Introduction
The theme for this year’s International HR Day is a call to action. The twin demands of the moment are:
- Humanify AI
- Lead Change Together.
The call is for HR to retain people at the centre of digital transformations and innovations they experience in today’s workplace while embracing collaboration as a pathway to influencing personal and institutional change.
Where Should HR Stand?
This year, HR is expected to demonstrate courage in the following areas:
Enhancing People Experience. AI is clearly a key lever enabling business and workplace transformation today. HR has a collaborative responsibility to ensure that the rate of penetration of AI in the world of work compliments the human touch. AI should always remain an enabler of people operations. The deployment of AI across the HR Value Chain must be implemented in such a way that employees can relate with it, access it, and reckon with its contributions to their work. As innovation intensifies, new designs must provide for empathy and inclusivity. When it becomes user friendly, adoption becomes easier. Organisations that increase their investment in AI without the consideration for how it will integrate its adoption with employee experience will have a hard task getting appropriate return on their investment.
Leading Change. Things will not always remain the same for societies and organisations. These changes will impact the conduct and performance of work. There is therefore a need for HR to pay attention to influencing change in 4 cardinal areas. Firstly, HR must seek to introduce something novel such as programmes and initiatives that have never been experienced before in their respective organisations, this is the time to influence the commencement of new things in the organisation. The second focus of HR as a change leader is the pursuit of improvement. No one and no system is good enough to remain the way they are. The pace of change requires that improvements become the core fabric of the culture of any sustainable organisation. The third focal point for HR as it leads changes is to integrate the best practices. If HR dares to look around, they will find impressive initiatives that can be integrated into their current offerings. Looking beyond your industry to other sectors can be a pathway to get inspiration for integration. The fourth responsibility for leading change is to inhibit unproductive things within the system. HR must be bold in intercepting and immobilising waste and inefficiencies in the organisation.
Collaboration. The call to Humanify AI and Lead Change cannot be done in silos. HR must be a co-creator, co-innovator, co-replicator, and co-terminator. As a co- creator, HR should engage in a cross-functional generation of ideas, products, and services. HR must not take passive roles in the development of fortune-defining businesses for the organisation. As a co-innovator, HR is called to collaborate on diverse areas of improvement, research & development, and facilitating knowledge sharing & expertise. As a co-replicator, HR is expected to join in scaling successful models. They should participate in the identification and adaptation of industry best practices. As a co-terminator, HR should be involved in collaborative efforts to phase out things. Phasing out things might be about transitioning from one project to another, discontinuing unproductive approaches to work, or stop practices that negatively impact the reputation or potential for success of a company.
Final Thoughts
HR is at the centre of workplace transformation, and with this center stage spotlight comes the opportunity to collaborate with others critical stakeholders like technology to create, innovate, and replicate best practices for the benefit of all. The rise of AI would remain a catalyst for driving amongst others, a highly engaged, and productive workforce as HR rises to this call.
We wish all HR Practitioners a Happy International HR Day.
Funke Amobi, FCIPM, FCIPD, CCCIPD Professorial Fellow, Organisation, Work & Technology, Lancaster University Management School, UK
Olumuyiwa Oludayo, Ph.D., MCIPM Research Fellow, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria
