Forward I: Reinventing HR: Imagining The HR of the Future (Part 3 of 10)

As time passes and culture continues to evolve, it is certain that there will be new changes and innovations occurring all over the world. Putting this into the workforce setting, it is inevitable that there will be transformations that will suddenly strike the system 一 leaving all of us with no choice but to adapt. The pandemic was just one example. COVID-19 was a wake-up call for the majority of HR leaders that change is the only constant. And by this nature, we can never be certain when it will come. With that in mind, many companies and organizations are now prioritizing reinventing their HR and imagining what the future of HR would like.?

In this third panel of the event entitled "FORWARD: Preparing Organizations, Leaders and People For 2022,” we allotted a session that would tackle reinventing HR and what its future would look like. With that, we have invited esteemed individuals 一? who are known as experts in their own fields 一? to share their insights and knowledge on the said topic.?

This panel comprises: Talie Schwager, the VP, People & HR of CoinDesk; Tracie Sponenberg, Chief People Officer of The Granite Group; Cassandra Rose, Partner, Employee Benefits & DEI Practice Leader of the Meritar; and lastly, Mike Zanie, CEO of The Predictive Index.

To start off with the discussion, we asked the panelists to briefly introduce themselves and answer the question: When you think about your ideal HR - whether we have already built it or not - what does it look like?

Cassandra began the conversation and stated that her ideal HR is well-resourced and has the sufficient financial means to sustain the needs of a company. It can be valuable to ask for more than you need because even if you do not get the full amount, as long as your leaders know the work and value you are creating, you will get what you deserve.?

Following this, Tracie said that HR should be proactive instead of reactive. Focus more on making the actions work. By that, it is also necessary to look more towards developing first aid kits that we can use in times of emergencies.?

For Talie, an ideal HR is employee-centric; the organization leans more towards embedding a human-driven approach to the people function.?

Meanwhile, Mike said HR should have a new triumvirate where you have a really tight coupling between the CEO, the CFO, and the Chief People Officer.

Moving to a new question, we asked the speakers to design their own learning plan for HR with skills and competencies at the individual and department levels.?

According to Cassandra, HR professionals must be able to capture the essence of coaching. They should constantly teach people in their organization to upskill. It is really important to invest with your people, because they are going to be more committed to do their work; hence, they will stay longer and contribute more to the organization overall.?

Tracie also pointed out how vital coaching is. If HR leaders are able to coach and develop frontline leaders to handle some of the day-to-day issues, HR is then considered to be the architects of employee engagement. Aside from that, it is also important to incorporate empathy, compassion, and love. Right now, everything is focused on the employee which is very different than before.

Talie, on the other hand, stated that the HR needs to fulfill the advisory consulting approach. In order to do that, it is needed to have the right HR technology to take away some of the administrative burden the HR has faced.?

Following this, Mike pointed out the role of the HR leaders, head of talents, and chief people officers. According to him, they play a responsibility to be an evangelist for new ways of doing things because the old ways of doing things aren't working now.?

Next, we asked the speakers to share their insights regarding creating awareness of HR around the things that they may not be aware of.?

With Tracie, it all starts with HR professionals. With that, HR leaders need inspiration on how to get out of their own heads by having to look back at the last year and see if they have done something that nobody has ever done before.?

Talie highlighted the need to have appropriate communication and to know who your audience is. Communication is really critical in creating that awareness, thus we need to have a design thinking approach to implement new HR practices that are user-centric.?

Furthermore, Cassandra laid out three different ways of approaching people. First, through the mind. Make sure that you're bringing in the details and information that are coming along because everyone wants to know that they're leading and doing something important. Second, the heart because people want to do the right thing. And lastly, the pocket.?

After all the things we have discussed, we now move into identifying the roadblockers or challenges that will probably get in the way for HR to achieve its visions in the future.?

As for them, it is important to embody the mindset of “expect the unexpected.” Take the pandemic as a living example. Not even a single one of us expected for that crisis to come and if we think that we can still go back to our previous lives, that will not happen anymore. With that, we should be focusing on what is the next thing to happen that we can't see. Give yourself space and slack to know that something unexpected can come along and be agile enough to adapt to those things.

Another thing is that HR itself can also be our own roadblocks. That being the case, we have to take care of the day-to-day while still thinking about the future. Moreover, we have another roadblock to consider which is the resource constraints. Certainly, we cannot predict what’s bound to happen in the future. Ergo, it is really important to have a flexible approach and be malleable when it comes to handling situations.

You can watch the full video of the panel here !

• Forward I: Understanding the Impact of Technology in The Workplace and Workforce (Part 2 of 10)
• Forward I: Building An Agile and Innovative Business Strategy for Times of Disruption (Part 1 of 10)

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The Hacking HR's Experts Council

We are thrilled to invite all Directors, VPs/SVPs, and HR C-suite level leaders in companies with over 100 employees to join us as Founding Members at the Hacking HR's Experts Council!?

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