The Future of HR and Work
Preparing for the advancements of tomorrow, today
Digital disruption, AI, and the shifting expectations of new generations of employees are changing the thinking and practices of leaders as they redefine work, management, decision-making, and more.
Questions about the Future of HR?
Simply focusing on “replacing” humans with automation and the unemployment it could cause fails to account for how work will evolve. By rethinking and reinventing jobs to optimize work between humans and automation, organizations can attract a larger and more qualified applicant pool, and achieve better retention, and create more meaningful work.
CEO is recognized worldwide for breakthrough research on the bridge between human capital, talent, and sustainable competitive advantage. We consult and conduct executive development with companies worldwide that seek to maximize their employees’ effectiveness by quantifying the strategic bottom-line impact of superior people and human capital strategies.
As the world’s businesses, societies, and cultures become more technologically-driven, leading in global organizations becomes more complex. Automation will play a major role and, though initially a challenge, will also provide a two-way opportunity. On the one hand, organizations will be able to offer increased speed, quality, and service to their customers. On the other, they’ll be able to offer new, more valuable, and more fulfilling roles to their workers. In this disruptive period, HR leaders are in a unique position to leverage their frontline experience as the definitions of employee, work, and business evolve. And they can use this expertise to educate, guide, and help lead their organizations into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Current Research
Beyond Upskilling: Using AI Automation Climate to Drive Organization Effectiveness
A new research opportunity with Dr. John Boudreau, USC CEO Marshall School of Business Sr. Research Scientist, and Dr. Benjamin Schneider, CEO Affiliate and Professor Emeritus.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is driving unprecedented investments in upskilling workers, but CEO affiliate Dr. Benjamin Schneider, and CEO Sr. Research Scientist Dr. John Boudreau realized that a myopic focus on upskilling overlooks many human and organizational factors that are pivotal to work automation success. AI automation climate includes upskilling, but also how the use of AI is promoted by organizational leaders, rewarded and recognized, supported by managers, and embedded in worker experience. Tracking only skills overlooks these key factors. Dr. Schneider is an award-winning researcher who has developed game-changing measures of workplace climate in areas like safety, service and innovation. This initiative will apply those findings to the application of AI in the workplace.
The Work AI Index (WAI), the first measure of how AI automation introduction and use is experienced by a firm’s employees, is now available for use where AI automation is being introduced and/or changed. The WAI measures the climate created for employees by a firm’s policies, practices and procedures and provides an index also of work automation engagement.
Suggested Criteria for participation includes:
- Organizations with multiple locations
- Organizations with large worker populations
- Varied levels and stages of AI automation across different units and different types of work automation
How can you apply to participate? Please send an email to Jennifer Sparks Taylor, Director of Corporate Relations & Executive Education, USC CEO Marshall School of Business. We will contact you to explore how your organization may join us in this important project.
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Featured Article
The Future HR: Five Essential but Overlooked Questions
The future of HR is inextricably entwined with the future of work, leadership, society and organizations. It has long been insufficient to consider the future of HR strictly from the perspective of changes in the HR function, its organization, its operating model and its technology
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Meet Our Researchers
Our award-winning research scientists, affiliates and practitioners help companies drive performance by providing leading-edge research, practical tools, and a wealth of experience.
John W. Boudreau
Professor and Research Director
Dr. John Boudreau is recognized worldwide as one of the leading evidence-based visionaries on the future of work and organization, through breakthrough research on the bridge between work, superior human capital, leadership and sustainable competitive advantage.
Sharna Wiblen
Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong
Dr. Sharna Wiblen is an Assistant Professor within the Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong in Sydney, Australia. Her research integrates talent management, information technology and HR analytics to reveal the complexity of what talent really means.
Certificate in Human Capital and Effective Organizations
The certificate program in Human Capital and Effective Organizations is designed to develop the next generation of human resource leaders: those responsible for establishing deep and specific connections between their business strategies and their human and organization capital.
The HCEO Certificate Program offers an integrated curriculum that develops the following five key competencies necessary to form strategic partnerships and to lead in today’s changing business environment:
- Organization Design
- Future of HR
- Adapting to Disruption
- Strategic Analytics
- Leading Innovation