How will the HR manager be working in five years?
We like to talk about the future - but what will it look like? The HR boss of the future sent Christoph Kull from Workday a postcard from the year 2021. See for yourself what the job of an HR manager, or Chief Employee Experience Officer (CHRO), could look like in the future.
The HR manager of the future follows in the footsteps of today's CFO and becomes a core part of management.
The day of a CHRO - perhaps her title is Chief Employee Experience Officer or Chief People Officer - may look like this in five years: In the morning, she dials into a budget call to explain to the CEO how the new HR concept has led to recent profitability spikes. Afterwards, she sits in the virtual reality conference room in Tokyo for a press briefing.
Finally, for dinner, she meets the company's key logistics customers in Europe to get an idea of driverless trucks and fully automated ships, and what impact this will have on the culture and strategic direction of her company.
Possible trends
The HR manager of the future follows in the footsteps of today's CFO and becomes a core part of management. The CFO is a successful role model: He has learned to speak the language of the board and to present the right facts to turn his recommendations into strategically valuable contributions.
HR Manager Skills
What does the human resources executive of the future need to be able to do? "A CHRO must diagnose problems, forecast outcomes and propose solutions that help create value for the company at the HR level [full article in English at this Link ].“
The crux of the matter is forecasting:
By modeling his or her plan for the future, the CHRO can show the board what the right talent in key roles will mean for the company in concrete terms - and how they can be used to achieve corporate and profit goals.
But reliable forecasts require robust analysis. With reliable figures, HR managers can finally convince even the traditionally number-oriented board members of their plans and shed the reputation of the "feel-good department" HR.
Data analysis, the way to the boardroom table
The best approach to begin analysis is from the back to the front. Instead of digging through the mountain of data for patterns, the CHRO defines his or her goals, finds a clear question, and works his or her way back to the beginning. To then use data successfully, three things are needed: an affinity for analysis and evaluation, clean data sets, and the right software.
All of this can be learned or procured - and is part of the basic toolkit of a successful and business-oriented CHRO.
From the data, the CHRO of the future recognizes the fundamental challenges facing the company: anonymous surveys or specific feedback on individual managers, everything can be evaluated to identify important currents in good time. Armed with this knowledge, the CHRO will soon be sitting at the table with the CEO and CFO as an equal partner, briefing the press on HR strategies that solve fundamental problems, and having a direct line to corporate customers and current trends. So let's look forward to the future! (Text: Christoph Kull/Workday)
