Eye on HR: TXPs, Jurassic Park vs AI, and COP27

The watchword this week is ‘experience’, oh, and of course Jurassic Park and COP27. Just another normal one. Read on and get in touch to continue the conversation.

HR tech musings

I recently talked to Vincent Belliveau, CornerstoneOnDemand (CSOD)’s chief international officer, for UNLEASHcast.

Always super switched on and full of energy and ideas, Vincent outlined a bit about CSOD’s new talent experience platform, and while it was great to hear about the company’s plans for the platform and the changes to their clients’ talent experiences it would enable, I found myself asking more general existential questions as the conversation went on.

Just as we saw the LMS (learning management system) give way to the LXP (learning experience platform), so too are we starting to see talent management be superseded by talent experience. All these terms are still popular and in modern use, but the move towards using the word ‘experience’ in the prevailing HR tech of the day underpins a general truth: People want (and deserve) better experiences.

We are moving, fast, away from a transactional relationship between the business and its employees. This is what we should expect, right? We are evolving.

Progress is being made in providing employees with the experience they want at work. Ok – that’s the utopian version. ‘Dystopian’ may be a little too harsh way of describing the ‘less generous’ version, but, this is all off the back of a fundamental unhappiness that employees have with their existing tech.

Back with the positive hat on, it shows that organizations are listening and seeking out solutions that more closely align with employee needs. More please.

Ubiquitous AI

I’ve got a theory about why AI (artificial intelligence) has come to the fore in recent years, despite having been around for decades. (And I don’t think it’s just to do with Moore’s law).

It all ties back to that viral Boston Dynamics video of Spot and its… partner/friend/co-robot? back in 2017. You know the one, where the mecha-dog opens the door and the two robots walk on through, clacking away like Satan’s little helper in tap shoes.

Subconsciously, I believe that people compare that door opening to the velociraptors doing the same in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic, Jurassic Park. Couple this with an onslaught of ‘AI-goes-wrong’ blockbusters and critical darlings (I, Robot, Ex Machina, the Terminator franchise etc) and it’s easy to see why *irony alert* AI pervades our consciousness to such a degree.

My medieval school friends may tell you different but I’m not *that* much of a technocrat, nevertheless I do think that the greatest trick that AI ever pulled was doing so much work for so little credit.

AI is integrated in everything these days. So, use it; hold its creators to account for its inherent hardcoded biases, but make the most of this incredible time-saving technology. The ‘taking our jobs’ debate will roll on, but what I hope is that AI will create rich, fulfilling work for many more people and even, (whisper it quietly) reduce the cost of living eventually.

Eye on COP27

The burning elephant in a room on fire. In keeping with the general pace of response to climate change being somehow even slower than climate change itself, we ask the same question that we did after COP26. How can HR take the lead?

We’ve already established that HR teams were the organizational heroes of the pandemic (Steve Pemberton said so here), so surely HR can lead on this issue too. In my opinion, first we have to crack the culture nut.

Hear me out: One way organizations can lead on climate change strategy is by prioritizing remote work, and remote work can only be successful in the long term if you have a culture that accommodates it, leverages it, and sees the value in its employees even when they are scattered across the world.

I need to add that we are talking about knowledge workers only here; we have the privilege – and let’s not forget what a privilege it is –  of being able to work remotely. Industries that have a heavier, more direct impact on climate are making their own changes such as vertical farms, renewable energy, and electric planes.

It leaves me to ask, though – will we be asking ourselves the same questions next year, or will HR have taken the reins?

The International Festival of HR is back! Discover amazing speakers from the world of HR and business at UNLEASH America on 26-27 April 2023.