The future of work for HR is a 30% reduction of repetitive admin burden
The world is embarking on an unprecedented level of change, across the disruptive tsunamis descending all at once…
- technological impact towards singularity, encompassing AI, Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) e.g., blockchain, IoT, cybersecurity, biotechnology
- financial impact, we will see a bigger GFC about to erupt. Family offices are already advising their clients to further diversify such as moving a portion of their portfolio into gold and Non traditional assets such as cryptocurrency. We will see the largest transfer of value in history..
- social impact, with the threat of climate change more leaders are adopting a conscious capitalism approach to conducting business. Individuals and investors are aligning with organisations based on values. Philanthropists are seeking to leave a conscious social impact legacy.
Most humans are not prepared for the rate of change and the level of adaptability required to survive the vortex.
It’s inevitable that chaos around us is already impacting the workplace. We NEED our human resources with the psychological background and expertise to focus on helping our fellow humans transition, we need to free up HR teams from the unnecessary administrative burdens they are forced to endure (reasonably estimated min. ~30% admin) to focus on people first.
My first caveat is that I’m not a human resource manager, however, I have delivered over 50 projects from business and strategy consulting to hands on digital delivery, greenfield and turnaround rescuing/salvaging digital projects. I have learnt that most issues do not stem from technology itself, they are mostly human-related… go figure right 🤷♀️ In my opinion, the top 3 issues that create chaos for projects are:
- Behavioral Issues: I can summarise that the worst are attributed to passive-aggressive leadership and communication behaviours, generally attributed to humans behaving badly… and leaders allowing bad behaviour to continue disrupting the workplace 😳 sadly, most humans act out in the workplace as their home environment are not always happy ..
- Unrealistic expectations: please do not implement technology first! 🙅♀️… tech is an enabler to solve the business problem that needs to be firstly identified. I can’t stress this enough 👉 “Off-the-shelf” is not always the solution for your entire organisation 🤦♀️ If you hear of decision makers embarking on this strategy, send me a note… I’ll have a rescue team ready 😉 For example: you don’t buy a kit home i.e., off-the-shelf to redesign it and re-configure so much that it creates a cottage industry in your organisation. Getting your handyman to re-architect your home is a bad idea.. it won’t end well.. unless you are intending on creating jobs for life because your technology has been handed over for ransom.
- Communication: Businesses are challenged in their ability to articulate specific requirements to engineers. Doesn’t matter how smart engineers are… they are certainly not clairvoyant..
At the end of the day as humans, what we offer of value is our labour (unless we are fortunate to have working capital that is not dependant on our time). As jobs become automated the value of our labour will decrease, therefore, it is paramount that we move humans up the value chain…
If we don’t automate and move up the value chain, we will naturally decrease the value of human labour. The workplace chaos will get worse as we fight for what we only know and depend on.
There are too many repetitive and mundane jobs that should be automated, in particular are the ones that people keep complaining about …
Did you Know…
In 1790, 90% of the workforce worked in agriculture. Today, only 2% of those jobs exist… and yet we survived.
In the 1st industrial revolution, Henry Ford introduced 2 days off for his workers to encourage leisure time and of course more use of cars. The term “weekend” became popularised.
It is evident that automation is moving from blue collar to white collar.
Traditionally, the jobs that have been automated were physical labour. However, within the technology space, this becomes much broader as it’s beginning to displace cognitive capability or even intellectual capability. People are now wondering what will become of these jobs being displaced 🤔.. Personally, I call for a 3-day working week or shorter days.
A universal basic income (UBI) can perhaps be introduced as part of a transition process for those who have been displaced due to automation until they are able to upskill and find another way of earning honest income. We need to move the entire population up the value chain or face a grim economy within the global competitive landscape.
So, will robots take over our jobs? well perhaps… if we don’t start learning to work together and leverage technologies to augment our capabilities. In a digital, interconnected world, employees of the future will also need to have a global mindset and adaptive style learning.
The experience can be seamless if we design the human-machine experience right. Most think they know UX, however, the AI interaction experience is a whole new paradigm shift in design thinking that requires psychology, philosophy, creativity, and a strong technical understanding of how it will all hang together practically to ensure a successful implementation. (that is not the “chat-bots” that have been deployed to date)
So, how can we leverage elements of Artifical Technology to free up HR from administration and empower HR leaders..
A high-level mapping indicative of just some of the areas within HR functions that can be explored. For detailed analysis, please feel free to reach out.
