Eye on HR: Embrace the change
UNLEASH Editor Jon Kennard give his take on some of the HR and business news of the last month.
Why You Should Care
The big show is almost upon us - time to get excited about Las Vegas and the International Festival of HR.
What's going to be hot in L&D and HR this year? It's all about analyzing those survey results.
And finally - why we (hopefully) won't be returning to the bad old days of 2008.
HR leaders, don’t miss out: Join us in Las Vegas for free as a VIP guest at UNLEASH America.
After a month out, it’s good to put finger to keyboard again. The last few days and weeks have been a tad hectic as we gear up for UNLEASH America, our stateside extravaganza – the International Festival of HR.
With more speakers being added by the week, it’s looking to be one of our busiest, most packed shows to date. There’s nothing quite like seeing that blanket of lights as you meet the runway at Harry Reid International. This time I hope I’ll have all my belongings with me (it’s a long story – I’ll tell you when I see you at the show).
Change, as they say, is a constant. I’ve never been to an event where change hasn’t been one of the key topics of conversation and I expect UNLEASH America to be no different.
Does that mean we’ll be having the same conversations as last year? Definitely not. But we will ruminate on a great many issues in the knowledge that some of the great problems of our time when it comes to work, life and culture may never be solved, only improved on.
We can always do better and be better, and I take comfort in a collective acceptance of the need for constant self-improvement.
I, for one, can’t wait for the show. One of the best ways to make yourself smarter is to surround yourself with people smarter than you. And at UNLEASH America, it ticks that box for sure.
From the keynotes to the HR leaders, the vendors, the podcasters, it won’t be hard to join a conversation that surprises and educates you all in one.
And for me, that’s what it’s all about. Plus, in our distributed working world, getting some of that all important face time is paramount.
Taking the world’s L&D temperature
On the subject of talking to people smarter than you, I recently recorded a podcast about The Global Sentiment Survey with Don Taylor; facilitator, speaker, author, and consultant and long-time friend in the global learning space.
Two longer interviews are coming soon, but while they sit waiting in the podcast studio for editing, here’s some context and a few nuggets to discuss: the Global Sentiment Survey is an annual index of topics that learning professionals think will be (not should be) hot for the year ahead.
This year, 4,000 people from 100 countries entered – a decent snapshot of global learning sentiment, you’d have to agree.
So, any interesting movements? Let’s start with the obvious: AI (artificial intelligence) moved from 12th place in 2022 to second place in 2023. And we all know why that is. You’ll hear more from Don soon.
Reskilling and upskilling is losing its dominance. It may still be top but it holds a smaller share of the vote – is this the downside of reverting to pre-pandemic behaviors? My hope, like many people’s, was that we would retain the best and jettison the rest, of our new-found workplace values.
And that’s far from the only surprising thing to come from the GSS 2023: the popularity of collaboration is down. This is something that jumped way up during the pandemic years of 2020 to 2022, the exception being South America, a region which seemingly values collaboration regardless of the trends changing around it (a one-way ticket to Sao Paulo please).
There’s too much to get into here, but safe to say it’s always a fascinating read, and important to note that this is a set of predictions rather than a reflection of reality – but this makes it no less interesting. Do take a look.
BRB, SVB
Finally, a word on Silicon Valley Bank. We didn’t cover this as breaking news as bank failures are not our bread and butter, BUT – the fallout of these events can certainly affect players in our space.
When SVB and Signature failed, thoughts immediately turned to 2007-8, and how we might avoid a rerun of Lehman Brothers et al, the fallout of which has defined so much of our discourse and action around work, privilege, equality, and culture.
NB A significant difference between the events of 15 years ago and earlier this month is the part of social media played is the part that social media played. But that’s a conversation for another column.
The Fed was swift (but maybe not swift enough?) to secure customer deposits to prevent the contagion spreading, but markets remain jittery and volatile. No large failure in HR tech…yet. I do hope that remains the case.
Let’s face it though, if you run a tech startup or even a mid to large company in the technology space, you’ll have ambitions for growth. Whether that’s through acquisition or more savvy activity to increase market share, it’ll require investment. And unless you have a cash-rich benefactor, that requires using borrowed money somewhere along the line.
Is now the time to explore alternative funding methods? Because I’m not sure crowdfunding, as the model exists, quite cuts the mustard.
One thing is for sure, this latest episode has proved that 2008 was not a one-off. And perhaps we are learning, slowly, how to react when the house of cards collapses.
Until next time…
The International Festival of HR is back and the agenda is now live! Discover amazing speakers from the world of HR and business at UNLEASH America on 26-27 April 2023.
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Editorial content manager
Jon has 20 years' experience in digital journalism and more than a decade in L&D and HR publishing.
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