Future planning trending in HR news this week

This week in HR news, everyone seems to be talking about future planning.

The importance of leadership pipelines, why scepticism should be approached with artificial intelligence (AI), companies resorting to counteroffers, and proposed workplace legislation facing backlash were all topics of discussion this week.

Leadership pipelines

AHRI discussed why it’s crucial for leaders to create strong leadership pipelines.

Succession planning is important for keeping the ball rolling when people move out of positions. If organisations are unprepared, efficiency can fall behind as employees try to play catch-up in new positions.

AHRI said effective leadership pipelines should focus on five key areas:

• Learning and development
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
• Feedback and reflection
• Succession planning
• Leadership development

When elevating someone into a leadership position, AHRI said the seven layers of leadership should be considered:

1. Leading self
2. Leading teams
3. Leading leaders
4. Leading function
5. Leading directorate
6. Leading organisation
7. Leading board

“Everybody has the ability to influence. Everybody can enable the work of others. And everybody has the ability to show up, if they have clarity around what’s expected,” said Meredith Carrington, manager of organisational culture and capability at EACH.

AI caution

Accountants Daily recently reported on AI and why “healthy scepticism” is necessary when implementing this tech within the business.

“It does come with those warnings – we have to go through actual training to recognise that there’s bias involved in terms of what the responses might look like,” said the leader of the accountant and adviser group at Intuit QuickBooks, Damien Greathead.

“Bias is one; plagiarism is another one – and then just the authenticity of the information that it’s citing … So, I think as long as we recognise that it comes with a big warning on the front to say that there are limitations and here are some of the examples of limitations.”

While caution should be taken, Mr Greathead also noted that those who do not adopt AI run the risk of falling behind.

“I’d much prefer to put my toe in the water today and sort of test it out and become more comfortable with it, put those guardrails in place, put the sort of do’s and don’ts for my firm, put them in place now because that will evolve and that will change as the technology evolves,” he commented.

Counteroffers

As seen in Human Times’ 14 August bulletin, Reuters published how some organisations are resorting to counteroffers to retain staff who are considering leaving.

“Two-fifths of firms said they had made a counteroffer to keep staff in the past year. Just over half of those firms said they were resorting to counteroffers more than previously,” said Reuters.

While many are taking this route, almost a third believe it’s ineffective at retaining staff. Although, Reuters noted it could be a valuable short-term option. Just don’t rely on it to turn retention rates around.

‘Same job, same pay’ backlash

With the “same job, same pay” laws slated to be passed at the end of the year, Illawarra Mercury expects conflict between those for and those against the legislation.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke wants to introduce the legislation to Parliament this month, aiming to have it passed in December.

Mr Burke believes that changes won’t have a big impact on the economy, “but for individual workers who are affected by these loopholes, it’s very significant”. The reforms would “close down those loopholes that undercut wage growth”.

However, not all agree. The Business Council said research it commissioned revealed that 77 per cent of respondents would be unhappy if an employee with less experience or who didn’t work as hard was paid the same amount. Another 75 per cent said companies should have access to labour hire.