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Not so long ago, HR managers were like high school assistant principals―paper-pushers who kept the building running and tsk-tsked those who broke the rules. Now, these managers focus more on people than on paper and, like skilled teachers, they help both the strugglers and the stars. And in the future? Expect those in HR (if it's still called that) to be akin to championship coaches, guiding employees throughout their careers and becoming more essential than ever to business analytics and strategy.The role of the HR professional has changed dramatically along with the workforce and economy, and that evolution will continue as machines and technology replace tasks once performed by humans. But that doesn't make people―or the HR teams that work with them―any less important. Tomorrow's HR leaders will need to be bigger, broader thinkers, and they'll have to be tech-savvy and nimble enough to deal with an increasingly agile and restless workforce."I think we're going to see HR positions [develop] in such a way that [they] will probably be one of the most sought-out professions in the enterprise," says Jill Goldstein, global practice lead for talent and HR operations at management consulting firm Accenture in the Miami area. "I can envision a future where HR professionals are no longer thinking that their job is to stay on top of current HR trends, but to reposition [themselves] to become workforce advisors."
Technology is freeing up HR to take on bigger-picture matters, making the field more exciting, more demanding and perhaps more competitive as well. "We used to be about compliance, party planning and benefits," says Tracie Sponenberg, SHRM-SCP, senior vice president of human resources at The Granite Group, a wholesale plumbing supplies distributor in Concord, N.H. "To some extent, there are still some companies that see HR as a purely tactical kind of role. But the good ones, the smart ones, see HR as a strategic partner."
We’ve Come a Long Way
HR has greatly evolved since one of the earliest HR departments (called "personnel management") was created in 1901 in response to a strike at the National Cash Register Co. in Dayton, Ohio. It wasn't until after World War II that the public embraced the idea of a human resources department to handle employees. And in the latter half of the 20th century, a slew of work-related laws—including the Equal Pay Act (1963), the Civil Rights Act (1964), and the Family and Medical Leave Act (1993)—made the presence of HR specialists even more important.
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‘I can envision a future where HR professionals are no longer thinking that their job is to stay on top of current HR trends, but to reposition [themselves] to become workforce advisors.’Jill GoldsteinNowadays, the stock of the HR professional is rising, with some practitioners being asked to join the C-suite instead of just visiting it. Many organizations are ditching the title "HR manager" for monikers such as chief happiness officer, director of talent-attraction strategy and even head of optimistic people. Future titles are likely to reflect the growing focus on technology and analytics in the field, says Jonathan Kestenbaum, managing director of New York City-based Talent Tech Labs, a talent acquisition software company.It's that technology that will help HR adjust to a changing workforce accustomed to going online to get everything from a date to groceries. HR departments will need to make more information and services available to workers around the clock―a shift that will also free up time to focus more on business strategy and employee career paths.
Even if your job title or your responsibilities have yet to change, it's imperative to start adapting to the new reality now. You can begin by enhancing your skills in seven critical areas that analysts say are key to future success in the profession and likely to be widely practiced by 2025. They include business strategy, analytics and, of course, people.
[SHRM members-only resource: Accelerate Your Career]
3. Stay Focused on People
Embracing technology doesn't mean taking humans out of the equation. In fact, HR managers in 2025 will have more time to focus on individuals, enhancing both recruitment and retention. At Cisco, executive vice president Fran Katsoudas' title changed from HR officer to chief people officer. She sees that as a sign that her job is morphing from mitigating risk and ensuring compliance to executing business strategies.
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‘Today, technology is bringing a level of intelligence to HR that really thrusts HR into a compelling consultancy role.’Fran Katsoudas"Today, technology is bringing a level of intelligence to HR that really thrusts HR into a compelling consultancy role," she says, noting that's how the HR team at Cisco now functions. The team is also more focused on coaching and management issues.Additionally, top HR professionals of tomorrow could become what Goldstein calls "talent brokers" and coaches who help to guide the individual careers of everyone at the office, says Sponenberg, who is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management's HR Disciplines Special Expertise Panel.
With competition fierce for good talent, successful HR managers need to give top workers a reason to come to work for them. "If you're not in a global business now, you're going to be competing with global businesses for the very best employees," says Judy Collister, executive vice president and human resource officer at Cleveland-based Park Place Technologies, a data center support company. "You need to create an environment where people enjoy being there and can't imagine being anywhere else."
4. Be Ready for the New Workforce
The 2025 workforce will include not just transient workers (60 percent of Millennials told Gallup they are open to new job opportunities) but also gig workers who pop in and out of jobs on a daily basis. In addition, HR will need to help assess which tasks throughout the organization can be automated and then reskill those whose jobs are affected by automation. A recent Willis Towers Watson survey found that more than half of employers say it will take "breakthrough approaches in HR's role" to deal with automation and digitalization. Meanwhile, some of HR's remote workers will increasingly be very remote―as in, seven or 10 time zones away―as globalization leads to an increasingly diverse workforce.
HR Roles Are Already Evolving
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Some new HR roles focus on creating a powerful employee experience that mirrors the customer experience, says workplace futurist Jeanne Meister. Examples of those roles and the people filling them include:
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- Melissa Werneck, senior
vice president of global HR, performance and IT at Kraft Heinz. Werneck has a
combined responsibility for the HR and IT functions, leveraging machine
learning techniques and sophisticated algorithms to automate work and create a
consumer experience for employees.
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- Anshul Sheopuri, IBM's vice president of data, artificial intelligence and offering strategy. Sheopuri oversees HR's use of data to proactively retain employees and enhance internal career mobility with learning opportunities and personalized job alerts based on their skills.
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- Ashar Khan, director of people analytics at Kraft Heinz. Data-driven initiatives already under way include predicting employee retention and suggesting which employees in the company are likely deserving of recognition through a merit increase.
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5. Market a Modern Benefits Package
Attracting and keeping talent involves offering (and administering) a benefits package that appeals to the modern worker. That includes not just parental leave and flextime but also caregiver leave, expanded fertility benefits, gender reassignment and transformation assistance, financial wellness programs, and a slew of benefits that support critical life events, says Kathie Patterson, chief human resources officer at Ally Financial Services in Detroit. "Recruitment marketing exists now, but given the demographics and importance of attracting talent, more organizations could add those [benefits]," she says.