Lana Leeb is an HR veteran. Her HR Consulting firm Atled is inspired by industry insight from working within international Fortune 500 companies as well as government and private mid-tier organizations. She has always challenged traditional HR and employment models because she firmly believes that they are not in concord with modern needs.
Lana, Thank you for talking with us. You have a vast experience working in the domain of HR Consulting including working with some Fortune 500 companies. What shift have you observed in the way Human Resource works in the past few years?
Thank you so much for having me. I think the advancements of artificial intelligence, automation, machine learning, and the internet of things (IoT), has brokered a new world of work for the global workforce. The 4th industrial revolution (4IR) will catapult the Canadian and global labour market into an unknown frontier, ushering in economic prosperity while challenging current employee models, jobs, and competencies. Physical, digital, and biological worlds will begin to intersect between industries, converging advancements between technology, genetic engineering, 3D printing, and quantum computing, and the human experience.
With these advancements, the CHRO is starting to blend and liaise more with the CTO or CIO, pioneering a plethora of options to elevate the employee experience while reducing low touch-point tasks for Fortune 500 and forward-thinking companies.
In your experience, what are the differences in the way Human Resource works in small businesses viz. a viz big corporations.
In my experience with global, large organizations they have a robust HR division, with deep vertical expertise in each phase of the employee life-cycle. In comparison, small businesses do not have that luxury. They are often straddling between investing in employee programs or sales, technology, or research. In a time when many companies are seeking growth to cover HR expenses, small business often seek out affordable, fixed-rate outsourcing plans to steward them until they can justify a full-time in-house HR department.
Looking into the future, what are the top 3 trends HR and business owners should have on their radar?
With continued remote work or a hybrid model, employers may start to implement software like ActivTrak, Teramind, or Time Doctor to track employees – and those that do – will be operating under an illusion of power by making it easy to lead through surveillance and fear – rather than character and trust. And, if their executives and middle managers don’t receive training, we will see those organizations experience a loss of intellectual property and a brain drain of their best people. So, it will be extremely prudent for not just HR or leaders – but employees to cultivate a culture of trust, humanism, and transparency to offset a potential abuse of privacy.
A second trend is that both employer and employee may not longer be under the illusion that they are handcuffed to their location. In 5 years, we are going to see a massive rise in the boundaryless employee. Companies will have greater access to talent because there is no geographical constraint on high performers and no excuses to developing a workforce strategy, inclusive of different demographics. In short, companies, will not be bound to recruit only those that live in proximity – they will be recruiting top tier talent nationally and globally. But here’s the fly in the ointment, top tier talent, A players, and high performers, will be poached easier and start to understand their bargaining power with global companies tapping into a diverse workforce.
The last trend is the illusion that workforces will continue to flock to magnet cities. If remote work is here to stay and we see this rise of boundaryless employees, the by-product will be geo-arbitrage, whereby downtown cores will be hollowing out – with middle to upper class workforces relocating to younger municipalities. Companies will be reimaging their offices, from a row of workstations, to an innovation hub, where employees only come in for project kickoffs, ideation workshops, or scrum meetings.
Why do you believe that traditional HR models need to be done away with?
Businesses are nimble and no longer have a 5-year strategy, but more so, a 1 or 3-year outlook based on constant market disruption. And yet, employment models and HR have not really caught up. For example, HR typically recruits for full-time employees with a skill set relevant for only the next 3 years. With alternative models of freelancers, agencies, the gig economy as well as emerging solutions to reduce costs through AI, machine learning, and automation, HR models need to be revisited.
From employment point of view, what are some of the top skills that are in demand in the market right now?
I’ll cut to the chase with the top skill for employees: learn how to change with the times and then demonstrate how you can help navigate companies through it. With younger generations switching jobs every 3 years and the advent of a technology boom, unseen in the history of our workforce, change is not only the constant – but the next most in demand competency.
In HR, years ago, we would help steward employees into the “2nd act” (known as early retirement). Now, with current changes we are seeing the 3rd or 4th act. Over the next decade, as career arcs change from a peak to multiple peaks, employees who have a 5th, 6th, or 7th act, will not only become in demand, but also be best prepared to ride the wave.
Covid 19 has impacted businesses of all kinds. What are some of the changes small business owners should make in order to remain afloat. Also, how do you see the ongoing Pandemic impacting the way HR teams work?
I often refer to Covid-19 as the big reset and here’s why. During the last ten years of growth, many of us as employers have created red tape, complexity, and lots of overhead. Every time we hire a new manager, launch a new product, or grow into a new geography we layer on more “stuff.” But, most of us, never take anything away.
Because of Covid, we now have an opportunity to fix this. We are forced to do more with less and have had to say good-bye to every process, committee, meeting, project, conference call, or position we don’t need. This is a time to be ruthless and redefine what people and programs are nice to have – while reconsidering which costs are truly fixed versus variable. This is how to be a resilient leader and bridge your team through the crisis.
Most us know that markets and societies will revert back. But this crisis is a bit different than a recession, and it’s vitally important we learn from it. For business owners, ask yourself, which ways of working, that we discovered during this crisis, should be preserved and built upon? Another tactic is to conduct a lessons learned workshop with your leadership team, unpack what worked, assign tasks, and have a pre-packed contingency plan for the next disruption.
Ongoing in a post pandemic work, all workforce and scenario planning should focus on a fundamental consideration of our client’s dilemma’s and needs in a post-covid world. By dissecting 1st how customer behaviour will shift, only then will business owners know which employees to retain and how to retool them to solve those new dilemmas. Moreover, once they know the raw needs of their customers, they can generate a renewed sense of purpose and align their people on a clear, path forward.
