Each week I’m going to provide a round up of what I consider to be important and interesting articles on the future of work (not authored by me). These will include a variety of sources and topics ranging from workplace practices to robots and automation to leadership and everything in between. There’s a lot of information out there so I’m hoping that these weekly round ups will help make life a bit easier for you by giving you just the good stuff. Let’s get into it!
It’s No Longer ‘Human’ Resources—HR Must Also Manage Digital Things
In this article, Brian Sommer discusses how the role of HR should be evolving as we move towards a workplace that is filled with more and more technology. However, Sommer feels that most people in HR are not moving forward with the times, but that they are trying to stay within their comfort zone of what they have always done.
Sommer lists out five challenges that HR is facing today. In these five challenges he questions things like whether or not HR should be in charge of evaluating and developing bots and automation in the workplace and he challenges HR workers to be on the cutting edge of technology instead of sitting afraid on the sidelines. He talks about how people are always afraid and leery of new technology when it first comes out, but that HR should be open to learning new things because we are moving into the digital age and we need HR to move with us.
With this move into the digital age it is important that our HR employees are “smart, analytics-savvy people”. We have a lot of good analytic tools, but there are also a lot of bad ones. If HR wants to discern between the two they have to have some knowledge in analytics in order to make decisions. In the end, Sommer suggests that it is time to change the title and function of the HR department in order to fit their new role in the workplace.
4 Ways Wearables Will Change The Way We Work
Wearables are starting to show up in the workplace and they are changing the way we work. This article touches on four key areas in which wearables are improving the workplace.
One area that wearables are used in the workplace is augmented reality. Some companies have even started using this by allowing repairmen and IT workers to help customers fix issues from far away through their devices. In the future it’s possible that companies could use holograms to help customers fix issues.
Another area in which wearables are being used is in wellness programs. Many companies today give employees access to fitness trackers such as the Fitbit to encourage them to stay healthy and active as part of the company’s wellness program.
Warehouses are also starting to use wearable technology to help employees to find orders quickly by directing them to the products needed for orders. And the final area that Sean Foreman touches on is Smartwatches. Smartwatches are also becoming increasingly popular within companies and they allow employees to keep up to date with emails, meetings, and schedule changes.
Facebook at Work: A Workplace Collaboration Tool Like Salesforce or a Yammer Alternative
Facebook is launching a new tool called Facebook at Work. They have been planning and developing this tool since 2014 and it will allow coworkers to exchange ideas and work on team projects. They will charge a monthly fee that will be based on the number of employees at a company who are using the tool.
With more and more companies starting to use social media sites for work collaboration it is potentially a great move for Facebook. Most people already use Facebook outside of work, so transferring over to using it for networking and work projects shouldn’t be a difficult change.
In this article Amrit Hallan also touches on the fact that Yammer is closing down, which is another reason why Facebook at work could really succeed. Yammer is like Twitter, only for businesses and Microsoft is closing it down soon.
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