HRD Summit/Europe 2017: Transformation of HR and Humanising diversity

The first day of HRD Summit/Europe 2017 hosted thought leaders from across the globe, including  Hays Steilberg, Executive Vice President Corporate HR, Executives and Talent – Bertelsmann, Andre de Wit, VP Capability Building and Learning, Carlsberg Breweries A/S and Noor van Boven, VP, Global Head of People – Soundcloud.

Key parts of the discussion included the transformation of HR, humanizing diversity and inclusion and focused talent management.

Transformation of HR

Gary Kildare, Chief HR Officer at IBM took to the stage as an opening keynote and impressed on us the need to move from systems of record to systems of insight. The HR function can focus on standards not insight; developing people and recruiting new staff needs to be insight driven, not checkbox driven.

What does this mean for the future? We need to work smartly with the data you have, and the data you can gather to create more intelligent solutions to people challenges and Promote the experience, not just the salary or position

‘Evolve or die’

Chairman of ASOS, Brian McBride talked about the importance of companies changing their marketing and hiring strategies. Statistics show 50% of global traffic is now on smartphones and  ‘Millennials only know smartphones.’ In line with his theme ‘Evolve or die’ – HR teams should focus on hiring, recruitment and reviews which require not just a mobile presence, but a mobile led strategy.

HR needs to evolve in order to work more closely with emerging technologies, ensure skills are up to date and the HR function is leading alongside IT and marketing – not following.

Humanising diversity and inclusion

Ebay’s VP Chief Diversity Officer, Damien Hooper-Campbell instilled a sense of unity during his presentation about humanising diversity and inclusion.

Delegates highlighted that diversity needs to be spoken about honestly, without political correctness. This can allow people to vocalise their definition of ‘diversity‘ which leads to the right conversations, the right education and the right outcomes.

Transforming leadership to driving organisational change

Yuval Dvir, Head of Online Partnerships at Google Cloud shed light on the importance of not only change in technology, yet also the role of people and culture which leaders need to focus on. He focused on the importance of learning to live in a more abstract work environment. Technology makes it easy because takes efforts away. There is an overload of data available as there are opportunities to learn. But can we handle it? Machines can handle data and learning way better.

HR leaders must use agile and lean approaches as transition is a given as is transformation. Culture has never been more important and a review of the Leadership approach is necessary.