From the course: HR and Digital Transformation

Defining the workplace of the future

From the course: HR and Digital Transformation

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Defining the workplace of the future

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- Now let's turn our attention to how the workplace is changing. And this is very important for HR because, in the context of how work is changing, HR needs to understand that so that it can do its best job to support the learning, the development, the needs that employees have inside of this new workplace. So if work is changing, HR is going to have to change, too. And there are three factors that are changing the workplace. First of all, technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, are challenging the way that work is actually done. The fact that we even need people to do work. So if we don't have people, or people's lives are being changed because their jobs are being taken away by technology, HR needs to understand how that is impacting the workplace. The second area is around this concept of being always on. What are the expectations of when people are able to work, where they work, when they work, how they work. Mobile technologies, laptops, these are all enabling people to work and have great flexibility in their lives, but it also is a challenge for HR to understand well what are the expectations? What kind of culture do we build around this? When my boss is emailing me at 2 o'clock in the mornings, is he expecting that I get back to him at 2:15? So how do we set the parameters? And HR, again, needs to understand how always on is changing expectations. And the third area is around the fact that there are no borders anymore. Now we know that, in many ways, geographic borders, boundaries, are falling away because we can work with anybody, anywhere where in the world now because of technology. But it also means that the borders inside an organization are changing. It's no longer the fact that I only work with people in my department. I may work with somebody in IT, Customer Service, and Product Development the next day and HR needs to be aware of this and understand where these relationships need to be formed. How do people develop trust and understanding with people they've never worked with before? And that's where a culture born in digital channels, because these are people not necessarily working with each other, that is so important for HR to be able to understand and develop. So I think these three factors, the technology change that's happening, the fact that we are always on, and the fact that there are no more borders of any kind, no restrictions, but the ways that we work and the people that work with. These three factors are changing the workplace in a fundamental way.

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