Exploring the future of the HR profession: A Q&A with Lisa Dodman
If HR leaders don’t adapt, their organizations will lose out in the ever-increasing competitive landscape.
Flexibility and empathy are the keys to being a successful HR leader — no longer can organizations demand exacting terms and conditions that do not give freedom of choice. If HR leaders don’t adapt and accept that “talent is talent,” then their organizations will lose out in the ever-increasing competitive landscape.
Related: 3 reasons HR is hesitant to adopt new technology
In our latest chat in this series, BenefitsPRO caught up with Lisa Dodman, chief people success officer at Unit4, a London, UK-based company that offers ERP-related professional services. Unit4 has a special focus on the professional services, education, public services and nonprofit sectors. The company’s US office is in Chesterfield, Missouri.
Katie Kuehner-Hebert: How has the role of HR professionals changed in recent years, and what’s driving it/?
Over the last couple of years, the employer-employee relationship has changed for the positive. With everyone experiencing the pandemic differently, working remotely often impacts the way we show vulnerability and may have made some people bring personal challenges into the workplace. Whether that is having children on their laps during conference calls or sharing a desk while homeschooling, being proud of that vulnerability and not compromising your life has been extremely important. This impacts the role of HR because we need to ensure and help our employees find a way of working that works for their lives.
In general, the role of HR professionals has also changed drastically since I began my career 25 years ago. We now have a spectrum of employees that range over several generations – Baby Boomers to Gen Z. The needs and desires around employment change from each generation. For example, the younger generations are eager to progress in their career quickly and move companies more often than older generations. It’s key that HR professionals focus through a people-centric lens on what their employees’ needs are and how to add value on their career journey to retain talent.
KKH: How has this shift impacted the relationship between the C-Suite, HR and employee benefits consultants?
The acceleration of flexible opportunities for employees has also paved the way to a change in the role of HR becoming far more commercial than it once was. CHROs need to firmly own their seat at the table through challenging the C-Suite thinking around diversity, talent acceleration and the different ways of engaging employees and helping them to grow. Evolving the way we think about benefits has been essential, too — the talent of the future want things now, they know where they want to be, how they will get there and the benefits that drive their interest and they are quick to move to companies who can provide it if you can’t. The changing landscape puts companies firmly on their toes!
KKH: How has technology changed the way you work? How has it changed your role in the company?
At Unit4, we leverage technology to check in on our people, especially during the time of remote work. Through our talent management platform, we send out regular pulse surveys to track productivity, engagement, and employee feedback.
Using our own technology across the complete hire-to-retire landscape is essential in not only driving people strategy and initiatives, but also showcasing to our customers and new customers just how we have paved the way of change, so we practice what we preach!
KKH: Do you see an increasing need for specialization within the field (talent management, compliance, diversity & inclusion, etc.)?
I believe HR professionals can continue to get breadth through being generalists, but there is an increasing requirement to drive focus around talent management, D&I, CSR/ESG — and so the generalist world begins to get broader with the lines across into specialization becoming more blurred.
KKH: What skills will be most important to HR professionals in the future?
Flexibility and empathy. If we’ve learned anything from the past couple of years, it is that a focus on employee mental and physical well-being must be center stage to run a successful company with motivated and productive teams. HR professionals will need to maintain flexibility and enable a blended work environment to accommodate what employees need to be happy in their jobs.
An additional differentiator for the HR professional of the future is commercial thinking — the world of People has evolved and there is no longer a pure welfare focus, the professional of the future needs to fully understand the business strategy and how they then play a part.
KKH: What trends, challenges or issues do you see most affecting your profession?
The needs of employees will continue to change. HR professionals need to adapt to new generation career path preferences and keep a focus on the mental well-being of employees by providing safe spaces to have difficult conversations and necessary resources. Businesses will continue to evolve and pivot rapidly and so the commercial thinking of HR needs to rapidly respond. As such, we will see more than ever a need to help businesses design the new world, create talent experiences that change direction at pace and accept that talent is talent. The old way of expecting people to have certain qualifications, to accept a non-flexible way of working and terms and conditions that do not give freedom of choice are long gone – employers need to differentiate now! War on talent waits for no one.
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