR?
From the KPMG research, three in five HR leaders believe the HR function will rapidly become irrelevant if it doesn’t modernise its approach to understand and plan for the future needs of the workforce. The HR function will cease to exist if it continues to operate or deliver in the same way. But from the KPMG survey sample, only about 10% of organisations were taking action to make this change.
They summarise this emerging trend in HR as focused on four key themes:
- Shaping the workforce of the future in a digitally enabled world
- Nurturing a purpose-driven culture
- Designing a “consumer grade” employee experience
- Use of evidence-based insights.
In looking at these trends however we need to be careful we go in well-informed with our eyes wide open and not just approach this as the latest business fad.
Shaping the workforce of the future and social well-being
We are told that 65% of jobs that people will occupy in 10 years time do not exist today and 40-60% of workers are, or will be, gig workers. This has major social ramifications that go beyond the organisation into issues to do with people’s economic security and their sense of social well-being – not to mention social stability. What role should organisations, HR and values-based leadership play in this trend that is shaping society?
Purpose-driven culture and the 50 years of evidence
There is nothing new in the evidence that a common purpose is a powerful force in unleashing human performance. Dan Pink in his 2009 book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us summarised the 40 years of research evidence that existed then on the topic. So why is purpose appearing on this list as if it were a new discovery?
We know individually focused financial incentives and recognition have been the mainstay of HR “best practice” in encouraging people’s motivation and performance for decades, despite all the evidence about the problems this can create. So why this focus on culture and purpose now? Could it have anything to do with the overwhelming everyday evidence surrounding us all on the power of social media, of branding, and of crowd pressure in shaping individual behaviour?
Worker experience (WX) not employee experience (EX), aligned to customer experience (CX)
The interest in the “employee experience” with its trendy acronym “EX” again looks like we are seeing a belated borrowing from the field of marketing which appears to be way ahead of HR in applying the best research on human behaviour to understand what is important to human beings and what drives engagement. But human-centred design and design thinking has been around since the 1980’s starting with the early work of the IDEO founders with Apple on Apple product design. Has it really taken 50 years for HR to see how human-centred design applies to HR practices!
The term “employee experience” (EX) is already old thinking for any organisation that relies on contingent workers or that needs to prepare for the workforce trends described above. Rather than EX, HR should be talking about WX (worker experience).
Evidence-based insights and unintended consequences
If you’ve got to here in this article – you can probably guess were I’m going on this topic. Yes, HR’s strength is clearly not using evidence-based insights to underpin its practice. In fact, from my experience many HR practitioners have very little research knowledge in the areas of their practice or in the research on the social psychology of human behaviour that should underpin their practice as the people and culture experts. By contrast, such research appears to underpin the practice of advertisers and marketers as any viewing of the ABC’s Gruen program highlights. Is it any wonder that Marketing is now informing HR terminology and practice?
Although this new-found interest by HR in evidence is to be applauded, much of it probably stems from the new business fascination with “big data” and AI. HR practitioners need to be aware, if used wrongly and by the unethical or ill-informed, the use of data has the potential to reinforce prejudice and poor decision making. Robert Elliott Smith in his recent talks and his 2019 book Rage Inside the Machine points out the scary possibilities of AI for people and culture. As an AI expert, he points out AI is the domain of an 82% male dominated IT profession and works via the applications of complex, non-transparent algorithms that simplify and generalise to produce the “data”. He points out the potential of this process to emphasise bias and prejudice in unintended and non-transparent ways. HR needs to become far more data savvy if it is to avoid becoming an uninformed accomplice in promoting prejudice and discrimination.
Conclusion
So, in summary, as we increasingly talk about the future of work, employee experience and AI, as if these are bright new discoveries, HR practitioners need to be careful of being swept along again on the latest business fashion wave and becoming a party to producing a range of unintended, ill-informed consequences. We need to take time out to do some deep thinking, to have an enquiring mind, and a curiosity for the facts. We need to find the wealth of research evidence about what creates healthy performing human beings and social groups and ask ourselves about our values and the kind of organisations and society we want to be part of creating as we help shape the future of work.
Susan Kehoe
Change Leader | Interim executive |Consultant