“I think we’re just at the beginning of an incredibly exciting time for HR leaders...to use more empirical data to inform decisions around performance, talent management, agility, employee experience and productivity” Kathleen Hogan, CHRO, Microsoft

The digital age has different requirements for Human Resources.

First and foremost, the function has an increasingly important strategic obligation to the business. Defined by disruption at the hands of automation, AI and big data, HR’s role is to deliver a workforce strategy that meets the rapidly shifting expectations for talent. This pressure comes from both the business and the employees themselves. Over 60% of HR leaders report pressure from the CEO to support the upskilling of employees, ensuring that they have the skills they need in the future. At the same time, 69% of HR leaders report increased pressure from employees to provide development opportunities that will prepare them for future roles, compared to three years ago.

Secondly, the HR function must upskill itself to thrive in the digital age. Roles with more administrative, repetitive elements, such as those in Shared Services, are significantly more likely to be fully automated in ten years than strategic roles, such as HR Business Partners and Centre of Excellence roles, that depend on less automatable, “human” skills including consulting and influencing, and stakeholder management. Upskilling to become digitally savvy and analytically capable is crucial for Human Resources professionals. To take on this challenge, talent executives plan to double efforts to upskill their HR teams in new capabilities, such as agile and design thinking, over the next two years, according to recent research.   

For many HR professionals, these new expectations, driven by technological disruption, feel like a tide turning away from the people-centric motivation that got them into the discipline in the first place. Before people data was pervasive across organisations, HR professionals relied more heavily on intuition and empathy. The hard truth is that not every HR professional working today is willing to let go of the traditional approach to HR. Not everyone is willing to upskill.

To answer the question, “Does HR have the potential to adapt in the digital age?” Insight222 Research partnered with pymetrics to gather and analyse behavioural assessments of 266 top performing HR professionals, largely at the HR manager level. The result is a powerful and unique behavioural profile of today’s HR professional. Organisations can use this evidence, as well as the report’s guidance, to advance the success of HR in the digital age.

HR professionals today are more likely to adopt an instinctive approach to decision-making

The behavioural profile of HR professionals today was developed from the results of pymetrics’ gamified exercises taken by 266 HR professionals who are considered top performing in their roles. These professionals were drawn from a range of industries, including hospitality, healthcare, education, construction, retail, government, and finance.

The results of the analysis are shown below, presented against nine behavioural traits. Scores can be used to indicate an individual’s soft skills and assess learning style, working style and team behaviours. No score is considered “good” or “bad”; results are instead bidirectional. For example, ‘Attention’ can be interpreted in two ways: sustained attention is beneficial for a worker who needs to focus on a single task for a prolonged period, yet shorter attention spans can be advantageous in a fast-paced sales environment, where consistent task switching is more likely.  

The behavioural profile of the HR professional today

In the report, we explore each behavioural trait in detail. Here we’re going to look at decision-making, which gives a good indication of the average HR professional’s proclivity to use data and evidence in decision-making.

Being instinctive in decision-making is 22.6% of today’s HR professional behavioural profile. This indicates that HR professionals tend to make decisions based on intuition and previous experience, as opposed to a more deliberative, reflective and analytical approach to problem solving.

Despite indicating a lack of preparedness for a data-driven environment, HR professionals have been found to demonstrate other, balancing behavioural traits. For example, in terms of attention, HR professionals take a more methodical approach to managing incoming information and distractions. This trait is typically associated with individuals who prefer focus and accuracy over speed. Methodically-minded individuals also seek in-depth understanding of topics. This is particularly important for HR roles requiring a rigorous approach to work, such as compliance-related tasks.

Developing HR professionals in the Digital Age

One myth that is contributing to HR’s resistance to transformation is that every HR professional must become a data scientist. This is not the case. Not every HR professional will become a data scientist. However, every HR professional will need to be digitally literate and analytically capable.

HR professionals must be able to hold evidence-based conversations with the business to guide business decisions relating to people, but they do not have to do the analysis themselves. If the function is to be truly embedded as a strategic partner, elicit business challenges from stakeholders and prioritise HR activities according to the business need, HR professionals must also demonstrate business acumen. Yet they remain, above all else, experts in people practice. 

Supporting the wider workforce in the future will require HR to be experience led and able to deliver best-in-class, digitally enabled employee experiences personalised to individual needs based on data. Not all HR professionals will need to understand the inner workings of these systems – but all HR professionals must be able to communicate the fundamental principles and advantages to business stakeholders and employees.

Building digitally savvy and analytically willing people across the human resources function is the basis for innovation, curiosity and delivering value for the organisation.

Build the HR Skills of the Future with myHRfuture

The myHRfuture Academy focuses on supporting HR professionals build the skills they need to succeed in the future. It aims to help you become more data driven, business focused, and experience led – to acquire the skills necessary to process, produce and leverage digital information. Our new HR skills of the future assessment not only shows you how you stack up against the 9 skills of the future HR professional but also highlights your development opportunities, providing you with a personalised learning journey that aims to guide you every step of the way so that you can close your skill gaps, deepen your knowledge and Press PLAY on your Career.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Caroline Styr is the Research Director at Insight222. She is a thought-leader, researcher and writer on people analytics and the future of HR. Prior to joining Insight222, she worked at the Center for the Future of Work where she was an advisor and in-demand speaker on topics related to the future of work. She has also held roles in digital services and transformation consulting at Cognizant. Contact Caroline at caroline.styr@insight222.com