During a recent presentation to a large group of HR professionals, 4 questions were posed around the topic of career progression, direction and the stability (or instability)  in the current economic climate.  The results are quite interesting, and in some ways surprising, and

highlights the impact a constantly fluctuating and volatile

state of current business and economic activity

can have on their most important talent – HR professionals.

 

In light of a recent article published by the AHRI magazine, Career Life Transitions have commented on the results of this survey.  Please share your comments and views with us…..

 

 

 

HR people have a confidence in their understanding of the job search market and process as this forms part of their portfolio.  They also tend to have links with recruiters etc. in the industry.

HR People are ahead of the game, they are focusing on their career and skills required to be flexible.

The HR industry has been quite volatile for some time and people are rightfully nervous and have been proactive in ensuring their own job security.

In our role as Career Coaches, we saw more HR people in the last year than we had in the previous 4, the economy is turning now and HR roles are becoming more prevalent, HR people are both prepared and confident of job security.

HR people are overly optimistic about their own abilities to quickly move to a new role.

Because of their previous contacts and roles, HR people we’ve seen recently have been overly optimistic about their ability to move quickly, in some case we see a knowing/doing gap where HR people intellectually know what to do, but struggle to apply it to their own job search.

 

Possible Conclusion

In a survey run by AHRI and reported in the AHRI Online magazine on 8th November 2017, 96 per cent of respondents view AI as an opportunity rather than a threat and that “Human interaction will be more and more important going forward.”

HR people either have a very clear understanding of the future of their industry or the opposite is true.  We believe that there is a necessity for HR people to move into coaching and development roles for everything from transformation to organisational development, the question is, do enough HR people have the skill set required?  Many HR people we speak to mistakenly believe these skills are easily transferable.

Comments on the same article include:

Jeevan Joshi

If 96 per cent of respondents view AI as an opportunity rather than a threat, then they either don’t know what AI well enough or have an inflated sense of worth of the HR profession.

 Beryl Griffin

I agree with Jeevan the impact of AI on the HR profession from recent future work research states the impact on HR will be approximately 47%. What that means is that approximately half of what an average HR professional does on a day to day basis will be easily replaceable by AI technology. The question is what will HR do for the remainder of that percentage – strategy, planning, counselling, or ?. The upshot from this technology is however you slice and dice it there will be significant HR entry level, HR administration that will be replacing people with AI.

Although an equal number of people agreed with the survey results (a little ironic we thought considering the responses to our survey)

Are HR adequately informing themselves about what’s happening outside of their own industry.  As with everything in the Technological world lately, the threat is a blindside, not an obvious progression.  Are HR people deluding themselves into thinking there will always be a role for them or is it possible that once the process component of HR is removed and the people skills and leadership component is embraced more by management across the board that the HR function becomes redundant?

 

Possible Conclusion

Despite a feeling of personal security and ability, there is still a concern about what the future holds. People still don’t quite know how technology will impact on roles.

We think that in the back of everybody’s minds, there is a lack of clarity and understanding of what the future holds

 

Career Life Transitions would like to take this opportunity to thank all HR Professionals that took the time to complete this survey.  If you’d like further information or wish to share your feedback, and/or comments, please Contact us .