Blog: Turning ideas into action: What CHROs often overlook

As an HR leader, you need to have a 360-degree view of business, technology, policy, environment, people and culture for every transformation project you invest in today. If you miss any one area, your leadership agenda could falter.

Because the future of work – and indeed the future of the world – depends on the interaction of these factors.

Everything is connected. Consider the recent excitement surrounding artificial intelligence, which tends to overshadow discussions about its environmental costs. Or how the debate over the four-day workweek often overlooks the different impacts on high- and low-income economies.

Knowing how to connect the dots is the first step to business transformation. It’s also why the most effective CHROs today are those with strong business acumen and an understanding of institutional and societal change. They monitor micro and macro trends. They consume news and information carefully, dig deeper and ask tough questions because they know that what makes headlines today could change the way they do business tomorrow.

This is evident in the risks and challenges CHROs have faced over the past five years, from people’s fears of job losses due to AI, to political tensions due to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, to workers’ reluctance to return to the office post-pandemic, and the continued influence of past social movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter on employers’ ESG commitments.

CHROs cannot afford to be isolated from the world

CHROs cannot afford to be insulated from the world. Those who don’t make the effort to stay informed about the zeitgeist often display poor judgment in the face of these radical changes. Worse, when asked to take action, they end up paralyzed by a lack of understanding of how the world works.

Today, the same thing is happening to leaders in the face of unprecedented adoption of AI in the workplace and beyond.

While much of the world remains uncertain about the consequences of relying too heavily (or too little) on AI, HR leaders who refuse to participate in important conversations about the convergence of technology, culture and business risk missing the opportunity to achieve good ROI and shape the future of work.

Latecomers to the technology revolution put themselves at a disadvantage by waiting too long and being overly cautious when experimenting with new tools and new ways of working.

The transformation waits for no one

For one thing, the speed of AI development could soon outpace the required upskilling and retraining rate of talent. Inaction could lead to them no longer being able to cope with the high technology.

Transformation waits for no one. The sooner leaders and their teams learn and experiment with AI, the more enriching their growth and experience will be. And the more comfortable they become with the technology, the better questions they will ask about use cases and the ethics that underpin them.

This is precisely why People Matters creates space for conversations and experiments around the future of work at events such as TechHRThis year in Singapore, we’re presenting insights from industry leaders including Marc Effron, Jason Averbook, DN Prasad, Peck Kem Low and Jaclyn Lee.

HR managers have the opportunity to see the connections and take action. On the contrary, if they fail to seize this crucial moment, it could be costly.