‘Back to human’: Why HR leaders want to focus on people again

The vast majority of CHROs said they were eager to shift to a model we have come to call “back to human.” The COVID-19 pandemic—which accelerated employee demands on HR to meet physical and mental health needs, as well as intensified moral concerns about a company’s overall impact on society—lent urgency to their view that some core human element has been lost in all these technological advancements.

The HR teams of the future will likely continue to automate and outsource the purely transactional elements of their work. What struck us as new in our conversations with European CHROs was their pivot toward strategic leadership. In developing core segmentations of employees, deepening their real-time sensing of mood and morale, and setting the agenda for the new workplace, these CHROs were asserting the right not just to support their organizations but also to shape them.

Further reading: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/back-to-human-why-hr-leaders-want-to-focus-on-people-again