Monthly Archives: August 2017

From time to time we respond to questions about the future sent in via email by readers. We dont have a lot of time for this, but when a question seems especially interesting we offer our thoughts.

I am Manager in the Human Resources Function in a large Indian Pharmaceutical company. My question is what is the future of the Human Resource Function? Regards,

Gaurav Gupta Manager-HRD Ranbaxy Laboratories

Response by Richard Wilkinson, 2001

Glen Hiemstra asked me to respond to your inquiry. I think you have asked a simple but powerful and important question. My view is the future of HR appears contradictory.

On the one hand, the view of HR as a marginal contributor to organizational success seems to persist. Periodically the HR function is excoriated in the business press for its alleged irrelevancy to customer satisfaction, business profits, and increasing shareholder or stakeholder value. In this view HR is, at best, a collection of well-meaning but out-of-touch corporate bureaucrats who present barriers for employees and managers to hurdle as these real workers strive to deliver quality and value for the customer. Looked at this way, HR will become even more marginal as the strategic decisions and focus of organizational leaders are directed elsewhere.

Heres the contradictory part: Never before has it been so clear that effective human resource management practices lie at the heart of organizational success. Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University makes a compelling case for high performance people strategies in his 1998 book The Human Equation (Boston: Harvard University Press). Here are four pertinent citations from this book:

A number of studies spanning different organizations operating in various service industries provide evidence for a positive relationship between employee attitudes and customer service and satisfaction and, moreover, a relationship between employee attitudes, customer attitudes, and profits. p. 55

[C]ustomer satisfaction and perceptions of service quality were significantly related to measures of employee attitudes about fairness of pay, whether management was concerned about employee welfare and treated people fairly, and whether supervisors encouraged an open and participative work environment. Ibid

Better service and higher employee satisfaction do, however, frequently produce higher profits. [N]umerous firms, such as Singapore Airlines, have succeeded financially by emphasizing employee well-being and customer service. p. 56

The existing research clearly shows that: prior empirical work has consistently found that use of effective human resource management practices enhances firm performance. p. 60

My view is that it is HRs job, though not HRs job alone, to champion and shepherd effective human resource management practices at both the strategic and day-to-day levels. That is, to be effective, human resource management practices must be grounded in two ways. First, they must reflect company wide commitments as to how it will manage and relate to its employees. Second, HR must follow-through on such commitments in the moment so that the words of the enterprise and deeds of its agents are congruent.

Although I see a different emphasis for HR in the future, I see HRs fundamental purpose-to build a positive, productive workplace-remaining unchanged. With this in mind, I see a successful future of HR revolving around three complementary and overlapping roles. I believe in fulfilling these roles HR will prove itself an important and legitimate contributor to organizational achievement. The heart underpinning these roles is less control, more learning. Here are the roles:

Facilitating the employee/employer connection, principally through empowering technologies (both digital and procedural) that emphasize employee self-service and managerial independence.

The corollary to this role is consistent striving to minimize dependent relationships between employees/managers and HR through transferring knowledge and expertise from HR to HRs clients. This is accomplished in part by using computer technologies enabling employees and managers to handle transactions online that they formerly needed HR to administer. Through employee and manager self-service features, such technologies also put greater access and control over information in the hands of employees and managers, thus increasing personal mastery and independence.

HRs task here may best be conceived as a help desk function: Set-up the systems, teach others to use them, and then get out of the way, answering questions from the field only as these arise.

Designing and helping implement high performance people strategies in partnership with line staff. The scope of such efforts could be quite narrow-at the team level-or system wide. As in #1, the focus is on developing employee and manager self-reliance through the skillful sharing of expertise by HR. The focus, though, is on applying that expertise in ways that are explicitly tied to priorities of line staffs.

What are high performance people strategies? Dr. Pfeffer identifies, seven dimensions that seem to characterize most if not all of the systems producing profits through people.

Serving as a catalyst for learning and communication. As educator HR has three jobs: (A) Introduce fresh thinking and new ideas to promote creativity, innovation and successful adaptation within the enterprise; (B) Persist in developing mastery of adopted organizational practices and process improvement methodologies by employees and managers; and, (C) Communicate extensively whats happening within the organization and why, especially as these relate to the seven high performance people strategies identified above.

What will such a function be called? I doubt it will be called human resources. While the new name eludes me, I believe it will be along the lines of Center for Organizational Effectiveness; not a department that is separate and apart from other departments, but a Center people are drawn to for nourishment, insight and understanding.

I hope this assessment of the future of HR has some appeal to you. Since I am a strong believer in designing the futures we prefer, the Facilitator/Designer/Educator role may be more reflective of the kind of HR function I want to create, as opposed to where the field is heading generally. Nonetheless, I hope you find the ideas useful as you consider the future human resources function that will best serve your organization.

Best of luck!

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What is the Future of the Human Resource Function ...

Royalton David Hall, the Utah engineer who envisions a planned settlement of thousands in four White River Valley towns, is renaming his operation here as he works to overcome local opposition to his plans.

Even as Hall shifts his attention from acquiring land to cultivating businesses based on technological innovations needed to realize his dream, Vermont planners and activists are moving to alter town plans as a way of promoting their own vision, rather than Halls, for the regions future.

The roughly 1,500 acres on which Hall eventually hopes to build his community now belong to a new legal entity, Windsorange LLC, that he says is part of an effort to rebrand his enterprise and allay fears that his plan, known as NewVistas, is coming anytime soon.

The name is a combination of the two Vermont counties, Windsor and Orange, that Hall says he hopes to improve.

What people never caught on to is (that) NewVistas is way in the future, and the first thing that needs to be done is jobs and commerce, Hall said in an interview last week. I decided to change the name so that people didnt think we were trying to do NewVistas right away.

The land that Hall has acquired in Royalton, Sharon, Strafford and Tunbridge is less than a third of the 5,000 acres that he envisions will hold a self-sustaining, carbon-neutral city based on designs from Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, who was born in Sharon.

Although the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns the Joseph Smith Memorial near Halls holdings, the Mormon church has denied any connection to the wealthy Provo, Utah, futurist.

The 70-year-old Hall, who always has maintained that a NewVistas community in Vermont is decades away, now says he is focusing on offshoots of the research needed to make his self-sustaining communities possible.

I have lots of expanding businesses under my umbrella, he said, and so what my hope is, is to get some good cooperation with other key people in the area potential partnerships that could bring to the White River Valley some good jobs, he said.

Hall declined to name his contacts or put the Valley News in touch with them, saying that would be premature.

Around the time his plans first became public, in 2016, he mentioned he might like to find a foothold in the Upper Valley by establishing a research partnership with Vermont Law School.

I tried, he said last week, but I got soundly rejected. So Ill just wait. My ideas are too far out for most people. But Im patient. I can wait.

The website for Halls research group, Hall Labs, showcases eight businesses with products on the market, all of them with futuristic-sounding names such as office.xyz, Medic.Life and Vanderhall.

Those last two are the most promising so far, Hall says.

Vanderhall, a boutique auto company, manufactures cars from a single sheet of metal using precise laser cutting techniques. The result is a lightweight, custom-made specialty car with three wheels that looks somewhat like a motorcycle with doors.

The name Vanderhall is a mashup of David Halls last name and that of his wife, nee Karen Van Dyke. The companys president, their son Steve, appeared earlier this month on Jay Lenos Garage, the CNBC show featuring the former late night comedian.

Vanderhalls inventory is low, at about 1,000 per model, but sales are steady, and a new branch of this or another of Halls companies might someday open in the Upper Valley, he said.

The other major project, Medic.Life, will have the greatest long-term effect on its industry, Hall says. The companys health-taking toilet technology is designed to analyze the users vitals, finding patterns and giving warnings before treatment is necessary.

Right now we react when were sick, Hall said. We go to the hospital after the fact. And thats ridiculous. What we need is something thats gathering info about us our whole lives, finding the trends ... and processing the data.

Halls land acquisition has come to a halt for the moment, remaining at about 1,500 acres in the four towns after an influx of offers drove him over budget. But however far off his goal may be, the question remains of what he will do with the land he has taken off the market.

Hall says he has fixed up several of the properties he bought and that he maintains them and pays taxes on them. Yet some of the old buildings he has acquired may be too decrepit to warrant repairs, he says.

Theres really questions as to whether its best to tear them down and restore the land or to fix them up, he said.

Those questions led to other questions. What roads can I get rid of and what buildings can I tear down to start my consolidation ideas? he said.

Despites Halls assurances that a Vermont settlement is a long way off, local critics, most prominent among them the Alliance for Vermont Communities, have continued their work to unite the community under a different vision.

Michael Sacca, a freelance producer from Tunbridge who serves as president of the alliance, expressed frustration last week at Halls determination to pursue his dream, regardless of the communitys response.

Sacca cited this springs Town Meeting votes on anti-NewVistas resolutions in the four communities, all of which overwhelmingly came down against Halls idea.

Its disappointing to us that he has this attitude that everythings fine, Sacca said.

Oh, it doesnt matter, its in the future, he said, channeling Hall. But my sons are living here. There are plenty of people who are staying here. Its not as if the situations going to change. Theres a lot of people working to protect this rural heritage.

To advance its own vision for a vibrant rural community, the Alliance for Vermont Communities recently held a cycling event in Tunbridge, a 16-mile and 32-mile course called the Ranger Ride.

The June event brought riders through many of the lands the alliance deems in danger of development by Hall.

Sacca said his group was planning more events, including public forums, to take place soon.

Many alliance board members also happen to serve on the four towns planning commissions, all of which are in some stage of revisions to their town plans.

Town plans are periodically updated documents that describe communities vision for future land use and development.

Though they do not carry the same regulatory force as, say, zoning, they inform development of regulations and, if worded carefully, can have significant influence in the permitting process under Act 250, the Vermont law governing large-scale developments.

Planners in the four towns last week said they are taking residents views on NewVistas into account, and, in some cases, have been weighing changes that could limit the ideas feasibility.

Beth Willhite, chairwoman of the Royalton Planning Commission, said the panel was preparing to advance a few small changes to the Town Plan to state where we are, but in more firm language that in farm areas we want farming and we dont want multi-unit housing or developments.

The commission likely will hold a public forum soon to discuss these potential changes, she said, after which the Selectboard would have the power to ratify them.

Willhite said the Royalton Planning Commission also was considering changes to the Town Plan addressing allowable density Halls NewVistas development would pack roughly 20,000 people into a few thousand acres. But before it makes any final decisions, the commission is consulting local farmers and other businesses to see what their needs are, she said.

Once you start passing regulations it applies to all and not some, Willhite said, and so you have to be sure youre planning for what you want.

Peter Anderson, a member of the Sharon Planning Commission, said that towns land use board was revising language in the Town Plan relating to rural, residential and forested areas.

Other than that, he kept the commissions talks, which are far from final, close to the chest.

Im not ready to say we tailored it for the NewVista, he said in an interview last week. I think its more like we consciously went over it to see what was there (that needed updates).

In Strafford, the Selectboard is considering a proposal submitted by the Planning Commission that could make developments like Halls more difficult in that town.

Toni Pippy, chairwoman of the Selectboard, said a final hearing on the changes would likely take place in September.

NewVista has definitely had something to do with our plan, she said. I think the neighborhood is pretty nervous about what he could do to our world. Hopefully whats in the plan will help.

Among other changes, the Selectboard is mulling modifications that would break the existing rural residential district into two new districts, each with new expectations for low-density development.

Strafford is the only town among these four that has zoning, apart from some flood plain regulations in other towns. If its Selectboard were to pass these changes, they could lead to zoning changes, too, Pippy said.

Tunbridge also is nearing changes to its Town Plan, which expires in spring 2018.

Co-Chairwoman Ingrid Van Steamburg, who also is a member of the alliance board, said some potential revisions are designed to strengthen the regulatory weight of the Town Plan under Act 250 proceedings.

Regional planners have met with the four towns planning commissions and informed them that such changes as revising should to shall in town plans gives them more power.

It was explained to all of the towns that if you dont have strong language it doesnt have a lot of weight in those hearings, Van Steamburg said.

A public hearing on Town Plan updates in Tunbridge will take place Monday night at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.

Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.

Visit link:
Utah Futurist Rebrands NewVistas Effort - Valley News

Rafiah Ibrahim President of Ericsson Middle East and Africa

Together with AT&T Foundry and RocketSpace, Ericsson has released the third installment of The Futurist Report series. The report gives an inside look into the cutting-edge technologies and companies that are shaping the future for artificial intelligence, and what this means for consumers.

The report also explains how will artificial intelligence (AI) and automation affect the way we live our lives, and how will brands adapt and cater to changing consumer experiences.

To better understand developments in the AI space, over 50 successful entrepreneurs, executives and academics leading the charge on new technologies and applications were interviewed. In addition, five bold projections that showcase how AI will impact the consumer experience in coming years were developed.

AI will have an enormous impact on our daily lives. From enabling hyper-personalization to saving huge amounts of time on routine tasks, these new tools will fundamentally shift the way we interact with technology in our day-to-day lives.

According to our latest Mobility Report, Mobile broadband subscriptions in Middle East and Africa is expected to grow by almost 3 times between 2016 and 2022. This gives an indication that technology is becoming a basic part of our lives and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation are definitely part of this great evolution, said Rafiah Ibrahim, President of Ericsson Middle East and Africa

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AT&T Foundry, RocketSpace and Ericsson Release a New Series of ... - Al-Bawaba

The Futurism blog, which describes itself as reporting on the breakthrough technologies and scientific discoveries that will shape humanitys future, has published a post on basic income as a response to increasing automation of the workplace.

Although universal basic income (UBI) is neither a technology nor a scientific discovery, Futurisms FAQ page lists UBI as one of the topics that it is particularly interested in.

The article sets out the nature of basic income, explores arguments for and against it, lists a number of recent and upcoming experiments, and provides quotes from a number of supporters of UBI throughout history. It is written by Luke Kingma, Futurisms Head of Creative and a former copywriter for companies such as Hasbro, Toyota and Warner Brothers.

Futurism has appeared in a list of top futurist blogs on Quora, a popular question-and-answer site. It states that it has approximately 200,000 subscribers to its regular newsletter.

More information at:

Luke Kingma, Universal Basic Income: The Answer to Automation?, Futurism, 22th April 2016

Claire Bott has written 6 articles.

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Universal Basic Income Examined by Futurism Blog - Basic Income News