Human Resource Management project on

The Future role of HR

Submitted by: Group 1

Roll no Name
19PGDM077 Ayushi Agarwal
19PGDM113 Sonal Agarwal
19PGDM115 Srijan Kishore Saxena
19PGDM121 Vanshika Dua
19PGDM122 Vedika Khetan

Submitted to:
Mrs. Soni Agarwal
Associate Professor HR & OB

International Institute of Management

2020, March

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 Introduction
From operating in a closed conference room to holding a chief seat at the senior leadership table,
HR has surely come a long way. Today, the role of HR in planning and driving strategic growth
is as important as technology or business leadership.
In the recent years, HR has gone through dynamic shifts in its roles, functions and overall impact
in shaping the organization. The need for a digital transformation from operating in a traditional
cocoon is no longer an option. The sooner the shift happens, the higher is the chance of survival.
A latest report by KPMG reveals a particularly striking finding on “Future of HR 2020” survey –
in which 1300 HR executives from across the globe participated – 3 in 5 HR leaders believe that
the HR function will rapidly become irrelevant if it doesn’t modernize its approach to
understanding and planning for the future needs of the workforce. In short, organizations of all
shapes and sizes across the globe generally agree that the HR function will cease to exist in its
traditional form if it continues to deliver in the same way.

Changes bringing transformation in the role of HR

The ever-expanding role of the CHRO: The role of a CHRO is one of the most
important in any company. The scope of this role is not only expanding, but also getting its due
recognition and appreciation from the rest of the C-suite. Today, CHROs must assist businesses
in paving the way for strategic growth across decisions relating to recruitment, compensation,
talent management, performance management, training, employee experience and more. They
also need to constantly develop themselves and use their knowledge to keep their organizations
in the game.
CHROs today cannot just focus on day-to-day activities of HR. They are required to offer their
inputs on high level business guidance and leadership on defining the very future of work.
Helping organizations make a move from traditional, rigid systems to new agile organizational
structures, CHROs can help steer this much-needed engine of change. These strategies will help
companies effectively address the ever-expanding need to crack talent needs and adjust to variety
of employment arrangements to achieve business goals. 

CHROs will also be able to put culture and diversity at the center. They must serve as custodians
of culture, lead through example and align culture with core business goals. This would involve
designing specific programs and strategies to ensure an engaged workplace, happy employees,
reward strategies that retain talent and ensuring there is diversity and inclusion in every sense. 
It is the CHRO that can bridge the gap between the digital and the human and suggest strategies
to help achieve a balance for the future of work. They are the HR leaders who need to initiate
and sustain the right conversations with other business leaders to carve out an intelligent path for
a promising future. 

Employee experience mirrors customer experience : The importance given to

employee engagement as a strategic priority has never been more. As per a recent survey report,
businesses will increase their employee engagement spending by 45% in 2019. And HR is what
will drive this change. 

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Research has time and again highlighted the abysmal levels of employee engagement levels
organizations suffer from. There is also a lot of evidence revealing the direct impact of higher
employee engagement on business growth. Owing to this new-found interest in focusing on
employees, HR is going to invest in HR technologies that will help them create exceptional
employee experiences, right from onboarding to exit. 
The new age employees are no less than customers. Just like how much effort and detail goes
into mapping customer journeys, the same is the case with employees. Because just like without
customers there is no business, without engaged employees, there is no culture. 2019 is the first
time that five generations will be seen in the same workforce. The need to understand millennials
and GenZ will have to gain priority. 
The demand for outstanding talent is going to increase with time, and so is its scarcity in the
talent market. The only way to stay competitive is by ensuring that the right people are hired,
kept happy, motivated and retained. Understanding what employees want and what drives them
should become business priority in order to survive in the unpredictable times coming up. 
With a wide range of employee engagement solutions coming up, organizations will have to
make mindful and intelligent choices in choosing the right technology to keep their workforce
satisfied. Organizations can solicit and track feedback from employees, recognize and reward
their achievements, mentor and coach them regularly and let their career expectations flourish.
Engagement goes beyond just technology and will also include solutions around continual
provision of on-demand training and focus on holistic employee wellbeing. 

Collaboration between human and the digital: The global human resource
management (HRM) sector is projected to reach $30 billion by 2025. Advancements in
information technology (IT), predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning in
HR processes is enabling professionals to perform traditional practices with much more ease and
reduced time span. Over the next two years, more HR executives are planning investments in
areas such as predictive analytics, enhanced process automation and AI.
There is a flip side to this as well. The rampant discussion around AI and machine learning is
pushing companies to invest in technology, but without much knowledge on how to use it
optimally. In KPMG’s report, 50% of HR leaders feel unprepared to use technology available
around them. 
A lack of people with the right skills, which is a capability issue, can be cited as one of the
biggest challenges that limit organizations from facing and adapting to the fast pace of change.
One of the most effective ways to brave this digital transformation is by hiring skilled employees
and also upskilling them with time so that they are able to work in a digitally challenging
environment. 
Leading HR organizations are the ones which have already delved into the technologies by hiring
the skilled employees and paving the way for a better integration of digital and human labor.
They understand the benefits of automation of high volume and repetitive tasks as it frees
employee time, who can then focus on tasks that create higher value for the business.
Management can shift their focus from mundane activities and focus on ways to create more
business efficiency, enhance performance and competitiveness. HR leaders are in the unique
position of leading the future of work, stop working behind the scenes and pave the way for a
new world of work. 

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 Predictions for HR Departments
 In-house HR will downsize and outsourcing will increase: Many businesses are
going to get a lot of capability done by better technology, more self-service and the
employee doing a lot on their own.” For instance, employees will increasingly input their
own data into self-service systems. In addition, many transaction-heavy HR jobs will be
outsourced entirely to HR agencies or specialists. Dr. Janice Presser, CEO of The Gabriel
Institute, goes so far as to say, “Entry-level HR jobs, as they currently exist, will all but
disappear as transactional tasks are consigned to outsourced services.”

 Strategic thinking will become in-house HR’s new core competency: More
recently, an Economist Intelligence Unit report stressed the need for C-suite executives to
partner with HR to drive growth. In support of that, over half the experts mentioned that
HR needs to increase its strategic value to the business–or else. “This includes the ability
to make accurate projections based on understanding the goals of the business and using
metrics that describe more than lagging indicators, such as how long it takes to fill a job
or the per-employee training spend.”

 The pendulum to swing back to the specialist: Every decade or so we fluctuate

back and forth from the paradigm of the independent contributor/specialist to the
generalist practitioner. We were in a ‘generalist’ mode and now I think the pendulum
may be swinging back toward the specialist.”

 HR will increasingly utilize analytics and big data to augment its value to
the firm: In-house HR professionals will need to embrace analytics and “big data”–now
often included in talent management software suites–to become strategic leaders in their
companies. In-house HR professionals will need to embrace analytics and “big data”–
now often included in talent management software suites–to become strategic leaders in
their companies. The current trends in big data will provide new ways for HR to prove its
value, so we can expect HR departments to want to add people who can analyse and
make projections using these tools, and people who can drive positive change using the
information derived from the analysis.”

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  Managing a remote workforce will be the new norm: Recent moves by
companies like Yahoo and Best Buy to end their remote work programs are the
exception, not the new normal. Without a doubt, HR will increasingly have to tackle the
challenge of managing a remote workforce. 

 HR will need to become more like marketing: recruiting is going to become more
like marketing.” Specifically, he advocates that recruiters “identify specific micro-
segments of either job seekers or job holders that you want to target to bring into your
firm, just like a marketing firm would.” The experts at Buck Consultants cast an even
wider net. They claim the need for HR to think like marketers will expand beyond
recruiting. “HR will evolve the ‘internal marketing’ role to include social marketing
coordination and brand ownership, that is, outside talent ‘buying’ into the brand–the
company–to potentially work in the organization,” they say.

The 5 future roles of HR

Employee Engagement Manager: Companies have already started shifting away from the
outdated review processes that were used to measure and assess employee performance,
happiness, and engagement. Organisations have also discovered that a proper conversation
between leadership and teams is far more engaging and productive. As a result of proper existing
employee engagement software, managers and teams can now benefit from a dynamic dialogue
revolving around performance. Companies no longer have to wait for the 3, 6, or 12-month
review sessions in order to assess performance and happiness around the workforce.

Just like in the case of social media which requires a manager, the HR team will depend upon a
dedicated Employee Engagement Manager who will be responsible with creating a link between
employees and their managers. His responsibilities will entail coming up with frequent surveys
to gather feedback and analyse the health and happiness of the company’s workforce.
An Employee Engagement Manager will be responsible of both managing the technology needed
to communicate across the company and designing the appropriate approach to internal
engagement.

Learning Director: Competitive companies constantly train their workforce through various
development programmes. We can all agree with the fact that technology will change, processes
will change; and especially customers will change.
The Learning Director will be a crucial in organising and implementing constant education
programmes for the workforce. The usual training programmes are infamously known for being
disengaging, uninspiring, and a total waste of time for busy employees. The person who occupies
this role will have to be knowledgeable in terms of the adult learning process, and will be
essential for coming up with voluntary or mandatory training programmes.

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Diversity Officer: Numerous studies have proved time and time again that a diverse
workforce result’s in a prosperous company. Organisational success revolves around the
cultivation of men and women of all backgrounds – whether we’re talking about gender, race and
skillset.
The Diversity Officer will have to ensure that the staff contains talented people with various
backgrounds. Just hiring candidates in order to ensure a diverse workforce won’t do because of
the work that needs to be within the organisation post-hire. The Diversity Officer will have to
work closely with both the Learning Director and Employee Engagement Manager to design the
necessary inclusion training programmes that will promote a better understanding between
different types of people and teams.
The role is aimed to encourage the benefits (both economic and psychological) of a workforce
that’s made of diverse employees.

Talent Manager: Although talent recruitment is done by a hiring manager, a full-time

dedicated Talent Manager will be the eyes and ears for specific industries. This particular
manager will have to build great relationships with recruitment agencies and should also keep an
eye on highly-rated business incubators and industry communities. The Talent Manager’s
responsibilities also include following and analysing the latest trends that exist in the
marketplace such as: new and fresh skillsets and salary expectations in order to offer the
organisation they are working for the best possible competitive advantage through which top
talents are attracted and retained.

Mind-set Coach: An overworked workforce is definitely an unhappy one. Internal wellness

programmes and policies within companies are powerful tools to keep employees healthy,
focused and happy. The Mind-set Coach will have to implement important programmes which
will help individuals in creating good habits in their day-to-day activities. These habits go far
beyond the sphere of everyday exercising and healthy eating.
Proper wellness programmes will entail work-life balance processes, stress management and
therapy programmes, whilst also promoting an open dialogue policy around mental health in
order to remove the stigma that usually appears in conversation and thought. Furthermore, the
Mindset Coach will have to collaborate with the Employee Engagement Manager on how to craft
the best programmes so that employees are encouraged to participate and create a general
openness across members of staff.

Conclusion
However, there is another side to the story as well. Out of the surveyed 1200 global HR
executives from 64 countries, 39% of forward looking and confident HR leaders are harnessing
the resources and insights to redefine obsolete models, and implement technologies such as
analytics, digital labor and AI. However, most of the HR leaders remain confused and
overwhelmed by so many new additions, thus facing a risk of extinction. They are either
struggling to adapt to this digital era or ignoring change altogether. Without a doubt, a large
cloud of uncertainty does prevail in the minds of HR leaders across the globe in the backdrop of
an inevitable and relentless change.  
The future of HR has arrived, and it is now. HR thus needs to be a function that takes the lead in
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understanding what makes people engaged, what cultures drive the most productive workplaces
and what equations enable a true merging of human capability with technology. 

References
 https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2019/11/future-of-hr-2020.pdf
 https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-new-roles-of-the-human-resources-
professional-1918352
 https://greatpeopleinside.com/5-future-roles-hr/
 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/hr-leadership/leadership/the-future-
is-now-the-changing-role-of-hr/articleshow/68229542.cms?from=mdr
 https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/1118/pages/7-critical-strategies-to-
prepare-for-the-future-of-hr.aspx

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