Reach is a HR leader’s challenge and opportunity

When you put together today’s context, HR’s legacy and the urgency precipitated by AI, HR’s reach brings tough challenges – and also the best career opportunity in a generation.

Most functional leaders ‘only’ have to rethink their own function. HR’s remit means that they not only have to respond to every other function’s needs, but they also – at the same time – have to redesign their own.

Even without AI in the picture, this reach across the organisation has always been HR’s blessing, and also its curse. HR people always have to keep the bigger picture in mind, consider the implications of every decision on the whole organisation, and deploy interventions across every team.

The most effective HR functions are those that are strategically positioned, and therefore able to extend their influence across the organisation as well as their activities. Otherwise, HR is constantly on the back foot – providing effective support, probably, but not involved in strategic decisions and therefore always in catch-up mode.

Even the tech experts say that AI isn’t a tech challenge, it’s a human challenge. The implications for how we work are still emerging.

How do you think HR needs to position itself as we transition into the AI era? What do you find works?

Contact me if you would like to chat about this.