The future of HR – what does it look like?
Huxley recently held an event that was focused solely on HR. Rachel Barnes and Barry Flack were invited to speak at the Tech UK offices, sharing their knowledge and expertise with the attendees. This then lead to a very interactive discussion on what the future of HR looked like. Both Jenny Gladman, Senior Business Manager at Huxley, and Alan Duncan, Huxley’s Brand Manager attended the event. Here are some of their key takeaways.
Business goals impact HR
In the past, HR departments have been considered a support function but this is starting to change. Instead, they’re now seen as part of the business, working in a collaborative way. And, as such, there’s a commercial focus with questions such as ‘how can we improve quality through HR and HR tech?’ being raised.
The technology landscape for HR is vast, with roughly 23,000 products available to choose from. One thing that was became clear was the need for HR and technology to be aligned to the goals of the business. Examples were given of when technology wasn’t accepted by a business because it wasn’t needed, whereas when the tech is selected based on the business goal and need, it’s worked out well.
The need for AI in HR
With artificial intelligence (AI) seemingly becoming more popular, discussion lead to whether or not jobs could be replaced by AI and how this would affect productivity. When thinking about AI, companies need to ensure it doesn’t take away from creativity and ideas but maximises productivity.
Throughout the discussion it became clear that people are hesitant to replace human or find tasks that can be done by a machine and then reassign time to tasks that require humans. HR, as with recruitment, is a very personal experience which means that humans will always be necessary – but perhaps there’s a way to use AI to help aide personnel. A suggestion by attendees was that the rational decisions could be made by machines, whilst the emotional decisions stay with people.
The future of HR
The general consensus is that HR departments will become more closely aligned with the business as a whole – working to help the business achieve its goals, increasing revenue and efficiency. Technology will continue to be used, but in a more efficient manner. Instead of choosing technologies because they’re considered great, they need to be chosen because they’re fit for purpose and will help the team achieve specific goals.
If you would like to find out more about this event or are interested in future events that we may hold, keep checking our news page as we will share all information here.
