HR Minute

Welcome to the HR minute by AllVoices, the industry-leading employee relations platform I'm your host, Jeffrey Fermin. And today we're going to talk about something that's coming up right around the corner, the future, specifically the future of work. That's right. We have Amanda Halle today. Who's an HR consultant that specializes in helping companies adopt AI for HR. So she's going to tell us more about what she expects from the future of work and how workplaces are going to continue evolving. Uh, with that said, Amanda, love to know more about you.

Hello, hi, everyone. Hi, Jeff. Excited to be here. My name is Amanda. Hallie as was already stated. I have been in the HR people space for about 15 years. I've been saying 15 for a few. so it's a little bit more than 15 at this point, but I have been in and around HR for my entire career and. Started my own consultancy focused on fractional work and project-based work and AI specifically about two and a half years ago. My background is heavily in the L&D and coaching space. But I'm also really passionate about about leadership and really empowering more women and those underrepresented traditionally in tech as well. And to that point, I started a newsletter called unraveling AI, which highlights a different person each week and how they use AI in the course of 24 hours. And it's meant to really give. Real-world examples and day-to-day use of different tools and strategies for leveraging.

The Role of AI in HR and Predictions

Artificial intelligence has completely changed the game these past couple of years. How do you think artificial intelligence is going to be used by HR departments and people leaders moving forward? Yeah, I think there is it is clearly a big buzz. It has been for the past year and I do think that the, this, like, this journey that we're on is kind of reached this point of right? Like, most people know about it and people are talking about it. And I would say that. Even yesterday, I actually had 3 different instances and 3 different HR communities that I'm part of where folks were asking about advice or for consultants who could help them with different AI related tasks. As HR leaders.

And so I do think that it, it is it is here and it's not going anywhere. I believe that it, you know, the, the 1st thing is that I think that AI is going to infiltrate it. The day to day, and if it if people don't realize that it has already it definitely it's there, right? Like it's in tools that we use every day, whether we realize it or not. And right from, like, Siri to Netflix to, you know, you name it, there's, you know, there's prediction engines within so many of these tools that we're using and then, you know, thinking about generative AI more specifically.

So the types of AI that is helping us to. You know, draft process documents or policies or emails that there's components of that within these tools that we're using every day as well. So I think that kind of one of the first predictions that I have for AI in this kind of year ahead is that it's going to become more commonplace within just the tools that we use every day. So forget adopting like new tools, the tools that we're using from the day to day are are already. Have these components, and so I think that the future is people starting to leverage those and using those on a regular basis and and really kind of building them into their workflows and work streams. And so I think that that's kind of a big prediction for mine. And I think, you know, reducing them and mundane. So, if you think about you know, the recruitment space, I, it's, it's gone through a lot of. Reduction in the past couple of years, and I do think that that's that's probably here to stay and that companies are going to be more lean in the future.

And that means really. Using leveraging the people that you have to do the most important things and so being able to increase efficiencies where you can and so anything that can be automated, anything that is really administrative. Heavy automating that. And so whether that is using calendaring tools or candidate screening tools or interview tools, there's just, there's so many that are going to help to really increase efficiency and give people the time, you know, the face time, the time to be consultative, the time to be really a true partner to the business which I think is really exciting. And then the, I think the last thing that's exciting for me is really companies being able to use AI as a way to drive profitability and decrease costs and enhance human potential.

So, obviously, that's a, that's a big statement, but I think that it's like, focusing less on, like, turning to, you know, layoffs and outsourcing and offshoring 1st, and turning instead to, like, how do we use these tools and technologies to actually drive profitability and decrease I know personally, I've been using AI for just about everything whether it is content creation, like blogs, most of it is AI video editing. Now, this video is going to be edited partially by AI. And I just find that so impressive, like before all the tasks that I, I, I'm currently handling would have been done by about five, six different people. Now, it just takes my creativity as well as like learning how to use AI systems and ask it for certain prompts. So definitely loving all the innovation in the AI space. And I can't wait to see all the different uses that H. R managers and people leaders will be able to use.

Outlook on the Future of Work

So, based on your experience and observations, how do you feel like the future of work is going to evolve the next decade? Oh, in the next decade, it's a long time, a tremendous amount of time. Yeah. If you want, we can do five years. It's fine. I think it's a, you know, in the next decade is feels like there's more potential, so I'm cool with that one. So the past few years have really been a roller coaster for so many people and for, you know, people leaders a. I mean, the, the highest, steepest roller coaster filled with as many loops and turns and twists as as you can imagine. And the, I think that the, the future feels very uncertain in many ways. I think when you started to like, if you think back to the beginning of COVID, it was, you know, there was an end. Like, and in some ways, like, we didn't know exactly how long it would last or what it would, you know, what it would turn into.

But we, you know, you knew that there would be an end of it. Right? I think that the, the current state that we're in, there is a, there's even more uncertainty because we are really, like, we're building for this. Unknown future, and all of the things that have happened as a result of the coven and and, you know, things that have been happening in the world that have impacted us and work from this, the idea of, you know, to promote to an office to, you know, hybrid work to you know, different company models to, you know, fractional work versus, you know, full time W2. There's just been a lot of different different ways of working that have been introduced as a result. And I think that those that people are going to gravitate towards what suits their life best.

Right? I think that we've been. We've had time to think about our priorities and what matters to us and and, and I think that there's a shift to, you know, people. I would say, like, and also, you know, the, the future generations are much more attuned to finding workplaces that suit them, finding transparency and right. Like, so I think that the future of work is going to it's going to have a lot of different options. So this is a long-winded way of saying that the future of work is is going to be a long-winded way I see it almost as a bit of a choose your own adventure because there are going to be companies that are going to stay very similar to how they've always been. But then there's going to be new new forms and new ways of working. And I think even when you look at HR as a function, the function itself has has had to be so many different things in the past few years. And and I think that that has shifted so many HR leaders, people, leaders to be to really focus on areas that they care most about.

And and so for some, that means going into fractional roles for others. That means, you know, leaving the industry altogether for others. It means, you know, staying and being really committed to an organization. And so I think that the, like the future. Is has a ton of potential because there's going to be a lot of choice and there's going to be a lot of different types of organizations and work styles and leaders, which I think is a, is a great opportunity.

I think the best way to describe it would be that there's going to be a lot more independence on the employee end where we're going to have the ability to maybe venture out and do things like, I don't know, content creation, consulting. .Now we're, we're going to eventually evolve to have like a, a fractional role, a full time, but not there, you know, five days out of the week in office kind of role, you'll, you'll be a member of a of a team or a company, and then just kind of like. You know, have your own thing on the side where you are representing the company, but you're your own separate entity. And I think you know, with AI, it's going to be a lot easier for individuals and employees to, to be able to manage having multiple roles and being able to help out several organizations at once, or several, you know, smaller businesses at once.

Yeah, it might be interesting to see how the workplace evolves in the future and and see how people evolve as, as workers. So I'm pretty excited about it. And I think some of the things that both of us do on the side is pretty, pretty impactful to a lot of organizations. And we have the ability to do so because we work with progressive companies, speaking more on my end about all voices, but we, we work with progressive companies that allow us to do these things and have fun. Working on things on the side.

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Skills for Adapting to the Changing Work Landscape

What new skills and competencies do you see the workforce needing to have in order to adapt to all the rising technologies and all this change with the workplace? I believe that the future of work is going to be reskilling and upskilling employees we are, you know, like I mentioned before, you know, we're, we're embracing or hopefully folks are embracing AI.

We are embracing new ways of working. In in so many different organizations, and that's going to require us to look at the roles and responsibilities that each individual has and think about where we want those roles and responsibilities to go in the future and like, looking at those gaps. And so I think, you know, when you look at as an example one of the. One of the big skills that folks are going to need in the future is delegation. If you think of AI as really your assistant or as an intern, the most impactful way that you can improve efficiency of that person is to prime them with as much information as possible because that context is what is going to make them more successful. And so your ability to delegate. And really get that person up to speed or that assistant or that, you know, co-pilot is going to be what determines how successful that thing, that technology will be for you. And then another one that I think is just, you know, seems obvious, but is also really

important to call out is change management.

How do you better understand your stakeholders and the people around you? What is most important to them? What is at risk for them? What are they like, potentially going to lose in this future state? And how do you really guide people through that journey?

Whether you're a leader, whether you're a people manager, whether you're an individual contributor and you work on a team, it's it's going to be relevant for all. All people. And so I think those are, those are two key skills. I would say delegation and change management so, Amanda, where can we find you online? Yes, you can find me on LinkedIn. Amanda Halley. And you can also follow my newsletter unraveling AI, which is tied to LinkedIn. You can find more information about me and the work that I've been doing, the fractional work that I've been doing on my website, which is mindful growth partners dot com. And yeah. Amanda. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat. I'm sure the audience is going to love it. And I'm going to leave all the links to where they could reach you on descriptions on Spotify, YouTube. And please remember to subscribe and keep on supporting us here at HR minute.