HR leaders to play ‘critical’ role in driving workforce innovation

The success of organisations depends on HR leaders being able to effectively work with business heads to drive innovation across several key areas, according to a new report.

Global market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (ICD) has outlined its Future of Work (FoW) model, which aims to equip business leaders with the knowledge they need to adapt to evolving workplace demands.

IDC’s Future of Work (FoW) model focuses on three core elements:

1. Culture

“Engaging and empowering workers requires continuous innovation and a new type of organisational agility. This includes new leadership styles, organisational structures, and performance metrics.”

2. Augmentation

“This is the collaboration between humans and technology. This can be full automation or the extension of human capabilities using technology. Business leaders must enable and embrace the new digital coworker.”

3. Space

“The work environment must adapt to support a hybrid workforce and culture. Leaders should strive for a borderless digital workspace through technology; a reimagined workplace must be intelligent and dynamic, connected and secure, and independent of a physical place or time of day.”

The FoW model presents an opportune time for HR leaders to guide businesses in adapting to new workplace expectations, working with other departments to ensure remote working strategies, in particular, are effective.

“Remote work, a practice that has gained wide acceptance due to the pandemic, has changed employees’ mindsets. They demand more flexibility in their choice of location and workplace, pushing companies to rethink their workforce strategies,” IDC said.

“This trend has created more opportunities to hire remote talent from different geographies, but it comes with new challenges for HR teams. For example, while hiring globally, the HR team will need to understand the culture, work practices, and labour laws in each country so that employees will feel that they are part of a community without compromising company culture.”

Identifying the ‘dream team’

According to ICD, there are four departments within a business that are set to be the backbone of implementing FoW strategies.

These include HR leaders/chief human resources officers, chief financial officers, chief technology officers/chief information officers, and legal heads.

“Each of them must be well connected and work together on human resource investment and workforce planning, implementing technologies to hire and manage employees (in terms of onboarding, payroll, and retention strategies), and complying with labour laws and regulations across geographies,” ICD said.

“This is especially true for companies looking for cost-effective workforce options in other regions who want their business to go international with a strong employer brand.”

For HR leaders/chief human resources officers (CHROs), it will be integral to develop strategies for workforce planning, considering fast-changing technology, demographics, and economic conditions while sourcing talent from overseas, ICD said.

CFOs or finance heads must be focused on “allocating budgets for the acquisition of new technologies, upskilling and reskilling programs, and creating compensation and benefits packages to attract top talent, regardless of where they are located”.

Chief technology officers (CTOs)/chief information officers (CIOs) need to ensure businesses are investing in the right technologies to source and manage talent. For example, those that aid in sourcing, onboarding, payroll, and administration.

Meanwhile, ICD said legal heads must ensure compliance with labour laws and regulations and make sure businesses are kept up to date with data privacy laws that are unique to each geography.