Podcast - Data And HR: How Will It Make An Impact On Your Work?
HR.com Live! Podcast with guest Kouros Behzad on how data impacts and shapes the future of work
Posted on 05-04-2020, Read Time: Min
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It’s a challenge to keep upgrading technology in your business. Are you staying updated with the latest HR tech to manage your workforce?
In this podcast, host Dr. Patti Fletcher sat down with Kouros Behzad to talk about how data is vital in shaping the future of work. Kouros is a product marketing expert on this topic most well-known for driving compelling go-to-market strategy, as well as driving execution. Kouros brings a diverse set of backgrounds as a customer, end-user, strategist, marketer, and product manager on this topic.
Here are the highlights from their conversation:
I'd like to pick your brain a little bit about the whole big topic of digital transformation. How do we need to think about this when it comes to the vital impact of data on shaping the future of work?
When we talk about digital transformation, it's all about how businesses are always reinventing themselves to serve their customers better and serve the shareholders better. A lot of that is leveraging the technologies that are coming up to be able to do things better, to do them faster, to get more insight, and to be able to do a lot more with the resources that they have.
I know that there's a lot of buzz going on around technologies in this space. You hear about 3D printing, IoT, analytics, and AI machine learning. A lot of it sounds like buzz, but I think that is what’s really critical is that the foundation of it is all about data. It’s how we take all of this data and make sense of it to do things better, to do more things, to kind of get ahead of where we’re at.
These are not easy problems to solve, but it's just a piece of innovation that's coming through. It is just phenomenal and obviously there are all kinds of regulatory, privacy security settings that always hinder things, slow the pace of innovation down, slow the pace of adoption down but these things are coming at you and there is really no stopping it.
I know that there's a lot of buzz going on around technologies in this space. You hear about 3D printing, IoT, analytics, and AI machine learning. A lot of it sounds like buzz, but I think that is what’s really critical is that the foundation of it is all about data. It’s how we take all of this data and make sense of it to do things better, to do more things, to kind of get ahead of where we’re at.
These are not easy problems to solve, but it's just a piece of innovation that's coming through. It is just phenomenal and obviously there are all kinds of regulatory, privacy security settings that always hinder things, slow the pace of innovation down, slow the pace of adoption down but these things are coming at you and there is really no stopping it.
It's true! There is so much coming at us when it comes to this topic, the business of people and machines, because that's really where that data comes from. What are some of your thoughts around this? What are you seeing?
I think it's just the nature of work-- “Who does the work?”, “Where is work done?”, “How do you do things?”-- that is changing. An example would be in the farming business. You start from the production, then to the processing, to distribution, to the retail or the restaurant -- it is just food preparation that's going on.
In the past, traditionally this has been very, very manual; it's just very human-intensive. But as you take a step back, it has come a long way. People are going to be removed from a lot of the steps in that chain. When you look at the overall production and the processing, there are fewer people and the skill of the people is changing. You still have the people who are picking out the produce at the different farms, but a lot of that technology is coming in. It's picking the right tomato and making sure everything gets ultimately to the table much faster.
Another example would be a machinist. They are traditionally very hands-on as this is very mechanical work, but those folks are getting retrained to use all the digital computer interfaces to actually get their work done. People need to shift and rescale on the work that they're doing.
In the past, traditionally this has been very, very manual; it's just very human-intensive. But as you take a step back, it has come a long way. People are going to be removed from a lot of the steps in that chain. When you look at the overall production and the processing, there are fewer people and the skill of the people is changing. You still have the people who are picking out the produce at the different farms, but a lot of that technology is coming in. It's picking the right tomato and making sure everything gets ultimately to the table much faster.
Another example would be a machinist. They are traditionally very hands-on as this is very mechanical work, but those folks are getting retrained to use all the digital computer interfaces to actually get their work done. People need to shift and rescale on the work that they're doing.
I’m often asked if the majority of jobs are gonna be replaced by machines. It’s usually followed by, “What do we do?” I think what I'm hearing you say, Kouros, is that jobs aren’t necessarily going away, but they’re evolving and therefore upscaling. Is that a fair thing to say?
Absolutely! In an IT organization, they're constantly “rescaling” their technology or upgrading their technology, and I think it's a signal. A company constantly does restructuring and rebalancing of their portfolio of people.
All of it is the same thing and it means as an individual you should do it too. You do rebalancing in your financial portfolio, so why not your skills? Bring it up to what's current and has to happen on an ongoing basis not only at an individual level but also at an organizational level and at a technology level as well.
All of it is the same thing and it means as an individual you should do it too. You do rebalancing in your financial portfolio, so why not your skills? Bring it up to what's current and has to happen on an ongoing basis not only at an individual level but also at an organizational level and at a technology level as well.
One of the things you had mentioned to me is the whole concept around scaling and how it’s really difficult, yet we feel like it shouldn't be because we're talking about technology. Can you talk a little bit about the transformation and scale concept?
Traditionally when you do Succession Planning, the focus has been on the few in the organization. Now with the shift, the scale has to grow and it really has to apply across the organization, to all people. I don't think there's an HR department that's big enough to have that one-on-one conversation.
Take coaching, for example, that's one of the areas that no AI is really coming into play. Traditionally, coaching was for leadership, for the high potentials, but how do we scale that up to be able to address needs and to allow all the workers in the workforce to kind of grow and get better and get to where they want to go? I think that we're really at the point where technology can make a difference in this kind of shift and complement it.
Take coaching, for example, that's one of the areas that no AI is really coming into play. Traditionally, coaching was for leadership, for the high potentials, but how do we scale that up to be able to address needs and to allow all the workers in the workforce to kind of grow and get better and get to where they want to go? I think that we're really at the point where technology can make a difference in this kind of shift and complement it.
You talked about the pathways that we need, what role does data play in enabling that scale at the individual level? What do those pathways look like and how does that help really with the reskilling? What are those areas where we should focus on reskilling?
When you think about the organization, you have the leadership, your managers, your workforce, and each of them has their own need for data. Leadership needs to make decisions about where the business is going to go, what's going to happen, and they need to set up access to data from across the organization. They need the financials and the production numbers, they need the people numbers, all of that to be able to make their decisions. And you know what they say, “Decisions don't wait for data.” So we need to make sure that data is there when and where people need it to be able to make those decisions.
Help your managers so you can get rid of the admin stuff that's on their plate, automate a lot of those, allow them to see what's going on with these teams, how to support their teams, how to remove the bar, or examine the different aspects, what’s coming up - just having that full visibility to make those right decisions and allow the team to do their job and grow at the same time.
On an individual employee perspective, they need answers to questions like, “How can I grow?”, “How can I do better?”, “What other jobs are available for me?” Make that technology available for them in their hands so they can see their journey. If you have all of that, without having to go dig for it, that is digital assistance of the system to everybody, it allows them to move forward and allows everybody in the organization to grow. I think that that's positive for everybody.
Help your managers so you can get rid of the admin stuff that's on their plate, automate a lot of those, allow them to see what's going on with these teams, how to support their teams, how to remove the bar, or examine the different aspects, what’s coming up - just having that full visibility to make those right decisions and allow the team to do their job and grow at the same time.
On an individual employee perspective, they need answers to questions like, “How can I grow?”, “How can I do better?”, “What other jobs are available for me?” Make that technology available for them in their hands so they can see their journey. If you have all of that, without having to go dig for it, that is digital assistance of the system to everybody, it allows them to move forward and allows everybody in the organization to grow. I think that that's positive for everybody.
If there's one thing I've learned from Kouros during that talk, the HR leader’s job is to be the voice of the talent economy and every stage of that life cycle. Only data, asking the right questions, and interpreting the data can give you that insight so you know what's working and what isn't.
To learn more about owning employee transformations you can listen to the full 15-minute podcast here:
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Author Bios
| Dr. Patti Fletcher, Chief Equity Advocate & HR Disrupter, HR.com | |
| Kouros Behzad, Product Marketing, Clarizen |
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