SECTION 6
The HR department
of the future

The HR department of the future

AI: The key to organisational success
as strategic partner

Talent acquisition and HR have significantly evolved over the past 30 years. No longer is it as simple as filling in an application form, sending it off, and someone in a centralised recruitment function deals with the vacancy.

HR departments are already becoming more agile, data-driven and focused on compliance and risk management. The rapid adoption of automation and technology means that teams must evolve as quickly as the environment around them and be prepared to fully embrace this new approach and the opportunities it brings. The skills needed within people and talent teams are changing. Recruiters are already dealing with a lot of technology and this will only increase. Although many data vendors package analysed data and offer a simple user interface, using this data daily will mean upskilling within HR teams, from increasing procurement skills in buying the right tech stack to honing data skills to draw insights and spot potential bias more confidently.

For highly complex or professional recruitment, companies need TA or people specialists with the skills to not only understand data, but also to think more strategically, engage and interact throughout the business. When combined with TI, data can provide a gateway for impactful conversations with senior management and the Board. Being armed with accurate data means the HR Director or TA Director can ask the right questions about business challenges, provide relevant competitive insight and contribute to strategic decisions.

Today’s recruiters need to understand data and use that data to look at the pinch points in a business and effect change from it. They need to be resilient and quite intellectual.

Diane Ward
Interim Head
of Talent Acquisition

Are you happy with the performance of your recruitment function?

Indeed, the remits of HR & TA professionals are converging and now cover the whole of the employee lifecycle, so it’s important to start looking at how you develop and train people, rather than just hiring for a role. Effective use of TI and data can better support people functions on workforce planning.

I think that TA and HR professionals will need to have a product mindset. And when I say product mindset, I mean being really user-centric, passionate about the user and understanding who they are and what they need and what they want to achieve, which is really, really important.

Charlie Voller Barnes
Head of Solutions
Amdaris

TA professionals need to understand the value of data and how it can influence strategic decision-making to get their seat at the Boardroom table. Using TI can empower them and raise their profile within an organisation. Used well, AI and talent intelligence provides an opportunity for HR teams to elevate themselves from service providers to commercially savvy, consultative business partners in truly agile and effective organisations.

In conclusion

AI and disruptive tech are already shaping the world of work and the rate of tech adoption will accelerate dramatically. The integration of AI in recruitment represents a transformative shift in the way organisations identify and engage with talent.

AI and tech can enable HR teams and recruiters to focus on areas where skilled people are needed: having difficult conversations, helping people to develop their careers and acting as a business partner. Having the right data at their fingertips will enable them to assess and challenge hiring decisions, look more deeply within existing structures and take a more active role in business planning. AI and tech have the potential to elevate the role of HR within the business and make recruiting exciting. The right tools used responsibly at the right points of the process will fundamentally alter as we shift from experience-based recruitment to skills-based recruitment.

As TAs shape a business with tech, every company has a duty to bring people along on their AI journey: don’t ever forget about their awareness and understanding of AI to ensure they feel supported and to enhance their wellbeing.

We don't need to all be data scientists. We don't need to be economists. But we need to be comfortable with AI.

Toby Culshaw
Head of Talent
Intelligence, Amazon