A time for HR to look inwards

It’s a storied narrative: how HR has come to grow in popularity and influence over the last few years. With more scrutiny than ever before, it’s on the HR function to deliver.

And, while that means benefits, people analytics and payroll developments have naturally come to the fore, it’s crucial that HR professionals don’t overlook the people making all this organizational change happen – themselves.

This, one of the opening sessions at UNLEASH America ’23 on our brand new Influencers stage is all about looking inward, taking the best of what HR has learned about itself, then looking to the future. But, in a bid to recognize the characteristics of the future CHRO it’s also critical to learn from other disciplines, a modality often overlooked in our newly remote and atomized work environment.

Liberty Latin America’s Dominic Boon, the E.W. Scripps Company’s Kevin MacDonald, CareMax’s Regla Wuilchrist made up our panel, with tight moderation by Nucleus Research’s Trevor White. So what were the golden nuggets? Let’s dive into the quotes.

Dominic Boon, on the traits of future HR leaders: “Look for people analytics skills. The ability to take a dashboard and tell a story is absolutely key”, and on AI: “it’s interesting to see who’s afraid of ChatGPT and who’s already using it – look for the growth mindset.”

Kevin McDonald on future leaders: “Look for the intangibles – in particular, change management ability.”

Regla Wuilchrist’s HR mantra: “Be hard on the issue, but soft on the people.”

And we’re off. Energy and expectation set the tone as the crowd filtered out of the Influencer Stage and into the next session. The chosen 30-minute session format of our UNLEASH shows holds the attention but demands adherence to a tight schedule. Our guest speakers more than managed it.

We leave it to moderator Trevor White to remind us of tech’s utility value: “The ROI of an unused solution is zero. So, always get involvement from the folks who are going to use it on the ground”.

It finally feels like we’re no longer living in the aftermath of a global health crisis anymore – even if the one we did live through irreversibly changed the people function’s direction and priorities forever. This panel gave the audience a glimpse of what HR could and should look like over the next 12 months and beyond.

With so much to cover as we progress throughout the show, it’s been gratifying to get the ball rolling in earnest after a busy pre-show day of summits and discussion.

Get all the latest UNLEASH America content here.