Four HR executives on Forbes Human Resources Council offered their vision of how the profession will evolve. The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, or the so-called “fourth Industrial Revolution,” will challenge employers to find engineers, mathematicians and data scientists who are in short supply, says Enrica Sighinolfi, founding member and chief people officer at Opportunity Network.
“The entire concept of ‘human resources’ needs to be reinvented,” she said. “However evolved it is from its second Industrial Revolution origins, it remains part of a Taylor-Ford model which is simply not apt for today’s world, let alone tomorrow’s.”
Firms will face retention challenges especially as more employees value tenure less and less, says Kristin Williams, vice president of HR at Ultra Mobile. Retention efforts “should speak to the goals of the current talent pool, one where they do not distinguish between work life and home life; they have one life and it’s connected 24/7.”