- With your extensive experience in international HR leadership, how do you see global HR trends evolving over the next decade?
As I look into the next decade, I find it very difficult to get beyond the revolution in generative AI and the way in which that is likely to fundamentally change the way work is structured. This will likely require us to remodel some of our assumptions about what effective people and organisational leadership looks like. For HR, our ability to embrace the potential of this in a way that is positive for our organisations will be a great opportunity. Living with such a lack of certainty or clarity about exactly how this plays out presents a challenge which perhaps we can only address by being positive, open-minded and curious.
- What are some key HR technology initiatives you’ve implemented that have successfully enhanced business performance?
We have invested a lot into HR technology that helps us in our talent acquisition efforts. As a Workday customer, we have deployed the recruiting functionality robustly and been able to leverage a number of downstream processes. This has brought direct business benefits in many areas as we have been able to improve our analytics and decision-making as well bringing greater candidate outreach and efficiency into the process. All of this has led to improvements in our time to fill and cost per hire performance. It has not been perfect and we have had to learn along the way. We have extended this to include leveraging technology to improve our selection processes which so far has brought mixed results. The opportunities here for successful deployment of AI are really interesting for us as we look to the next phases of our journey.
- What are the biggest mistakes companies make when integrating HR technology?
Ensuring the foundations are in place to enable technology integration to be leveraged effectively. It is still surprising how often we find ourselves hamstrung by technology that is not working for us and when we investigate the root cause, we find that there are gaps in data integrity or training. However sophisticated we get with the functionality of our technology, it remains generally true that “rubbish in” leads to “rubbish out”. There can be a tendency to get carried away with the potential of technology and leave behind the basics that need to be in place in order for it to actually bring us value rather than just more work.
- How can HR leaders ensure that digital transformation doesn’t come at the expense of employee well-being and workplace culture?
This seems to me to be the essence of our leadership development challenge as we look into the future. The more technology consumes parts of traditional management roles, the more complex and important aspects of leadership become to ensure we drive value in our organisations. This is where the dance between technology and the human touch comes into play. Outcomes in well-being and culture will depend on our ability to focus our leadership development towards values-based leadership that connects to individuals rather than relying on traditional management playbooks. This will be more dynamic, informal and ambiguous than leadership ever has been before. As HR leaders, we should be directing our curiosity towards how we best acquire and develop the characters that will succeed in that environment.
- What advice would you give to HR leaders struggling to convince executives to invest in future-ready HR technology?
Be sure to understand the technology you are making a case for. This is essential if you are going to truly articulate the benefits it might bring. It tends not to be enough to only have a superficial knowledge of what we are trying to do. Building a compelling business case is important of course, and we should be willing to be bold, commit to the improvements our investments can make to the performance of the business and not be afraid of taking risks. At the same time, being realistic about how these investments will be viewed relative to other priorities in the business and resilient in the face of inevitable setbacks. Remember to focus on the long-term roadmap and stay positive.
- Talent acquisition and leadership development are major HR challenges. How can technology be leveraged to improve hiring and succession planning?
There are many great applications out there that can help our efforts in talent acquisition and succession planning. You do not have to look far for them and they are great for improving data, analytics and efficiency. The growing use of AI will strengthen this further with more qualitative work in ways which are still emerging. I think the important thing here is to be very clear about the role technology can play in the process and how that is synchronised with the human touch. Hiring and succession planning will always contain a mix of this – as I often call it a dance – and our deftness in striking this right will determine our results.
- What skills will be most critical for future HR leaders to develop in order to remain competitive in an increasingly tech-driven world?
The digital skill set itself is really important. Being an enthusiastic adopter and learner about the technology around us is a developable skill and we all need that to keep up with technological change. Without it, we are in danger of being left behind and not being able to understand enough to lead through it. Beyond that, the ability to develop our appreciation of areas beyond our core HR work remains very important – we need to see ourselves and be seen as business leaders first and foremost with the ability to contribute actively to decisions that go beyond our function. This is in increasingly important as technology breaks down the silos between traditional business functions.
- If you could give one key piece of advice to HR professionals looking to future-proof their leadership approach, what would it be?
Be curious and keep learning. Find a way that works for you to ensure you are investing enough time, energy and reflection into the world around you, opportunities and threats, and how you should show up as a leader relative to all that. It’s too easy to get caught up in the maelstrom of today’s challenges and neglect your personal learning. Do what it takes, for some people, that means a dedicated slot on the schedule every day – for others it is easier to achieve this more spontaneously – but make sure it is a sufficiently prioritised. With the pace of change today, it is more important than it has ever been.
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