It’s been a year since the economic shutdowns triggered by COVID-19 and we’re still a ways away from returning to anything resembling a new normal. What does the road back to “normal” look like, and how does that differ from before COVID-19? How has the pandemic altered operating models? Are there skills we need to be building in our leaders, team members, and within HR to support a new HR operating model?

In this session we will address the current and future state of the HR business partner role, the enablers and barriers of success, and how it relates to organization development (OD). If HR is to focus on ‘value add’ business contributions: What are the real business priorities? What needs to change to ensure that HR ‘adds business value’? Why are we still having these conversations some 30 years on after the HRBP role was developed?

You may have heard that women leaders were better at managing the COVID-19 crisis, whether as business executives or politicians. Does the idea that women leaders are better crisis managers hold up to close scrutiny and statistical analysis? If so, what did women leaders do differently during COVID-19 and why did it matter? How do gender stereotypes shape our expectations about women leaders, especially during crisis? What are the organizational consequences of this kind of gendered thinking? Is the pandemic another glass cliff that threatens the success and tenure of women leaders?

The shift to virtual learning events almost overnight has been a good stimulus for learning and development (L&D). Yet L&D is still miles behind when it comes to measurement, analysis of what works and, more importantly, working with OD to understand what future trends need to be anticipated. If we can’t find the ideal measurements to draw a direct link between learning and bottom line impacts, what are our other options? How can we best approach integrating L&D with work design and team dynamics so that we can meet the needs of the business and our people at the same time?

Before the COVID-19 pandemic started, wellbeing was a rising concern for employees and organizations alike. Since the pandemic the concern has shifted into overdrive. Where were we with the wellbeing topic pre-pandemic, where are we now, and where are we likely to be heading? What are the implications for wellbeing as people face the challenges and benefits of partial work-from-home and partial work-in-the-office? What can we do to ensure that self-reported wellbeing data is seriously acted upon?

Since the rise of “business analytics" there has been a lot of talk about "data-based culture". But this creates a schism between "data people" and "the rest" leading to unrealistic demands for data and expectations of data analysis. Perhaps the time has come to instead emphasise an evidence-based culture where organizational decision-making is informed by insights from social science research combined with pragmatic management experience. This session will explore how to begin to build an evidence-based culture, and transform away from a non-evidence-based culture.

The history of knowledge management systems is littered with attempts to capture information in online repositories which are infrequently used. And collaboration across space and org silos has always been a challenge. Recent adoption at work of social media-type platforms to solve both collaboration and knowledge management challenges has created a new way information can be exchanged and housed. Can these new internal platforms be better at promoting collaboration and knowledge management? Are there potential downsides in terms of team and interpersonal dynamics?

This session the group will discuss three key areas companies need to address in return-to-work and hybrid work plans to maintain and increase productivity: (a) developing the “weak ties” that facilitate collaboration, (b) online team formation, and (c) supporting new employees.