3 New HR Roles to Expect in the Future: Insights From SHRM APAC 2019

Last Updated: December 16, 2021

The future of work is here, and the future of HR is data-driven. We’ve all heard this before. But what new roles will emerge to handle data-driven HR? How will data be used in these roles? At the SHRM HR Tech APAC 2019 conference, we spoke to practitioners from and outside HR to predict key HR roles that will emerge five years from now and the skills needed to perform these roles.

HR’s digital transformation journey is nowhere near complete, but it is underway. There is a sharp shift away from the manual to the automated. We can’t really talk about HR without also referring to the technology that powers it in 2019. The HR technology landscape is ever-growing, and where there is new technology, there must be new skills to use it.

At the SHRM HR Tech APAC 2019 ConferenceOpens a new window , we heard from several experts and HR tech vendors. While they acknowledged the freedom technology has allowed HR, they also shared their concerns about the skills that will be required in the future to handle this technology.

Traditional HR roles will adapt, and as the workforce is expected to be prepared for jobs that don’t exist today, so is HR. Technical skills have a shelf life of two to three years – this thought was echoed repeatedly at the Conference. So how do we prepare for skills we don’t even know we will need in the future? And how do we plan for what a future HR department look like in say, five years, when technology is evolving faster than we can keep up with it?

Here are three HR roles we expect to mature in five years ­– roles in progressive organizations that understand the value of HR as a key contributor to the business.

1. Human Experience Strategist

In a keynote session, Anand Shankar, Partner, Human Capital at Deloitte India, launched Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Trends ReportOpens a new window . One of the key points the report mentions – and Shankar emphasizes – is the shift from employee experience to human experience.

After hearing some engaging sessions on what the future of HR holds, and the extent to which technology will be a part of the system, we predict that the role of a Human Experience Strategist is going to become key in any progressive HR department.

The definition of an employee has undergone several changes recently. Employees expect much more than compensation in return for their work. They expect a consumer-grade experience, to be treated the way they are as consumers. They expect the organizations they work for to work towards not just profit, but also purpose.

It is a natural outcome then that all of HR will have to evolve to strategize about the human experience employees have come to expect. In a chat with HR Technologist, Shankar told us that a specific role to establish and embrace the human experience is not necessary. “All HR personnel should focus on how they can create a fulfilling experience for employees at the organization, an experience that elevates the employee from mere employee to a human at work,” he noted.

We foresee a team with the Head of Human Experience leading a team of HR professionals who are workplace culture specialists, diversity specialists, and even marketing specialists. However, Shankar emphasizes that though HR professionals need to think like marketers, they “can no longer stereotype their employees or profile them like marketers. HR has to profile employees as individuals. Sculpting individual employee policies is not new, but today, you have technologies that can enable you to do that.”

At the core of all these roles are three questions that form the pillar of the human experience strategy, according to Shankar:

  1. What is the value that each job [in the organization] fulfills? It’s not about what the job does, but what it accomplishes.
  2. How can that value be enhanced? By imbibing technology.
  3. How can this human fulfill the purpose for which she comes to work?

Learn More: How Are Chief Happiness Officers Revolutionizing Today’s Workplace?Opens a new window

2. AI Auditor

In a session on Looking Backwards from the Future, Dr. Shawn G Dubravac, Founder & President of Avrio Institute, focused on the role data plays in our lives and our jobs. It defines the way we now function, and if not already, HR departments must focus on leveraging the vast streams of data that they have access to and use it strategically, but also wisely.

He then went on to emphasize that “It is not enough to have only technology or only people. You need to have both, collaborating together in a new world that is defined by data, where you take the best of what it means to be human and the best of what it takes to be a computer, and you come up with a superior process.”

In that vein, he predicts an HR role titled AI Auditor – a professional who leverages data science skills to make sense of the data used to create AI algorithms and translate the output for employees, the C-suite, and anyone for whom this data is relevant.

At the conference, the ability to work with data and analytics was cited as the number one skill requirement for most job seekers of the future. And while the technologies using this data may evolve, the (learnable) skill of being able to collect, analyze, and interpret data will be the mainstay of the future.

Dubravac emphasized the human skills needed for this job – critical thinking for how to use the data, and judgment for the correct application of algorithms to collect a certain type of data. For example, using facial recognition technology to identify how drowsy employees are at work. Is that positive or negative? It depends on how HR teams want to use that data – to offer a napping room after seeing that most employees are drowsy after lunch, or to pull up employees for sleeping on the job.

Learn More: The Rise of the Chief HR Data ScientistOpens a new window

3. AI Bias Expert

With AI comes the question of the quality of data being used to inform AI, and the quality of data that AI reveals as a result. At the SHRM HR Tech Conference, we heard many HR practitioners share their reservations about relying entirely on data to make key decisions that impact the organization and employees. They cited its authenticity and quality as a concern. How can we rely on data without knowing what data is important and what data isn’t?

As a result, we predict the rise of a position called the AI Bias Expert, a professional in the organization who verifies the data that is used to create algorithms for key HR functions such as recruitment to ensure that it is bias-free. Organizations are now expected to be social enterprisesOpens a new window , and they are expected to make more ethical decisions in hiring, retention, people management, and even product development. As organizations rely more on data, they must show greater responsibility in using data as efficiently as possible to make key decisions in hiring. Having an in-house expert will then become a necessity as we head into the future.

This role again highlights the need for essential human skills like clear judgment, critical thinking, a vast repository of general knowledge, and a strong ethical core. It also requires keeping up with technology as it evolves, in real-time, and using the traits that make us human to ensure that this technology is used to create a positive employee experience and a positive human experience.

Learn More: Are We in the Endgame for Job Titles?Opens a new window

What Skills Should the HR Department of the Future Have?

While technology makes its foray into HR and becomes the mainstay of this function, the human aspect of human resources will emerge as the top trait that HR professionals will be expected to possess. We share with you four key skillsOpens a new window that HR leaders think each member of the HR department must possess.

1. “All HR must start thinking and acting like data scientists.”

Dr. Shawn G Dubravac, Founder & President of Avrio InstituteOpens a new window

HR leaders at the event agreed that technology will play a central role in the future of HR. All HR decisions will be based on data. Data will support HR’s gut instinct, and sometimes, it will reveal insights that go against this instinct. How HR practitioners act on this data will be a skill they will have to develop as they step into a future defined primarily by data.

2. “Every HR professional must think digital and build a digital mindset.”

Suchitra Rajendra, CHRO and VP Human Resources, India Region PepsiCoOpens a new window

There is no traditional HR and digital HR. All HR is now digital – and if it isn’t, it should be. Why? Because the same consumers who consume digital marketing content will also consume digital HR content in the workplace. According to Rajendra, not only are you now expected to have a digital thinking mindset, you also need to think like a marketer to create an employer value proposition (EVP) that makes employees want to stay with an organization.

3. “You can’t prepare for skills you don’t know you will need. What you can strengthen are your human skills, like critical thinking, emotional intelligence, communication, and mindfulness.”

Sallyann Della Casa, Chief Identity Hacker at GLEACOpens a new window

With the shelf life of technical skills being three to five years, how can HR or any person prepare for a role that they don’t know will exist?

One thing technology cannot do is replace the human skills needed to perform a job. The discussion around technology allowing humans to elevate their human side by freeing up their time to strategize is not new.

They can only bring their human side to the table, asserts Sally. This is echoed in Sally’s work – she runs an education technology company called GLEAC, focused on building twenty-first-century skills based on using the 10 human traits needed for any job.

4. “Curiosity, problem-solving, and design thinking are the three competencies we look for when hiring.”

Nathan SV, Partner and Chief Talent Officer at Deloitte IndiaOpens a new window

In a session entitled How Future-Ready Workplaces are Leveraging Technology to Make Better People Decisions, Nathan SV commented on the need for certain competencies that form the core of any professional entering a digital data-driven workforce. The first is curiosity, which enables continuous learning. The second is problem-solving, which leverages human creativity, along with available technology to solve problems. The third is design thinking, or what was traditionally known as lateral thinking, which enhances the collaboration between the left brain and the right brain to strategize.

Where Should HR Departments Begin?

In a talk on the skills evolution needed to survive the future at the Conference, the panelists emphasized that to keep up with the development of technology and to fit into the future roles that it will create, each of us have to take ownership of our upskilling. This will require some amount of readiness to learn quickly and then unlearn when required, when a certain technology becomes obsolete and is replaced by a new one.

Upskilling is a requirement for every individual at different stages of their career – from an intern to a C-level executive. For instance, speaking about the need to learn how to use data in HR, Ashok Ramachandra, Group Executive President, Human Resources, at Aditya Birla Group, said in an exclusive chat with HR Technologist, that: “The future generation of HR will come equipped with data analytics. It is the middle management and senior management of HR that need to catch up with this trend.”

We leave you with that thought. Think about it, and let us know your opinion of where HR is headed in the future on FacebookOpens a new window LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . Let’s talk about some more roles you predict HR will require in the future!

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