Top 4 Trends Reshaping IT And HR Collaboration
Workplace trends are constantly changing. The level of collaboration within departments of an organization are affected by these changes as well. An essential collaboration between two departments are IT and HR. Enterprise technology Clint Boulton shares an article on Forbes on the relationship between IT and HR and how the latest workplace trends greatly affect both departments. Workplace trends are evolving quicky, says Boulton, introducing more complexity into organizations. An explosion in data-centric technologies and other digital trends has heightened the importance of strong IT-HR collaboration. These latest trends are driving IT and HR to work together more closely, according to Boulton:
- Hybrid work. It’s no surprise that the hybrid workspace is a staple in today’s workspace. The COVID-19 pandemic saw many people switch to remote work. Since then, many organizations have adopted the hybrid work week. Boulton says of this trend: “IT leaders and HR managers have been huddling on technologies, processes and policies working in both corporate and home offices since hybrid work practices have proliferated. Social distancing policies, technical workarounds and accommodating optimal work-life balance once dominated these huddles. Increasingly, HR and IT are shifting focus to supporting employees in organizations where leaders are expecting to see more employees in corporate offices than they have in recent years.”
- AI/ML. “The biggest issue IT and HR must contend with includes concerns about workforce automation. Earlier AI tools gave employees working in back-office roles cause for pause. Generative AI is casting new light on how technology may be used to augment creative functions, which will require more conversations between HR and IT about how to manage associated concerns. IT and HR will have to educate employees about how using automation technologies can help them perform better in their roles. And as generative AI use grows in organizations, IT and HR will have to work closely to mitigate associated governance issues,” says Boulton.
- Data Analytics. For the organizations who have adopted hybrid work styles or even stayed fully remote, this decision was most likely made by information collected from employees and their input on the future of their work environment. “As hybrid policies reshape the world of knowledge work, business leaders are looking for data about how effective employees are at doing their job,” says Boulton. “This has given rise to an emerging category of data-crunching tools known as workplace analytics, which gauge such details as how long employees spend on work tasks, which tasks they are spending the most time on, as well as the output and outcomes of those workstreams. HR meanwhile may seek workplace analytics from IT that helps them measure the success of diversity and inclusion efforts by analyzing hiring practices and promotion rates. This can help HR pinpoint areas for improvement, as well as make changes that curb employee attrition.”
- Data protection and compliance. “Organizations naturally produce vast amounts of data, critical and trivial. As corporate stewards, IT and HR leaders have significant stakes in how information is generated, shared and used, as well as how it’s protected. Perhaps no area of focus has attracted the attention of HR and IT of late than the impact of AI consumption on corporate data. Of chief concern is the potential for leaks of proprietary corporate data and IP in these tools, many of which are easily available and unmonitored. Organizations must remind employees about best practices for safeguarding corporate data in the face of data privacy, security, bias and ethical issues. IT and HR have key roles working with compliance and other stakeholders to develop, implement and pass down such policies to the broader organization,” says Boulton.
The major takeaway to these trends, Boulton concludes, is that the workplace is evolving rapidly for IT leaders and their HR counterparts and they need to be ahead of the curve ready for these changes this year and beyond.
