In a world of tech advances and disruption, HR professionals need to respond and modernise, says Matthew Naudi.

Although no clairvoyance will tell us what tomorrow will bring, the future of work is full of opportunities, yet brings significant challenges.

In a climate of technological disruptiveness, rising employee expectations, multi-generational and diverse workforces, changing social trends and the surge in the importance of people and data analytics, what is certain is that the business landscape as we know it, is changing fast.

Matthew NaudiMatthew Naudi

And as the world bulldozes towards a fully digital economy, employers are today being faced with unparalleled challenges to transform their businesses in order to remain competitive and address the dynamic career demands of their human capital.

The exponential growth of economic activity over a relatively short period of time – especially through the explosion of technological and disruptive advancements affecting all business sectors – is leading to traditional business models becoming outdated and out of touch with the current and future needs and demands of organisations.

In this light, HR professionals must realise that unless they overcome their legacy issues and move away from archaic HR models, their organisations will suffer and, their relevance is put into question.

Many HR professionals champion change management within their organisations but it is time for the HR professionals themselves to embrace change and understand the need to be more agile. However, some seem to stumble over the prospect of changing the way they operate.

HR is at a crossroads and HR leaders need to act now to avoid the risk of the HR function ending up as a mere transactional and administrative one. The digitalisation and technological disruption happening around us are bringing on new phenomena, ultimately challenging the traditional concept that employees are an organisation’s biggest asset.

HR professionals need to embrace blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning to facilitate networking and connections in an increasingly digital, global and agile environment

A study released by IWG, a Swiss-based serviced office provider, shows that around 70 per cent of professionals work remotely at least one day a week. Soon, colleagues will not be sitting next to each other. Multi-million-dollar organisations already exist without having actual offices.

CEOs today want limitless access to remote resources. Networks and ecosystems will replace organisational hierarchies.

Although this might all sound like a bit far-fetched and straight out of a sci-fi book, it is obvious that HR professionals within this scenario need to upskill and adapt in order to ensure that they are equipped to take on these challenges and to make certain that the HR function is in a position to take the lead in transforming the business.

HR professionals need to embrace blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning to facilitate networking and connections in an increasingly digital, global and agile environment. They need to better understand their employee’s strengths and agendas and create personalised employee experiences. Above all, HR professionals need to become experts in people analytics and data-based, predictive insights. This would give HR professionals a great opportunity to establish themselves as key players at the heart of all strategic decisions. Today companies are becoming more reliant on metrics and insights and CEOs demand data-based analytics on their workforce in order to be able to take better and more educated strategic decisions.

The aim of this year’s conference organised by the Foundation for Human Resources Development is precisely to address these challenges and to see how HR professionals need to respond and modernise through the digitalisation of their function, the upskilling of the workforce in general and through instilling a culture of change.

The 25 or so speakers at the conference will aim to dispel uncertainty and a fear to act among HR professionals and explore how HR professionals need to integrate technology in this transition while maintaining a people-centric approach.

A successful organisation today is one that can use technology to move faster, adapt more quickly and embrace current employee needs according to Deloitte Insights.

A panel discussion between CEOs from various leading businesses will shed some light on how CEOs perceive the HR function. HR needs to become more involved in core business strategy and needs to elevate its role within the organisation.

It is the employees who create profits, not technology, but only if the people embrace technology will the company succeed.

I hope that the conference, through the reputable local and international speakers, will delve into the future of HR and how local HR professionals need to raise their game to gear up for the future.

The Foundation for Human Resources Development constantly strives to raise the HR profile in Malta, through various training programmes, conferences and fora it organises and initiatives it conducts throughout the years, one of which will be launched at the conference on Wednesday.

Matthew Naudi is head of human resources of the Allied Group of Companies and president of the Foundation for Human Resources Development (FHRD). 

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