Future of Work

As a follow-up from my last article - where I shared thoughts on one of the key differentiators for the businesses of tomorrow being the ability for people to make data-driven decisions within an environment of emerging, fast-paced transformation - this month I dig a little deeper into how sensing your market and making sense of your data are crucial in remaining a competitive and viable business, enabling you to continuously change faster than the competition.

When the world began tinkering with artificial intelligence and machine learning, they were hardly a threat. Then Deep Blue and AlphaGo came along. The world began to realize that it is possible that under certain defined situations, AI could be smarter than human beings are. Then AlphaGo Zero came along and nightmares of world dominance re-emerged.

I can't recall who said it, or where I heard it, but it has resonated with me for a while now, providing the inspiration for the first article in this series - "uncertainty is the only certainty in business". Never has this been more relevant than in today's world of rapid change, where organisations are continuously challenged to disrupt or be disrupted.

We’ve all seen films where Artificial Intelligence replaces humans on-mass – and much debate swirls around just how much of this could ever be a reality.

Meet Erica – perhaps the world’s most advanced, human-like robot yet. She demonstrates that we may not be too far away from silver-screen-like AI workers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaTfzYDZG8c

Skills shortages across Europe have been making headlines for the past few years, but since the result of the Brexit referendum, the issue has really been thrust into the spotlight.

The workplace is converging, and so are future skill and talent requirements. Today, the auto industry is hiring more electrical and 3D printing engineers than hardcore manufacturing or mechanical engineers. Google is strengthening hardware capabilities further – recently paying $1.1B to acquire 2,000 HTC engineers. Irrespective of the industry and size, Business Intelligence and cloud skills are becoming a norm. It’s a new world with new rules. What does this agile business environment mean for Human Resources? 

#WomenInTech #Diversity #TalentManagement

Recruiting trends more often than not slip out from my circle of interest. To be vocally self-critical, I find myself either skimming over these or straight out ignoring them. However, when earlier this year, Sundar Pichai announced Google for Jobs, I had to sit up and take notice. It intrigued me not because of the smart machine-learning trained algorithms (that has been around long enough) but because when Google gets involved, things change.

Thank you to everyone that attended our latest specialist HRTN Reward event, chaired by Jeff Bakes, Reward Director at PwC.  These are the thoughts taken from that event, held at the Haymarket Hotel on Thursday 7th November.  

Traditional reward functions often encompass analytics, performance, HR systems and benefits; but with learning and recruitment processes often outsourced, is there still a need for an HR Director or are Reward Directors taking their place?