Speaking at the HR World Summit in Porto, Qadeer explained that AI had shifted the role of HR, calling for the profession to move from “stewards of corporate culture to activators of pace and performance”.
“If HR doesn’t play a role, AI transformation will not succeed,” he argued.
Qadeer said leaders needed to work with HR to restructure businesses and redesign roles to enable AI to work alongside human workers.
He also stressed the renewed focus AI places on leadership development: “We now live in a world where change is continuous. Companies can go through continuous change, humans can’t. Humans get exhausted. So we have to find a way to support them.”
The best way to support workers is through developing leaders to create cultures that allow for increased “stamina and resilience”, Qadeer added.
Leaders need ‘caveman skills’
The skills leaders need are changing as the more transactional areas of their roles are automated, said Qadeer. In light of this, he argued that HR now needed to equip leaders with what he described as “excellent caveman skills”.
“We are going to go back to the skills of the past – perception, emotional intelligence, in-the-moment negotiation and coaching, conflict resolution; all those things that tech will never do better than humans,” he explained.
“AI is not going to make bad leaders good, but it will absolutely expose who and where they are.”
He discussed how these principles had been put into practice at the BBC. Within a year, 3,500 of the broadcaster’s team leaders were given renewed leadership development training, which focused on “values, compassion and support” to equip them to lead the organisation through change. Additional ‘purpose discovery’ sessions were also run for 300 senior leaders.
Responsible leadership in the age of AI comes down to trust, Qadeer said. “Often leaders forget that they are leaders because people don’t trust them,” he explained. “Trust doesn’t appear organically – trust is earned. Leaders have to work hard and pledge to work hard to earn that trust and keep that trust.”
He warned that companies that adopted AI but did not instill in their workforce that its use will be ethical and responsible “may be in the fast lane for a while, but they will crash”.
‘Unbelievable skills disruption’
Qadeer cited research that found the ‘half life’ of learned skills – the time it takes for half of the skill’s value to become obsolete – has dropped to roughly five years generally, and as low as two and a half years for technical skills. Furthermore, 30 to 40 per cent of skills are estimated to change by 2030. “That’s [an] unbelievable skills disruption,” said Qadeer.
To address this issue, the BBC provides opportunities for employees to try out different roles within the company and develop new skillsets. The Hot Shoes programme allows staff to take between two days and two weeks out of their jobs to work in a different team or department while, through the 80/20 programme, employees can spend 20 per cent of their time for up to six months in a different role.
BBC employees can also shadow more senior roles for up to 12 months to give them the chance to learn leadership skills and take on more responsibilities. “We created a way of reskilling and upskilling people that doesn’t require them to fundamentally change their day-to-day work, but allows them to remain productive while undergoing skills transformation,” Qadeer said.
“If people feel liberated and supported to learn great skills, you will set up your organisations to thrive through this AI disruption.”
by Isabel Jackson
Source: peoplemanagement.co.uk
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