Industry leaders share their insight into the future of HR
Australia’s leading HR professionals came together yesterday to share their insight into the future of the industry. HRD’s National HR Directors Summit tackled all the pressing issues facing businesses big or small, from leading remote teams to building a flexible, agile and adaptable workforce.
Speakers included Katie Dunne, HR director at TikTok, Kathryn van der Merwe, ANZ’s group executive for talent and culture and Charles Hamilton Ferguson general manager, APAC, at Globalization Partners.
Closing the event for the day, Liam Hayes, global chief people officer at Aurecon, talked about the need for industry leaders to reimagine HR. After stepping up to the plate in 2020 and leading the response to the global pandemic, he believes HR leaders should now be thinking about the skills and capabilities of the future.
“Even before the coronavirus pandemic, changes in how and where we work, as well as shifts in the skills and capabilities required to succeed in the future were well underway,” he said.
“What is new is the accelerated rate of change which makes thinking about the future more important than ever. It’s particularly important for HR as we need to take a leadership role to reimagine the future not just for our organisations, but also as a profession.”
Read more: TikTok HRD reflects on remote leadership after mammoth year of growth
But he pointed out that it’s not necessarily thinking about how work can be done better or faster – but how organisations can work differently. He used AI as an example which is revolutionising the way projects are being planned and executed. Technology allows stakeholders to experience a design or a plan through virtual reality as if they were there, all from the comfort of their home or office. He said VR also opens up possibilities for more sophisticated virtual learning and development.
By embracing these technologies, rather than fearing them, HR leaders will play a part in designing the future of the industry.
“What excites me most about the transition to the fifth industrial revolution and the opportunities for HR is it celebrates the essential human capabilities of innovation, creativity, complex problem solving, decision making, empathy and relationships,” Hayes said.
“These are the human capabilities that we know are least likely to be disrupted by technology and so how do we take the advances of the technology but use them in a way that actually empowers us more as humans to do the things we're uniquely good at?”
Read more: Schneider Electric's VP HR reveals how AI sparked talent culture shift in 2020
The event’s final talk brought together a number of conversational threads which dominated throughout the day around what the priorities of the future look like. Featuring speakers from some of Australia’s biggest employers, attendees got the chance to hear exclusive insight into how HR leaders reacted to the challenges of the last 12 months. The event also featured opportunities to network, Q&As with panellists and a look at recent case law around unfair dismissal.
