Let's get digital

Can we embrace technology without becoming it? Digital disruption is already evident in the level to which jobs are routine, as these are the easiest to replace with automation. To keep up with the pace of technology we must be ready to learn new things, and to anticipate the societal and ethical issues that a gig economy brings.

At our Let’s Get Digital HR Forum, kindly hosted by BT at their Newgate centre, we explored how we prepare for a future where machines are as capable as humans. With the help of our guests, Rob Holtom, Head of Digital Innovation at BT, and David James, Professor of Marketing at Hult International Business School, we unpacked the challenges and implications that the shift to becoming a digital company has on the way work is structured.

Not only must we prepare for new jobs, legal frameworks and working practices, but we should be asking how we can optimise employee experience and secure talent to ensure we don’t leave our people high and dry as new technology lands. We need to respond by being better, faster, quicker – thinking from a different place. If our first reaction to an issue is to reach for our smartphone and Google it, we only know as much as anyone else also using that search facility. In this digital age, the challenge for our HR departments is to give people the confidence to work out an issue for themselves – to facilitate face-to-face interactions, to talk, to share… and not to hide behind technology. We should be championing soft skills such as persuading, negotiating, influencing, communicating cross-culturally and expanding our confidence to accept different points of view.

Technology brings huge shifts in how we live and work. Our mandate is to be at the forefront of using new ways to communicate and collaborate - embracing both technology and human skill – for a successfully integrated digital future.

If you want to know about our forums please contact [email protected]