The HR World partners with Henley Business School to deliver a day that brings the future of work into focus.
The World of Work Institute’s one day conference at Henley Business School took as its theme Leadership Futures: Rewriting the rules for Industry 5.0. The day brought together leading thinkers, researchers and practitioners from across industry and academia to share and develop ideas about the future of the workplace, the impact of technology and what challenges future leaders would need to face.
Kicking off the day, Paul Lindley OBE, Chancellor of the University of Reading and Founder of Ella’s Kitchen gave an insight into how he built his business and how being successful now means more than just making money. He noted how his own brand has become part of his customer’s lives – children dressing up as the product for example – and how leaving a legacy has become a crucial part of building a business.
Technology featured heavily in the morning presentations as speakers informed and challenged the audience to consider what they needed to do to get the best from technology for their businesses and people. Alex Tatham, former Executive Director of Westcoast Limited went beyond asking whether companies had clear AI policies in place to ask if companies knew that their staff were complying with those policies. He also pointed out that simply automating processes did not have a great deal of impact – technology has to truly augment existing processes to be worthwhile.
Flash Insight sessions from Jonathan Passmore, Professor of Coaching & Behavioural Change and Patricia Riddell, Professor of Applied Neuroscience also offered new and incisive insights into the integration of technologies into the workplace and consequent implications: Core skills used to change every five years, now they’re changing every 12 months; the use of AI and automation to take on ‘low level’ work means the work for humans may be harder, more challenging, and therefore perhaps more likely to lead to burnout. ‘Best practice’ starts to become difficult because the pace of change is so fast, best practice keeps changing.
The day then offered delegates the choice of one of three streams, concentrating either on managing a combined human/non-human workforce, re-imagining talent approaches or how leaders need to communicate in the tech age – each led by specialists in their fields and encouraging debate and discussion among those attending.
This was followed by a presentation from Lord Chris Holmes of Richmond, who gave a thorough and inspiring presentation which examined how the future would see a constellation of technologies coming together to change work and the workplace. He emphasised that regulation was not to be resisted – good regulation can be good for everyone – and that legislation done well can also keep up with the speed of change.
The afternoon session pressed home the emphasis on leadership challenges and what the future might hold for those at the top of organisations. There was also a chance for delegates to share their thoughts and experiences, in a session which followed on from a keynote presentation by Tim Johnson, Lead Partner, Crisis and Resilience at Deloitte. Johnson’s presentation looked at leading through the disruption, risk and opportunity presented by technological change and while challenges are evident, the outcome could still be positive and uplifting for everyone.
Finally, the HR World’s own Mike Beesley hosted a panel session which brought together some leading HR thinkers to discuss the challenges and opportunities that lie in the development of the multigenerational workplace. As more generations co-exist at work than ever before, panellists gave their views and first-hand experience of managing and being within multigenerational workplaces.
With panellists ranging from Juliet Crisp, former Head of People Strategy, Governance and Planning at The Post Office to Tanvir Nagra, Project Manager, Broadcom, and Henley Alumna who brought the perspective of Gen Z to the discussion, this was an excellent way to round off a stimulating and productive day, bringing the focus back to the here and now as leaders prepare for the future.
