Faced with artificial intelligence grabbing jobs, how does HR successfully counterattack

The latest news has alarmed many HR staff. Japan's high-end talent recruitment website BizReach, in partnership with Yahoo and US customer management platform salesforce.com, announced that it will develop an artificial intelligence that collects employee job data to complete tasks such as recruiting, evaluating employees and assigning jobs. In the not-too-distant future, robots with artificial intelligence are likely to take HR's jobs away.

The latest relevant research results of "CEConline" show that most Chinese manufacturing companies are still in the human resource management stage with basic transactional work as the core. And basic transactional HR jobs are the most likely to be replaced by AI. Whether it is for the development of the enterprise or the career development of HR, it is necessary to upgrade to a higher human resource management stage. At this stage, HR is required to play a more important role in supporting the strategic development of the enterprise.

This "Survey on the Status Quo of Human Resource Management in China's Manufacturing Industry" was completed between November and December 2016. Participating in the survey were the chairmen, general managers and deputy general managers of more than 230 manufacturing companies, as well as directors, managers and commissioners of human resources departments. In terms of industry distribution, the electronics manufacturing industry and the machinery manufacturing industry each accounted for 14%, accounting for the highest proportion.

Artificial intelligence threatens HR

In this survey, more than 90% of the respondents agreed that artificial intelligence will replace some jobs in HR, of which 48% believed that in the future In ten years, a small number of HR basic and transactional jobs will be replaced by AI; 46% believe that most HR basic and transactional jobs will be replaced (see Figure 1).

With the development of human resource management functions and the advancement of mobile Internet technology, most of the basic and transactional work will be replaced by machines or artificial intelligence. The liberation of the operator from transactional work releases a positive meaning. Wu Yuguang, a strategic consultant and executive president of Zhonghe Zhengdao Management Consulting Co., pointed out that the core competitiveness of human resource management is not a basic and transactional work, but the use, management, control and monitoring of human resources under the overall strategic framework of the enterprise. , maintenance and development, in order to create synergistic value and achieve the method system of enterprise strategic goals, which is irreplaceable by any machine and artificial intelligence.

Although with the implementation of the Made in China 2025 plan, China's manufacturing industry will gradually realize the model of direct replacement of manual manufacturing and production by machines in the future, but even if this day comes, "people" will still be the main body and foundation of the enterprise. How to manage "people" talent

is the key to enterprise progress and development. How to focus on the core business of human resources and add value to their own capabilities and competitiveness as soon as possible has become an urgent issue for most HR workers in the manufacturing industry.

Performance management is not as good as it should be

As can be seen from the survey data, most manufacturing companies already use performance management to improve the performance of individuals, departments and organizations. The good news is that employees of many enterprises can obtain effective support and guidance from their superiors in their work, and rewards and punishments are closely integrated with performance, and the intensity is strong. But on the whole, the scores of several questions about performance management are basically concentrated in 2 and 3 points, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in performance management (see Figure 2).

Wu Yuguang pointed out that the survey data is very consistent with the management consulting practice. In the field of performance management, which is the most basic and core of human resource management, the implementation effect of manufacturing enterprises is not ideal. This means that the vast majority of Chinese companies still need to put more effort into the basic skills of human resource management, rather than being confused by dazzling concepts or terms. Management itself has its own rules and regulations, and management innovation is valuable only if it focuses on basic management elements.

Strategy-based performance management is a complex and meticulous work, which is not only related to the formulation of corporate strategies, but also involves the specific work of each employee of the company, as well as corporate culture, personnel quality, etc. have a close relationship. Wu Yuguang reminded that when manufacturing enterprises do strategic performance management, they should organically combine positive incentives and negative incentives. From the formulation of goals, the evaluation and incentives of the process, to the positive guidance of people's behavior, so that performance management can form a closed loop .

In Huawei, the development of employees is closely related to their personal performance. Only employees with excellent performance have the opportunity to further develop, and employees with poor performance are eliminated. The results of performance appraisal have almost become the only basis for employees to gain a foothold and develop in Huawei. It is also this culture that prompts employees to continuously seek improvements in their work, strive to improve their work efficiency and work quality, thereby improving their performance levels and ultimately achieving substantial development. .

Among the six dimensions of performance appraisal management, the data of "provide detailed guidance for employees' ability improvement" is significantly lower than that of other items, indicating that managers at all levels of manufacturing enterprises have not yet considered the growth of employees. Put it in the important work content. Only when the ability of employees is continuously improved can they create value for the enterprise, so as to make better performance and move towards excellence and excellence. . In the era of knowledge economy, this is particularly important, because employees know that if their abilities are not improved in the enterprise, even if they gain more in other areas, it cannot guarantee long-term development opportunities in the future.

Aiming at these deficiencies, the HR department of the enterprise should carry out effective coaching leadership training for middle and senior managers, improve their performance communication skills and cultivate their awareness, in order to truly play the role and value of performance management.

Human resources participate in strategic decision-making

Today, when manufacturing companies face the challenges of global competition, and after corporate strategies are adjusted, the company's talent structure, compensation system, recruitment methods, and training needs are also corresponding changes to support the smooth realization of strategic adjustment. In this era of increasing employee autonomy, how should HR departments of manufacturing companies respond to these challenges?

It can be seen from the survey data that only 20% of enterprises have entered the stage of strategic human resource management. This shows that most Chinese enterprises still need to continue to practice the basic skills of management. When doing multiple-choice questions about the importance of "people, products, and markets", most manufacturing enterprise bosses put products or markets first and do not pay attention to the management of "people", which is also the reason for the low human resource management capabilities of manufacturing enterprises one of the reasons. Talent is the core competitiveness of an enterprise. If an enterprise's human resource management is in this state for a long time, it is bound to be ruthlessly eliminated in the brutal market competition (see Figure 3).

More than 70% of the human resources leaders of manufacturing companies are rarely involved in the formulation of corporate strategies (see Figure 4). Wu Yuguang pointed out that there are many reasons for this situation. On the one hand, high-level decision makers in corporate strategy formulation do not have such awareness and lack the necessary understanding of the importance of human resources work. The company lacks business understanding and lacks the necessary ability to participate in strategic decision-making.

The key to solving this problem is not only to rely on the change of strategic awareness of the top decision makers and the improvement of strategic management capabilities, but more importantly, HR leaders should take the initiative to understand the development of various businesses of the enterprise process, in-depth understanding of their needs, and constantly transform the challenges faced by the business into their HR needs, and then find ways to solve the problems. Only by fully understanding the strategic goals and needs of the enterprise and participating as early as possible can HR reflect its value and capabilities.

British Petroleum (British Petroleum) global human resources director of fuel and lubricants technology department, Gong Ruiping, told reporters in an interview that when she listened to the head of the business unit talking about new business goals at the strategy meeting, she would Constantly think about what kind of professional skills the new business will need, what are the gaps in the existing internal talent structure, and how to obtain such talents. By the time the strategy meeting was over, the HR solution was halfway done. Later, she will consider how the new plan can be implemented at the lowest cost, what impact it may have on existing talents, and what kind of special talents need to be introduced into the market at high prices, but in the long run, how to allocate and cultivate such special talents from within. . Only in this way can the HR department become the partner of the business department in strategy formulation and strategy execution.

Strategic adjustment poses a challenge to HR

The strategic adjustment of an enterprise generally refers to the change of strategic direction or strategic focus and strategic goal. This change will lead to the adjustment of organizational structure, performance management indicators, incentive mechanism and leaders, which are the key to the implementation of strategic transformation. If the adjustment is in place successfully, the implementation of the strategy will be more logical, and the resistance to change and transformation will be greatly reduced. According to the survey data, the redesign of the incentive mechanism is the biggest challenge brought by strategic adjustment to HR, followed by the salary plan design to adapt to the new strategy, and the recruitment of high-end talents that meet the strategic needs. 40% of the survey participants believe that the strategic adjustment After that, the human resource management and development system of the enterprise does not adapt to the changes in talent demand and should be upgraded (see Figure 5).

Wu Yuguang believes that the adjustment of the organizational structure mainly involves many factors such as strategic orientation, business attributes, management culture, leadership style, etc. It is one of the key issues belonging to the board of directors. Often ignored by the board of directors. Several other aspects of work, including incentive mechanism and performance management, as well as the selection of key talents, need to be treated with caution and a reasonable layout can effectively help each department transform the roadmap of strategic transformation into consistent actions by personnel in each department.

The key factor for Huawei's success is to formulate a strategic human resource plan in strict accordance with the company's strategic planning objectives, and to reserve relevant talents on a large scale. In the face of the increasingly fierce competition for talents, each enterprise has its own different strategic goals and needs a set of strategic human resource planning that is entirely its own.

When asked "What responsibilities can HR ideally undertake?", establishing an efficient talent selection system, supporting the realization of corporate strategic goals, and supporting companies to form a strong corporate culture are at the forefront. It can be seen from the survey that the people who participated in the survey have a relatively clear understanding of the mission and positioning of human resource management, that is, they hope that HR will play an increasingly important role in the development of the enterprise and assume greater responsibility (see Figure 6). .

From the overall survey results, the current status of human resource management in most manufacturing enterprises is not optimistic, and there is still a big gap between the "strategic partners" of business departments. Wu Yuguang believes that HR leaders should take the initiative to enhance their influence in the company's decision-making process, win the trust of the company's decision-making level through the improvement of their professional ability, and change the decision-making level's cognition, so as to realize human resource management at the top of the company. important mission in design.

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