Brent Colescott

Leading Innovation in Learning

Beyond HR Forum

Beyond HR Forum

Repost from June 17th, 2018 – A little over a year later, the observations from this event are still relevant.

It’s a little after 5:00 a.m. (June 15th) in Amsterdam which seems like the perfect time to reflect on my travels from the past week. Ok, so let’s be honest, the only reason I’m even coherent at this time is due to a fire alarm that woke the entire hotel at 4:15 a.m.  Just the perfect middle of the morning time that makes it entirely pointless to attempt to recapture those precious few hours of sleep I so looked forward to.  UPDATE (June 17th): Thinking a 4:15 a.m. alarm was the worst of my trip, fate said “hold my beer” and has since cancelled my flight home and added a day to my travels.

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the distinct privilege to meet with Chief Human Resource Officers (CHRO’s) and Senior Leaders from all over of the world. It’s truly been a pleasure and extremely insightful as I research and validate what appear to be the winds of change relative to learning and talent in organizations. It’s worth noting that I’ve posted many of these perspectives in my recent white paper, Skillsoft’s “Organizational Maturity Index” as well as my blog regarding the College model, also on Skillsoft.com

The past week has been a capstone to my research and travels as we near the halfway point of 2018. I was lucky enough to attend the Beyond HR Forum in Amsterdam. The event is a gathering of CHROs & CLOs from around the globe. I’ll attempt to curate some of the key points that I’ve seen over the past few days and how they continue to validate much of what I’ve seen and heard over the past few months. Suffice to say, we are on the precipice of major changes to the very nature of how learning & talent exist within organizations.

The Beyond HR Forum event kicked off with a sort of foreshadowing moment, Florence, a 10 year old girl, welcomed the attendees. She offered up a description to the audience of what her world of work may look like and how we, the audience, are already creating it. Now of course Florence is no Oracle, however the premise of what the workforce will look like in 10 years was thought provoking. While not entirely different, it does draw attention to the seeds that have been planted in terms of work, work environments and how people attain skills to complete their work. 

As we near historic employment numbers in the United States, we are seeing the effects of how organizations must deal with a near non-existent pool of talent. It was reported last week that job openings exceed the number of available labor for the first time in recent history. These factors have forced organizations into a position of re-thinking their approaches to learning, talent and career development in short order. 

As the event began to take shape it was evident that much of what we would be talking about is a significant cultural change in the way we work. Our hosts Angel and Tom asked attendees to get outside their comfort zones and set aside the practical. In the past few years with other HR events the dialogue has been somewhat “academic” and just a continuation of past conversations. This event felt different in a way that it must address a problem with a sense of urgency that I don’t feel has been there in the past.

The opening keynote from John Reid Dodick, CPO of WeWork was extremely insightful as he laid out the case and impact of how our work environments are changing and must change to adapt to the new world of work. Research conducted by WeWork goes way beyond the ergonomic ideas of the past few years and dives into what motivates and energizes individuals to work with a purpose. Capitalizing on the concept of a Regus office, WeWork has taken the remote office to a new level with beautiful design that is intended to “Function like an office, but feel like a home.” Through design principles, they create harmony with the physical and digital spaces. 

Rather than detail the subsequent speakers I’ll begin to close with general impressions of the event. The themes I saw presented were a very sobering realization that we no longer have the luxury to debate or kick the can on major changes to the employment model. Expectations from workers of all generations, not just the millennial’s, are demanding a more “human” workplace – not a “work-life” balance. The consumerization of technology, proliferation of apps and “smart” / “Netflix-like” platforms have had a major impact on how we go about the way we work. Words like “purpose” and “culture” describe priorities for the new workforce, sometimes ahead of “compensation.” 

As I wrap up my time in Europe and reflect on the week, it is clear that we are in a time of great change. While it’s been said by the Chinese and more famously by Robert F Kennedy “May you live in interesting times;” I would say we are probably in some of the most transformative times yet with the convergence of technology, aptitude and challenges to societal norms from the past half century. These truly are “Interesting Times” and I could not be more excited.