While we’re always focused on the future here at myHRfuture – it’s in our name, after all! As the year draws to a close, we couldn’t help but take a moment to reflect on some of the most popular HR topics of 2019.

Over the last 12 months we’ve expanded the myHRfuture academy with over:

• 24 new training courses focused on helping you build your People Analytics and Digital HR skills.

• 90 articles that touch on some of the most relevant aspects of the future of work.

• 26 episodes of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, where we speak to cutting edge thought leaders in HR.

But the real question is, which of these is the myHRfuture community loving the most?

Our most popular blogs of 2019…

1.  What is the Impact of AI on HR?

Ian Bailie and Soumyasanto Sen help us break down the hype around artificial intelligence, automation and augmentation and understand the effect it is actually having on HR. In this instructional video and blog post, Ian gives an overview of the four key areas that AI is disrupting and where it’s having the biggest impact on the HR function.

2. What are the Steps in a Workforce Planning Process?

Al Adamsen provides a solid foundation to the principles behind workforce planning, while detailing how to create a strategic workforce plan for your organisation. In this instructional video and blog post, Al gives a brief overview of the key stages involved in developing an effective workforce planning process within your organisation and the value it will drive.

3. What are the HR Skills of the Future?

In this report, Jonathan Ferrar, David Green and Ian Bailie analyse the skills and knowledge areas that HR professionals and their stakeholders consider to be critical to HR’s ability to adapt to a data-driven and digital age, and prepare their organisations for the future of work. The findings from their research have been published in our '2019 HR Skills of the Future' report.

4. How to use Design Thinking in HR

There are many factors that are changing the way we approach human resources, from attracting and selecting talent, all the way through to talent development and retention. Whatever the external influences, the fact is that this change requires new applications in the way we think about our people and design our people management strategies. One of the most recent trends that can be used to improve experience is Design Thinking.

5. What is AI and How is it Impacting Recruiting?

There is a lot of ‘hype’ around Artificial Intelligence and the disruption it’s having on the HR function. Throughout this blog Ian Bailie examines the four areas of recruitment where AI is having the most impact, and how this is changing the way that organisations will recruit candidates in the future.

6. How can you scale People Analytics in a Global Organisation?

In this ‘Expert Interview’, David Green speaks to Guru Sethupathy, Head of People Analytics at Capital One, about his journey transforming and growing the People Analytics function. Guru shares some of the key learnings they have experienced over the past two years along with how and why you should you build a centre of excellence for People Analytics.

7. How can you Measure Organisational Culture?

The culture of an organisation can have a huge impact on employee morale, the profitability of a company and recruiting efforts. Having a good company culture can inspire employees to be more positive and productive at work while improving retention rates. But the question arises as to how you measure company culture?

8. How can I be more successful at People Analytics?

In this article Jonathan Ferrar outlines a common challenge that is frequently experienced by People Analytics leaders - identifying value in People Analytics Projects. Leveraging the Nine Dimensions in People Analytics Model to support many clients navigate this challenge has led Jonathan to identify seven questions that People Analytics leaders should be asking themselves to ensure they’re on the right path to success.

9. What is the Effect of AI and Automation on HR?

There is a lot of hype around AI and HR, but what does it really mean for HR? How is the use of machine learning and other AI techniques impacting the vendor landscape and what are some of the main trends that HR will need to adopt to succeed in a world of digital transformation?

10. How Strategic Workforce Planning adds Business Value

In her previous articles, Alicia Roach has examined the “what”, the “why” and “how” you successfully implement strategic workforce planning within your organisation. In this fascinating article she examines how strategic workforce planning adds business value by examining two questions “Does your organisation know what workforce is needed now?” and “What about in 3-5 years time?”.

Our most popular episodes of the Digital HR Leaders podcast…

1. Episode 11: The Role of the HR Business Partner in a Digital Age

The guest on this episode is none other than Dave Ulrich, the renowned university professor, author, speaker, coach, and management consultant. Throughout this episode David Green and Dave Ulrich delve into a multitude of topics from how HR can increase its impact to leaders, organisations, and workers, to the impact that technology and the future of work is having on strategic workforce planning.

2. Episode 20: Designing an Exceptional Employee Experience

How do you define and develop the culture required to deliver on your organisation's purpose? How do you involve employees? And how do you measure the impact to ensure that you're on the right track? The guest on this episode is Tanuj Kapilashrami and she's tackled all of these challenges in her role as Group Head of HR at Standard Chartered Bank and also ensured that HR has taken the lead role in driving employee experience throughout the bank.

3. Episode 17: Using HR Analytics and Technology to Drive Business Value at Unilever

Leena Nair the Chief HR Officer at Unilever, speaks passionately about the need to become more human in our increasingly digital age. Leena and her team at Unilever are rightly regarded as an exemplar for next-gen HR, which at the same time is more business focused and more human. Leena is a pioneer. She was the first woman appointed to Unilever's Southeast Asia leadership team and she is now Unilever's first female CHRO.

4. Episode 1: How to Transform HR to be more Digital

We hear a lot about digital transformation in HR, but how do you achieve this in partnership with the business rather than in isolation? That’s the topic of this podcast. Sharon Doherty, Chief People Officer at Finastra who until recently spent nearly six years at Vodafone as Global Organisation and People Development Director, where she led Vodafone's approach to Organisational Effectiveness, Resourcing, Talent, Capability, Diversity and Inclusion and Digital Transformation across 30 markets.

5. Episode 10: Nestlé's People Analytics Journey

According to research by the Corporate Research Forum, 69% of organisations with 10,000 employees or more now have a People Analytics team. The reality is perhaps not so rosy, as many of these teams are still essentially restricted to reporting, and not really doing analytics. One organisation that is definitely doing people analytics is Nestlé. Since the arrival in June 2016 of Jordan Pettman as Global Head of People Data Analytics and Planning, the progress has been remarkable.

As our training academy continues to grow, here are the most popular training courses people are taking to build their HR skills of the future…

1. HRBP 2.0: The Data-Driven and Digital HR Business Partner

In this training course for HR Business Partners you will learn how the expectations for a HR Business Partner have shifted in the last 20 years. Dave explains that HR is not about HR, it’s about creating value for the key stakeholders we serve, and how the job of the HR Business Partner is not about doing the work of HR, such as building purpose and belonging, but is about doing work that helps the company win in the marketplace.

2. An Introduction to People Analytics

The objective of this people analytics course is to provide aspiring people analytics professionals and HR business partners with a solid foundation in why people analytics is critical to helping HR provide real business value. By taking this people analytics training course you will get an excellent grounding in what people analytics is, and how the best companies are using people analytics to become more successful and provide an exceptional employee experience.

3. Getting Started with Workforce Planning

Workforce planning is a core business process to align changing organisation needs with people strategy. The ability to plan effectively, forecast skill gaps, and understand the supply and demand of talent has never been more important. This introduction to workforce planning will ensure that as an HR professional, you not only understand how to create a strategic workforce plan, but also how you can get buy-in and manage your workforce planning activities.

4. How to Use Statistics in your People Analytics Projects

This course provides you with some practical insights on how to think through the critical steps of a people analytics project and to use statistical tests in both Excel and R to answer the hypothetical business question that you are faced with. On completing this course, you will have a better understanding of how to get started with using statistics in your people analytics projects, and on how to move from Excel to using R for a multiple linear regression model.

5. Creating a Digital HR Foundation

In this course, we address how HR as a function can become more digital and HR can help drive business outcomes in a digital age. The objective of this course is to provide you with a solid foundation of what the term ‘digital’ means for a progressive HR function. On completing this online training you will become much more fluent in discussing aspects of the digital transformation ahead of all of us.

Take a look at our full range of online training courses for HR today and press PLAY on your career in 2020!

So that’s it for our roundup of content for 2019. We’re excited to launch even more great content in 2020 and we appreciate all of your support and for being part of our community. Comment below to let us know what your favourite piece of content has been this year, or tell us what you’d like to see more of in 2020…