RESEARCH UPDATE JIM ARROWSMITH AND PAUL TOULSON
The future is now If the past year has taught us anything, it is that change can happen quickly. For many organisations, a change to a distributed workforce challenges conventional work models and raises employee expectations of autonomy and support. Jim Arrowsmith and Paul Toulson investigate the impact on HR.
T
he value of HR becomes clear under crises, as shown in the response to the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Then, as now, HR had to quickly reimagine work logistics and stay focused on employee welfare. Working from home and prioritising worker wellbeing are expected to become part of the ‘new normal’ post-COVID-19, but it does not have to take a crisis to generate transformational change. Some of the profound challenges for HR have been emerging for some time, though are now accelerating due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussing these issues in our postgraduate strategic and international HRM courses, where many of students are senior HR professionals, spotlights three inter-related sets of challenges: those internal to the organisation, 42
HUMAN RESOURCES
SPRING 2021
those in the external environment and those relating to the HR profession itself.
Looking within
The most immediate challenge is managing the distributed workforce, or the shift to a ‘hybrid’ homeoffice mode. This means attending to employee needs as well as management skills. Not all workers want or are able to work from home, especially those at earlier career stages. Equally, not all managers can avoid the traps of micromanaging or forgetting those who they cannot readily see. Establishing equitable frameworks to manage this is not a simple task. This links to another important issue, the increasingly diverse workforce. Changing demographics and immigration settings mean the workforce is ever more heterogeneous in terms of age, ethnicity, sex and gender, and awareness is growing of issues such as neurodiversity. Again, this places a premium on recruiting, developing and supporting inclusive and peoplecentred managers. Another challenge accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic is technological change. Skills shortages and higher wages make automation more attractive, and
digitisation and artificial intelligence are also affecting work. HR will have to manage the resulting recomposition of labour and skills, and are already dealing with the transformation of their own services by technology.
Changing environment
Many sectors and firms were experiencing acute labour shortages before the borders were closed. Returning Kiwis have mitigated some of the impacts of this, but primary and service sectors are now exposed to the ‘war for talent’ that those looking for scarce highly skilled workers have long faced. This places a premium on the employee experience, which again implies new styles of management and an improved employee proposition around career support and development. A second issue, driven by consumer pressure as well as employee expectations, is the importance of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. This means maintaining a values-based, purpose-driven and demonstrably ethical approach to business, including in the treatment of staff. Third is the changing regulatory environment. These challenges include new occupational safety and
