Take a leap into the workplace of the future where HR is primed to navigate the turbulence

The largest ever gathering of HR leaders in Ireland takes place on Thursday, March 7th next in the Convention Centre, Dublin. This year’s Talent Summit will see over 25 global thought leaders discuss, debate and share insights into issues ranging from AI in HR to talent attraction, retention, leadership, skills development, culture, and the future of HR.

“The world of work is in flux at present,” says Robert Mac Giolla Phádraig, founder of Talent Summit, “The theme of the summit is talent, technology and turbulence. Just as we thought we had come out of Covid we’ve had to face into a period of extraordinary turbulence caused by a number of factors including AI, geopolitics, and the economy.”

The summit will explore the latest trends internationally and how they are impacting Ireland. “It’s very much a case of east meets west,” says Mac Giolla Phádraig. “That’s a reflection of the Irish economy and where we are situated geographically. We will look at what’s happening both in Europe and the US and how that’s affecting us here in Ireland. It will be one of the largest HR forums in Europe this year and we will have contributors from organisations such as OpenAI, Harvard Business Publishing, Aer Lingus, G-P, Aon, NASA and many more.”

A number of converging forces are creating turbulence in the world of work, he continues. “At a macro level, during Covid employers looked after the needs of their people in a very deep way. They supported their wellbeing and work-life balance, as remote working became the norm. Many people would say they became nanny employers. But in retrospect, did we all overstep the mark? Then we went through the great resignation when employers struggled to hold on to their people. They rushed to look after their employees’ wants and desires as well as their needs.”

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Things have settled back somewhat since then. “The psychological contract of work has changed. The tech layoffs last year changed that. A lot of people think of their colleagues as family in that industry. The whole trend of looking after people’s wants and desires came to a halt. There was a course correction and that led to a state of flux in the world of work. A rebalancing was required. Now as employers look to move on from layoffs to reengage their existing workforce, hire, and possibly redeploy people due to AI they need to balance the emotional commitment of people with efficiency.”

AI is one of the key topics to be discussed at the summit. “As generative AI impacts all aspects of organisations, no other function is better placed than HR to lead understanding and collaborating on the risks and opportunities it poses,” says Mac Giolla Phádraig.

Diane Yoon, vice president of people at OpenAI will discuss the world of HR within her organisation in a fireside chat, looking at how the company is using generative AI to shape HR and work. “She will examine how innovation interacts with collaboration, how ethics interacts with efficiency, the power of the individual in a united workforce, and what’s next for OpenAI,” Mac Giolla Phádraig adds.

Angel Cheng-Cimini, senior vice president of talent and chief human resources officer at Harvard Business Publishing will deliver a keynote on the hyper-individualisation of work. “What if the answer to an engaging, meaningful, and high-performing work environment isn’t one type of experience, but many different experiences?” he asks.

The hyper-personalised employee experience is about tailoring rewards, benefits, work arrangements, and processes to an individual’s preferences and needs, treating each employee as unique. Cheng-Cimini will explain how technological advances can help organisations to become more intentional about hyper-personalisation, focusing on a person’s sense of value, growth, and belonging at work.

That change in the nature of the employee experience highlights the need for HR practitioners to develop new capabilities. “If you look at agency for change in the workplace, you can tell someone to change or sell the benefits of change to them,” says Mac Giolla Phádraig. “HR leaders need to be more effective at influencing. They need to be able to make change real for individuals. That means becoming better at storytelling. That’s a skill that can be learned. You can tell stories to effect change, to build trust, and to lead. That can help with the challenges presented by the individualisation of work. How do you organise for individuals when you have always operated as a collective? That’s why storytelling is important.”

That touches on the address to be delivered by Rory Sutherland, author, TED speaker and vice chairman of Ogilvy UK. Taking lessons from the world of marketing and advertising, he will show how understanding human behaviour can help enhance our strategies for recruiting and retaining talent in today’s working world.

A somewhat controversial trend to be addressed at the summit is what Mac Giolla Phádraig describes as the diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) pushback. “We are definitely seeing some pushback on (DEI),” he says. This is a pivotal moment in time where we need to hold the ground we’ve made on DEI in light of the pushback. We need to be careful, to ensure we don’t choose the wrong battle at the cost of losing the war. There’s a school of thought that believes, if you stand for everything in DEI, do you in effect stand for nothing? To add to this there is a debate happening in the US at the moment between free speech and DEI and how leaders reflect the values of the people in their organisation. So many leaders are getting tripped up by trying to reflect everyone’s values. In a polarised world, what plays out in society plays out in the workplace.”

And that’s where the challenge lies. “For the past 10 years we have been asking people to bring all of themselves to work,” he explains. “However, recent events underscore the question: should individuals bring their entire selves to work in today’s polarised climate?. Striving for a cohesive workforce amidst societal divisions necessitates a recalibration of our approach. Employers need to look for the common good. Do we need to reconsider the relationship between diversity and inclusion and new ways of protecting minority groups through the activation of the majority that ultimately creates psychological safety in the workplace?. The summit will hear from DEI experts on how employers can progress their DEI initiatives to unite their organisations.”

Click here to register for Talent Summit 2024 - Talent, Technology and Turbulence