Upping the Ante for HR

Reading Charles Handy’s book ‘The Empty Raincoat’, I reflected on the application of the Sigmoid curve for HR function. The symbol is a powerful one, and as Handy states, it possesses almost infinite universality of application. Handy published a prescient discussion of the changing nature of work and the dynamics of how people respond to those changes. He argued for a more constructive and proactive shaping of futures, whether by individuals or by organizations. Like the technologists before him, Handy described a need to anticipate and adapt to next changes while things still appear to be going well, rather than waiting for change to be imposed by external circumstances. He added the idea that progress could stall or even go backwards, unless attention to likely next steps is anticipated, during the time when things appear to be going well. Handy believes the paradox of change is that the movement from one curve to the next needs to take place when there is the least apparent need for it. If people wait until they need to change, resources and energy will have already been depleted. At this point, they have momentum for change but little capability to achieve it.

As such, in the current context of extreme technological and social change, where is the HR function in the sigmoid curve? Is the HR function still transforming or already performing? According to a 2018 PwC Future of Work Survey of more than 1,200 business and HR leaders from 79 countries, there is a significant mismatch between what people want and their experience of working. Of all the organizational capabilities the survey examined, those that focused on the people experience are the most at risk — that is, they are the factors with the largest gap between what is desired and what is the reality. The survey results revealed that there are real and substantial corporate barriers to people being able to work productively now and to prepare for the future. It is clear that there is a significant need to reinvent people practices and processes for the new reality.

HR leaders can definitely play a vital part in providing a compelling environment for tomorrow’s workforce ie. How they can play a role in delivering good people experience, how they can become creative in building and supporting vitality and social resilience, how they can enable innovation through collaboration, supporting organizational agility, leveraging on big data to support great outcomes for customers, businesses, teams and individuals. HR can enable greater adaptability to yield new value by empowering employees to work together to come up with new ideas through an autonomous working culture. The fact is that all these changes requires new applications in the way we think about our people and how people management practices should be designed. One of the most recent trends is design thinking, and how it can be used as a tool to understand and improve the customer experience of HR. Now is the time to start turning that key.

The next decade will be full of challenges for all functions and for HR it will be to focus on actions that differentiate the organization from its competitors and aims to make long term impact on the success of organization. That is probably the only way to ensure that the organisation gets fit to compete. Ultimately, success will be determined by how well organizations can adapt and adopt new technologies and drive employees to do the same.