How HR Can Play A Foundational Role In Building The Workplace Of The Future

Navigating change and embracing AI

Over the last few years, the focus of human resources has made incredible shifts. 

In 2020, for example, the Black Lives Matter movement thrust diversity, equity, and inclusion to the forefront, highlighting the opportunity for much-needed change within organizations and transforming DE&I from a compliance initiative to an institutional one with major organizational health, performance, and success implications.

And again, when the Covid-19 pandemic shook the world of work to its core, emphasizing the importance of health and wellness while ushering in a new age of remote work. The post-Covid spike in the labor market brought with it employee-led demands for better compensation, perks, and flexibility. With inflation came a focus on retention; and now, as economic uncertainty looms, HR departments are forced to pivot once more to prioritize employee relations and performance management practices. 

The Importance of Responsiveness

While these changes demonstrate the difficulty in predicting the future of HR, they also highlight the importance of responsiveness within the industry. The economy will continue to shift, and current events will always shape where HR must focus to optimize an organization for success. 

This is particularly important when we consider new factors such as artificial intelligence, which is poised to completely transform the next era of work. Many are skeptical and some are even afraid of AI, and while they are right to be wary of emerging technology, especially technology that is largely unregulated and untested, fear cannot prevent its existence or expansion into our world. AI is here to stay. As HR professionals, we can either accept that and ensure its introduction into HR, especially performance management, is safe, equitable, and beneficial for all, or we can avoid it and risk the organizations we represent becoming irrelevant and losing their competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Unique Opportunities Also Present Unique Challenges

HR and organizational development (OD) professionals are no strangers to the challenge of serving multiple interests, and at times, competing ones. Not only do we play an important role as innovators, but we also serve as a critical touchstone. We are both the support system for change and the protectors against potential fallout. 

This is especially true in difficult times when businesses start viewing people essentials, like performance management programs, as “nice-to-have” instead of “need-to-have.” Regardless of economic cycles, however, talent management – and performance management – are critical components of a thriving organization. 

The world of work over the past decade has seen change increase at a faster rate than ever before, and the change fatigue affecting all employees – HR included – is real. Now more than ever, a clear vision, set of values, and goals must be communicated and translated into daily jobs, and performance and talent management are the disciplines for which these messages are cascaded within organizations. 

As we train and ask our employees to develop job and behavioral competencies documented on their individual development plans, we must also lead the way as HR and OD professionals in our ongoing education and growth in competency. No one leader has “arrived.” In fact, the complacent HR leader is the irrelevant, and dare I say dangerous, leader. If we are to capitalize on the power of new impacts to the world of work such as AI, we must submit our own selves to constant feedback and growth opportunities.

The Future of HR Builds on the Basics

Over the decades, HR has evolved beyond compliance and the initial goal to create safe working conditions. We can do more, and organizations thrive when we do. If we work to establish a psychologically safe, healthy, and equitable workplace, then we can empower all leaders, managers, and employees to be proactive instead of reactive in their leadership. This incubates high performance and arms individuals with the tools and resources they need to do their jobs well, while also ensuring managers have what they need to coach up or out low performers. Doing so directly decreases the number of hard conversations around costly events, like terminations or layoffs. 

Whether it’s examining the integration of AI into our work tech stacks, maintaining proper spans of control, cultivating a culture of feedback, or creating an equitable organizational structure, these are just a few foundational ways in which HR will continue to play a key role in the evolution of the workplace. We have a unique ability to pivot to the times and the needs of the day, but our focus on building psychologically, physically, and emotionally safe workplaces remains paramount. 

Melissa Phillippi is the Vice President of Organizational Development and Talent Management at Vaco, a global professional services firm serving more than 12,000 clients across the globe with 10,000 employees.