What is the HR team of the future?
HR team of the future: a change in mindsets
HR might have changed dramatically in the last five years, but its reputation still lags behind.
63% of Business leaders still see HR as purely administrative.
We believe the way to change this is to learn from the rest of the business. Use the same language. Apply Customer Experience principles to your Employee Experience.
This will require a fundamental shift in mindset. However, the mindsets that we’ve identified are nothing new. You won’t need to rely on consultancies to implement them. These mindsets exist in your business already.
Grab the opportunity for HR to work with other parts of the business – people who work with customers day in day out. Get inspired, learn best practices and apply them to your employee experience.
What are the mindsets of the HR team of the future?
We’ve identified four mindsets: Marketing, Sales, Customer Sucess and Proposition Development.
We call them mindsets, rather than roles, individuals or teams. We know that for small to medium businesses, there isn’t enough time, money or people for that.
One role might include three or four of these mindsets, or you might have many people for each mindset.
Mindset 1: Marketing
Formerly known as:
- Employer Brand
- Employer Value Proposition
- Internal Communications
Business areas to work with:
Marketing. Work with your marketing team to design campaigns that inspire and influence both internal and external audiences.
Responsible for:
People with this mindset:
- Manage employee data in the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform and gather employee insights.
- Manage the Employer Brand on all relevant channels, likely LinkedIn and Glassdoor.
- Take the products and services (designed using the Proposition Development mindset) to market, both internally and externally.
- Manage the online communities of existing employees, potential employees and alumni.
Mindset 2: Sales
Formerly known as:
- Recruitment
- Induction
- Onboarding
Business areas to work with:
Sales. Your sales team has already developed the most efficient way to identify, qualify and onboard new leads. They can help you refine your process with networking, community building and advice.
Responsible for:
People with this mindset:
- Manage employee data in the CRM, and gather employee insights.
- Manage the interview and contracting process, including for transparency and accessibility.
- Manage online communities of existing employees, potential hires and alumni.
- Begin the onboarding process, seamlessly transitioning over to the Customer Success mindset.
Mindset 3: Customer Success
Formerly known as:
- Human Resources Business Partner
- Trainer or coach
- Succession planning
- Employment law
Business areas to work with:
Customer Success, or anyone who focuses on customers. People who work with customers have a good insight into what they need and how to support them.
Responsible for:
People with this mindset:
- Manage employee data in the CRM, and gather employee insights
- Create problem statements based on data in the CRM and qualitative employee insights.
- Have consistent and frequent performance and coaching conversations with every employee. Communicate insights to relevant people.
- Carry out exit interviews. However, if the performance and coaching conversations are effective, there should be no new information to obtain during an exit interview.
- Support employees, leaders and the business with functional HR, including complaints, leaves of absence, consultation periods and signposting the right resources and support where applicable.
Mindset 4: Proposition development
Formerly known as:
- Learning and Development
- Talent and Leadership Development
- Reward
- Data and analytics
- Technology
- Compliance and Health & Safety
Business areas to work with:
Product Design and/or Service Design. If you don’t have this function in your business, consider who is using human-centred design. This team can help you understand how to use human-centred design to design for the user’s needs, rather than for HR’s expertise.
Responsible for:
People with this mindset:
- Analyse and report on the data in CRM.
- Use human-centred design to design, deliver and iterate the Employee Experience journey.
- Use human-centred design to create products and services for employees. This includes sourcing relevant products and services from third parties.
- Implement, maintain and constantly evaluate the HR technology stack.
- Design an in-person and virtual environment for always learning, collaboration and high-performing teams.
The HR team of the future
HR needs to be relevant, impactful AND able to communicate this to the rest of the business.
HR needs to change. We’re not talking about a name change (HR to People, anyone?), because the name doesn’t matter. The structure of your teams and your technology do.
If you want:
- A continuous learning culture
- Adoption and engagement with evolving technologies
- High standards of wellness and wellbeing
- True diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Data-informed decision making
- A department that your business listens to and respects
Then you need to design The HR Team of the Future, today!
Let’s join forces for good.
HR needs an overhaul to be relevant and impactful. But change doesn’t happen overnight.
If you want to redesign your HR team, work with us to create sustainable long-lasting impact. We will coach you and your team to apply these mindsets and help you develop yourselves into the HR team of the future.
