Taking the lead: The evolving role of HR professionals
The role of the HR professional must evolve to incorporate a greater emphasis on strategy, says isolved's Geoff Webb.
One of the many lessons we’ve learned over the past year: Good employees make the world go round. Or at least keep a business running in the black. Indeed, the disruptions of the past year have been a wakeup call for employers. When asked to turn on a dime and accommodate new working conditions, not to mention the increased stress and mental health struggles employees were going through, employers realized that “the way things were always done” will not be good enough going forward.
This new perspective has significant implications for HR professionals–a group that has been advocating for a bigger seat at the table and change to the talent management strategy for years. And now, they’re finally getting it. But are they ready?
Related: HR’s way forward: Managing more effectively in the shadow of COVID-19
Recently, Geoff Webb, vice president of products and solution strategy at isolved, shared some insights with BenefitsPRO on the changing role of HR professionals and the skills and tools they’ll need to remain successful.
How will HR leaders’ roles evolve over the next few years?
The relationship between employer and employee has been changing slowly over the past several years and the pandemic, with all the disruptions to the workplace that it entailed, has added additional elements to that change. The role of the HR leader must evolve from one of focusing on operational efficiency in processes, to a strategic thinker and driver of change. Employees now demand more visibility into things like corporate responsibility and expect to have a greater hand in shaping their workplace and how it operates.
HR leaders must now lay the groundwork for the new employee experience and help steer the technology and leadership changes required to engage an often-remote, more demanding, and more mobile, younger workforce. HR leaders must take on myriad change agents as they build the strategy for engaging and connecting to the workforce and earn and maintain a seat at the strategic table. By having a more strategic voice in the organization, they can ensure their business can not only recruit the best talent, but also develop employees and their skills – retaining them longer as a result. It’s a tall order, but critical to the success of any business.
What are some of the emerging initiatives that HR departments will be responsible for in the foreseeable future?
The most powerful indicator of an organization’s success is the extent to which employees feel engaged. Are they connecting with the vision and direction of the business? Do they feel like they belong? Would they be advocates for your business even after they left? If you can answer “yes” to that last question, our data shows you’re in a better position to recruit. In fact, isolved’s survey of 500 HR leaders found that employee-review sites (like Glassdoor and Indeed) are their number-one recruiting tool – further proving that the voice of the employee matters at every stop in their journey.
These are the type of questions HR departments must grapple with now and simultaneously put in place initiatives to measure and shape a positive answer. While HR departments have often been highly operational in nature, they must now create and drive a vision for employee engagement that goes far beyond their traditional mandate.
Key initiatives must be in place along every step of the employee journey starting with a frictionless candidate and new-hire experience and continuously investing in a meaningful and honest corporate culture with plenty of personalized career touchpoints along the way. This means focusing on the things that employees care about – above and beyond the transactional nature of things like time-off, pay stubs and holiday parties. Corporate responsibility, charitable giving, communications and collaboration that foster a sense of community, and a path to authentic career development must be in place for a successful HR department of the future.
How can HR leaders take charge in this new age of disruption despite traditional HR stigmas?
While the last five years have been dominated by digital transformation, establishing a new role for technology in the enterprise, the next five will be defined by the employee experience transformation. Attracting and retaining the highly skilled, and increasingly mobile workforce of the future, will demand a deep and sustained investment in the technology, processes, and mindset that delivers a far richer, more engaging and authentic employee experience.
HR must establish and drive a leadership role within the business, transitioning away from the traditional operational roles of managing employees, payroll, benefits and so on, to one in which they actively steer the business toward that rich and sustained employee experience. HR leaders must become comfortable with new technologies, and with shaping how the business manages their most valuable asset – the workforce that is the heart of the business.
How can employers cater to individual employee needs as it relates to benefits?
Benefits are the HR departments bread and butter so while they know how to maximize those, what many leaders need to continue to learn is how to deliver them in the manner that employees expect today. Even in 2021 when shopping sites and social apps have conditioned consumers to swipe and scroll on digital channels, benefit enrollment is still done with paper and pen in some organizations.
Even when done digitally, benefits administration doesn’t comply with the same web conventions consumers – aka employees – are used to. Individual employees demand a system that shows them how much a benefit will cost them each paycheck compared to another – like how they comparison shop in the real world. Employees demand a system that works as well on their phone – when they are showing their partner – than it does on the desktop at work. The list of requirements is long but today while the actual benefits still matter, it’s the way in which they can manage them that adds to the employee experience.
What role is corporate social good playing in today’s workplace?
Employees are expecting far more from their employer than ever before. This is especially true in the realm of corporate responsibility and social good. Studies show that demonstrating an active role in supporting social issues, charitable work, and volunteering helps to attract and maintain employees. A visible and active role in social good is increasingly a criterion upon which prospective employees evaluate their employers even before they accept a job offer. As employees become more mobile, and vocal through means of social media platforms, assuming a position of ethical and social leadership is now a critical part of brand management, and attracting, maintaining and motivating the workforce of the future.
How can HR leaders achieve a permanent seat at the C-suite table?
HR leaders face the same challenges that CIOs faced a decade ago – a role that became seen as operationally supportive and strategically definitional. Business CIOs were forced to redefine the value they brought to the business in order to establish a strong voice in the direction of the business, and the advent of cloud services and DevOps provided a backdrop to establish that change. For HR leaders, they must also redefine their role, away from one of operational efficiency and risk management to become one of defining the strategic direction for how businesses compete in the future – through attracting and retaining the very best employees.
More, they must shape how the rest of the C-suite evaluates the impact of employee engagement and lay out a clear roadmap for technology, process and skills that demonstrates clear competitive value in delivering a better employee experience. Without such a redefinition of the role of HR leadership, businesses will miss this critical window of opportunity to build the powerful, authentic, and transformational workforce experience of the future.
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