Economic uncertainty, global power shifts, automation, climate change – the world of business is facing some pretty major challenges. So, what kind of business and HR models can best add value to organisations? 

The future is never going to be in a steady state, therefore, organisations and its stakeholders need to initiate continuous improvement. There should be a program within a corporation that allows to make things fleet of foot and more flexible. Human resources team has to be really bendable, allow flexibility but also continuity, as well as achieve equity. HR models have to be able to respond to external changes and the HR team needs to be at the front of transformational change. 

However, simply reacting to change might not be enough, HR needs to lead this change by anticipating business needs and presenting creative solutions to enable business advantage.

Center for Effective Organizations studied future HR function and found that there are four scenarios available. These scenarios enable leaders to understand better how HR teams function and fulfill their responsibilities. 

• Reaching out – By infusing talent from other disciplines such as marketing and finance, and bringing those disciplines to bear in solving HR challenges. 
• Venturing out – By exerting influence beyond the traditional role of HR functional specialist through direct external interactions with constituents such as government, regulators, investors and global collective movements. 
• Seeking out – By finding and surfacing unpopular or unstated facts, assumptions, and truths that can be debilitating to organisations if not addressed. 
• Breaking out— By leading transformational change, because HR is uniquely positioned to be the repository of principles and skills for creating agile organisations. 

Further results of Center for Effective Organizations study found that 69 percent of HRDs chose the ‘breaking out’ model, with just 16 percent opting for ‘seeking out’, 12 percent ‘reaching out’ and 3 percent ‘venturing out’. It is also mentioned that over the past five years, HR and operating people are unevenly distributed. They don’t have an equal role in seeing the future of the profession. Hence, HR must rethink the capabilities and operating models required to be relevant in the future. 

See also: 6 HR Posture to Successfully Adapt to the Future 

The evolution of HR models  

With business and economic continuous change, HR operating models have to change to follow the trend. Here are some of the changes: 

• HR will be less about ‘human resources’ and more about people and humanity.
• CEO succession planning in future will include the HRD.
• Functional specialists increasingly work as one team and streamlining senior reporting.
• Harnessing the factors that lead the financial indicators.
• The ability to flex and adapt for future business strategy is important.
• Multi-skilled and multi-disciplinary teams, and blurred organisational boundaries between functions.
• HR as an operational arm to organisational development and wellbeing groups, who handle all strategic HR within the people plan and do all people management reporting.
• HR becomes an enabler and less hung up about owning a process. All focus moves to the end goal with a shared drive to achieve it across all functions.
• HR will have two roles: change management, but also providing consistency and transactional support to employees.
• The future organisations need more business-orientated, skilful professionals in HR, who are capable of making the connections with many different pieces of information, and integrating this into company strategy.

Read also: Future of Work: 4 Changes to Expect in the HR Community