Article: NHRDN Chennai 2019: Propel your organization towards the future

Strategic HR

NHRDN Chennai 2019: Propel your organization towards the future

At the 22nd NHRDN conference in Chennai, leaders came together to bring visibility about reimagining organizations. Read to know more.
NHRDN Chennai 2019: Propel your organization towards the future

Disruptive forces are sharply changing how we live and work, creating an imperative for enterprises to rapidly adapt. There are several areas where the pace of change is yet to catch up with the new realities of business. HR leaders and their teams must take the lead with agility and sustain exponential value for the future of human resources.

Organizations are leveraging new styles of leadership and embracing a more agile workplace to keep pace with the radical changes in the ecosystem. In this year's edition of NHRDN conference in Chennai, leaders came together to find in-depth answers to 'reimagine, reinvent and reorganize' organizations. 

Here are the three takeaways from the event to build an agile organization that slides smoothly into the future.  

 Sustainability

Sanjiv Puri, Chairman & Managing Director, ITC, shared, "Business cannot succeed in societies that fail."

The vision is clear and compelling: a world in which business prospers, societies thrive, and the environment flourishes. Leaders from across all sectors have to drop zero-sum-game mentality and work tirelessly together to create ever-increasing value for all.

The organizations need to reimagine business models and aligns its investments and core business activities, products, and services in ways that contribute to countries' environmental and development priorities.

In a nutshell, organizations need to reimagine their profitability. Organizations need to have a passion for profitable growth but in a way that is sustainable for business, society, and the world.

Keeping up with the pace of change

For a long time, the record for an Olympic high jump stuck at 5 feet 7 inches. However, on October 20, 1968, 21-year-old Oregonian Dick Fosbury wins gold—and sets an Olympic record—when he high-jumps 7 feet 4 1/4 inches. It was the first American victory in the event since 1956. It was also the international debut of Fosbury's unique jumping style, known as the "Fosbury Flop."

Fosbury had invented his Flop in high school, when he discovered that, though he was terrible at the scissors-kick, the straddle and the belly-roll, if he stretched out on his back and landed headfirst, he could jump higher than anyone on his high-school track team.

Moral of the story: We have to think differently the way we are impacting our organizations and employees.

As shared by Ester Martinez, CEO & Editor-in-Chief of People Matters, Velocity, Multiplicity, and Interconnectivity are the three driving forces shaping the future of work. Organizations will fail to thrive if we don't keep up with the pace of change.

"Reimagine your organizations by accelerating the pace, breaking silos, and investing in technology to be more human. And most importantly, anticipate!" said Ester.

The evolving role of HR

"The best way to do business today is by start thinking about HR," shared Wayne Brockbank, Clinical Professor of Business at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.

The changing nature of work, job displacement, skilling, and workplace well-being are the emerging areas that HR has to focus on driving the future of work. And all these priorities require HR function to drive a winning culture are created through elevated leadership, deploying teams that are highly engaged, innovative, and high performing.

However, according to People Matters State of HR Technology India 2019, presented in NHRDN reflected that most of the investments on skilling HR team's learnability are primarily sporadic. The finding is a wake-up call for HR teams on the gap between opportunity and reality leveraging technology for business impact and employee experience.

Change is difficult, and there is rarely a straight line to follow from the present to the future. Each HR organization will have a different starting point for the future of HR, and definitions of a prosperous future will vary. Roadblocks will appear that will force you to take unexpected turns, and it may feel as though your progress is slower than desired at certain points along the way. While each evolution to the future of HR will differ, however, sustainability, the pace of change and role of HR forms the center of reimagining the future.

(This article has been curated from the two-day conference of 22nd NHRDN National Confernce in Chennai on th etheme Reimaginging Organziations.)

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Topics: Strategic HR, HR Technology

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