I’m an avid follower of Josh Bersin, who runs Bersin by Deloitte. They do research in Enterprise Learning, Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, and strategic HR Solutions.Every year Josh publishes predictions for upcoming year; a view forward, perspectives and important trends to consider in the enterprise learning, talent management and HR space. This report is completely free, and I look forward to it every year.
After reading through predictions for 2014 I've come to the conclusion that in the future, engineers will make the best Chief Human Resources officers. Not the social inept, introverted engineers that make great computer programmers but those with natural people skills, strong analytic skills and vision. The engineers that can ‘feel’ complex systems and love hacking away at complex problems will make the best chief human resources officers to drive a business forward.
Josh talks about 5 key roles of the chief human resources officer. First and foremost they need to run HR well. All the hiring, onboarding, training, payroll, labor relations, and benefits must just work. Many of the best run organizations in the world are managed by engineers, because engineers pay attention to the details required to make the nitty-gritty of administrative operations work smoothly.
Next, the Chief Human resources officer is responsible for the corporate talent system. They need to build the performance, learning, succession, onboarding, career management, and compensation systems that drive productivity, engagement, and performance. This is a systems engineering job. I’d want somebody with years of math, systems design, and logic education under the belt, along with the vision to see and feel large complex systems in one breath.
The Chief Human resources officer is the keeper of the culture. It is, and always will be, the senior executives and CEO that create and drive the culture. But the CHRO should monitor its health and provide feedback. Engineers implicitly understand feedback, setting up feedback systems, and monitoring the state of complex systems.
The Chief Human resources officer must transform and upskill the HR team. The team must not only serve as strategic consultants, they need to understand analytics, implement complex new software tools, and understand the role of changing technology. Are you thinking engineering yet?
Finally, the Chief human resource officer must have a vision and plan for the future.This year, Josh predicts that innovation comes to HR. He calls this the new bold chief human resources officers. It’s the innovation that engineers brought to almost every industry on the planet that needs to be brought to bear in HR. An engineer’s implicit grasp of innovation, their desire to tinker, to create new ways of getting things done, to change the world, and to work through complex problems by taking measured risks that makes them ready for the future role of HR.
Now I'm not really saying engineers should run the human resources department! Most of the guys that went through the McGill engineering degree with me would make an absolute mess of things. But a chief human resource officer with a strong engineering flair, along with everything else one needs to be a chief human resource officer, will almost certainly make for better business results in the future given the changes happening in HR today.
There is a trend to bring non-HR business leaders into these roles. Liberty Mutual, Time Warner Cable, Yahoo and many others companies are promoting business leaders in the Chief Human Resource Officer role, attempting to drive bold and innovative thinking into the people part of the business. This trend will accelerate given that it's HR that makes the biggest single difference in most large organizations.
So keep an eye out for those engineers with strong people skills, or those HR types with a flair for partial differential equations... you might just be looking at your future CHRO.
An article on a similar trend was recently published in HBR on how Google sold it’s engineers on management. It's very much worth the read to understand one aspect of the very sophisticated job of human resources in this new day and age.
And please don’t ever put someone from finance to run your HR… that is the kiss of death. That’s like putting an accountant to run your company. Can you image what would happen if someone from finance started making decision in HR, or an accountant was put in charge of Apple of Google? Look at what happened to Nortel when the accountants took over.
Much of this blog is paraphrased from Josh’s predictions for 2014. If you want the full report please click here to get Bersin by Deloittes free prediction for 2014 report. And for those that follow us at CoachingOurselves, you'll notice an ongoing theme that developmental coaching is one of several key growing trends in 2014.
All the best in 2014!
Phil LeNir
President of CoachingOurselves
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