CHROs, Here’s Where HR Is Headed Next

Artificial intelligence continues to dominate discussions of the HR tech stack, with 83% of CHROs predicting that AI will take a prominent role in managing HR tasks and processes in 2025, according to the CHRO Priorities and Perspectives report from SHRM. 

While the HR tech stack has been historically siloed, it’s now becoming increasingly integrated with other organizational processes, said SHRM Chief Transformation Officer Andy Biladeau at the Executive Network Experience at SHRM25. This is challenging HR practitioners to see things multidimensionally and consider how they can converge their data into one source.

“HR does not exist to drive HR. HR exists to drive business outcomes,” he said.

The Solution for Tackling HR Initiatives: Go After 3 Big Problems

As you get ready to strategize your next set of HR initiatives, don’t try to tackle everything at once. You can only realistically work on three big problems a year, advised Naomi Lariviere, chief product owner and vice president of product management at ADP. “What are the three most important organizational problems you need to solve? Start there and then start breaking it down,” she said. 

Other questions for CHROs to consider when brainstorming annual HR initiatives:

• What are all the factors involved in solving the problem you’ve identified?
• Which leaders on the department level can you include in the rapid prototyping process?
• What’s the first step to start rapid prototyping? 

“All organizations have a specific plan they’re aiming for, such as ‘I want to grow my revenue,’” Lariviere said. “At our company, we did time studies to see ‘How long does it take employees to actually do the work?’ and ‘Where are all the “time suck” parts of the process?’ That’s when we’re going to deploy a pilot.” 

How to Approach the Rapid Prototyping Process 

Building new processes on the fly isn’t easy, but consistent communication and team engagement can improve results. Start by:

• Observing your employees’ work processes. “If there’s one thing you can do, go and watch your people work. Even for us with our internal processes, we thought we knew how things worked. But if the data is stuck in someone’s head and not in an LLM [large language model], it’s not going anywhere,” Lariviere said.

• Talking to your employees who are on the ground doing the work. Go to your worksites and ask your employees questions so you can understand why and how their existing processes are working, Biladeau recommended. “Get super curious and talk to the human beings who are doing the actual work, because that’s going to be instructive for when you zoom back out for the solution,” he said.

• Involving your teams in the prototyping process because the employees will be driving the change. When it comes to rolling out new HR tech, it’s key to take the time to educate your teams, Lariviere advised. “The problem-solving will actually happen on the department level. The problem is they don’t know what the tech can do or how it can be applied,” she said. 
  

Biladeau’s Predictions for Where HR is Headed Next

The world of work is changing, and HR departments need to evolve to continue to meet the needs of the business. Some of Biladeau’s major predictions include: 

• HR taking on big, complex problems that are holding the organization back. As the connective tissue within the organization, CHROs are being asked to take on an increasing number of tasks. “I think the mandate for HR going forward is going to be: ‘We’re going to tackle this big, complex problem that no one else wants to touch but we know is creating massive inefficiencies,’” Biladeau said.

• Compliance becoming as important as rapid prototyping. With policies and regulations around AI increasing, there will be a heightened awareness of whether HR processes are compliant with laws and regulations. The regulatory environment can change rapidly, and that will impact employees and HR tools. “It’s going to be strategic compliance that sets HR departments apart. … I think compliance is going to be just as important as rapid failure and prototyping,” he said.

• Employee cross-training increasing due to the looming retirement cliff. Given that Baby Boomers are aging out of the workforce, now is the time to bring together the older and younger generations of your workforce to ensure your organization doesn’t lose that institutional knowledge when older employees are ready to leave. Through cross-training, you’ll also gain two different perspectives on problem-solving. Younger career folks bring their creativity with technology, and the older generation brings institutional knowledge, Biladeau noted.

Don’t Let Fear Keep You from Getting Started 

Solving these complex organizational issues that impact multiple sides of the company isn’t simple, so it’s important to be resilient. 

The power of persistence will be what sets you apart as a leader, propelling you forward when things get challenging.

“The only way you learn in this space is by failing and learning,” Lariviere said.