The HR mindset shift: From competing to sharing

Under the broader theme of talking tech, a panel of HR experts discussed the challenges and opportunities being faced by organisations as bots and other automation platforms take over day-to-day functions.

BY PUSELETSO MOMPEI

The HR Indaba Conversation Taming the Robots, which was sponsored by LexisNexis, looked at how HR could be a catalyst for helping people on the automation journey. Lexis Nexis’ HR director Gcobisa Ntshona pointed out that Covid-19 highlighted that the environment we work in can shift and change, and that you can’t always mandate productivity, but you can provide people with tools to be their best.

Vinolia Singh, Adcorp’s group executive human capital, is a software engineer by training who has worked at Multichoice and Discovery, and knows all too well the struggles of coming into HR with a technical background. She said people often fear or are suspicious of technology, more so when they don’t understand data and analytics or how to use these tools to make decisions.

She added that HR professionals need to be ready to experiment and learn. “There are so many tools and content to help you become more aware and astute around tech. Don’t become intimidated,” she said.

Tony Smith, Unilever’s HR director supply chain southern Africa, said, “When introducing automation, immediately people think job losses and unions get concerned. In some instances, at first people don’t think the changes apply to them. But we are already living in the future where tech is part of our lives,” he noted. “People need to understand why we are adopting new tools, the role of technology and how the changes can increase our capacity to produce more. It’s not designed to make them redundant,” he added.

Tony said that in non-digital environments such as factories, it was important to tailor communications for the end audience. “We do town halls, set up spaces where people can log into virtual meetings, and set up small training centres where people can access computers.”

Seen in the chat

“The people factor is important. As organisations we are often keen to get the migration but sometimes lag in people management. You can have the best systems, but if people in the organisation aren’t taken on the journey, it becomes a white elephant.” - Neliswa Mncube, head of content marketing at Lexis Nexis.

Working alongside the bots

However, challenging the issues, Jasmin Pillay, Microsoft’s director of HR consulting, Middle East and Africa, Global, said that only those with a learner’s mindset are going to survive the current and future world of work.

She said, “You can’t stay in the same place and work the same way. There is no choice, because the world is changing so rapidly. If we stop learning we cut ourselves off from opportunities. The future is already here, and Covid-19 has accelerated five- to 10-year journeys into one year. Jobs will go away and change, they will morph and change. HR needs to figure out which technology is coming at us, how it is going to help us, and what the skills required around that are.”

Vinolia said it was important to help people think about technology as an augmenter, as bots still need humans to run the agenda. The experts agreed that success occurs when HR tackles real problems and technology offers the enablers, tools, data and analytics to drive effective decision-making. Vinolia said that in order for HR to reach its full potential, it was time to have a mindset shift from compete to share. “As an HR community we have a

tendency to withhold knowledge. Now is the time to be open about best practices and share lessons.” Gcobisa agreed and said that partnerships, whether they are internal or external, are key, saying that we can benefit from alliances where there is an alignment of capabilities and requirements. The conversation revealed that a mindset of exploration is more important. Tony shared that at Unilever, lifelong learning is a company value and they have committed that every employee has to be future fit by 2025. He said, “In doing so, HR needs to understand what the company’s future plans are, where automation is going to be adopted, and aligning people to those changes.” Takeaways in the discussion included the observation that HR functions may go extinct, but HR people don’t need to be left behind. HR leaders should not be afraid to keep trying to find the right fit for their organisation if what they try doesn’t work at first.

Lastly, when done successfully, automating mundane tasks allows HR practitioners to spend time on the things that matter. Jasmine added, “I would rather not talk about leave balances: I would rather talk about people’s plans, growth and development.” 

Jasmin Pillay