
1. The big three collaborators for HR: Marketing, Finance and IT
A lot of HR departments work in their own silos, so a key transformational challenge is to learn to effectively collaborate. The main departments HR needs to embrace are Marketing, Finance and IT, with the end result, supposedly, being more board-level involvement.
The reason for this is that the employee experience should be as important as the customer experience. To achieve this, HR must share ideas and strategies with marketing and IT, whose communications expertise can help to share the company vision, and therefore encourage the alignment of individual employees’ motives and values with those of the business.
The relationship between HR and IT is becoming increasingly relevant, as recent studies demonstrating the importance of how IT systems need to be people-driven and have a clear strategic aim. Without HR having a direct input, there is a danger of ‘best practice’ being consistently replaced with ‘best fit’, which in turn can have a significant impact on usability and even productivity.
With the finance department, interaction is necessary because scarcity of funding and a shortage of human capital are two of the key obstacles when companies around the world seek to grow. The transformation of both departments’ operating models has already begun through the establishment of shared service centres, but collaboration needs to continue as they are both important human capital decision makers.
2. Looking beyond the HR function to other business leaders
Elements of HR and the hiring function are already being replaced by technology, and disruptive innovations are rendering many junior HR roles obsolete due to self-service. One worry is the increasingly common view that many of HR’s procedures could be absorbed into other functions.
While procedural knowledge and experience is vital, senior HR leaders could come from other business management roles, enabling a more well-rounded view of business challenges.
Many of the most successful HR professionals are strong managers in other disciplines, and you don’t have to come through HR to be a great HR manager. In addition, line managers will become more self-supporting and that the trend of outsourcing procedures will intensify.
3. Upskilling in real time
There is no doubt that HR needs to upskill – but before HR embraces disruptive technologies and capitalises on big data and analytics, it needs new employees who understand how best to utilise them.
If there is a significant upskill in technology, then HR can truly utilise big data to help businesses plan and identify opportunities. This can help address problematic disengagement, through gamification and interactive tools, for example, and help revolutionising talent management.
With workplaces varying both in demographics and technological proficiency, the challenge then becomes to conduct an integration process that doesn’t create resistance or conflict, and that doesn’t empower some and isolate others. A balance needs to be struck between adopting quickly enough to satisfy ‘tech savvy’ employee demand, and dedicating time and resources to ensure that everyone is on board and benefits.
It isn’t just concerning technology, however, that an HR upskill is required. Other areas of note include integration skills, proactive learning and general business savvy as common departmental shortages.
By bringing these three areas together in a cohesive way that is relevant for the business you are in, it can equip HR to greet tomorrow’s challenges with open arms, allowing a growth in relevance, both for HR itself and the business as a whole, in the years ahead.
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