What have been the highlights of 2023?

It’s certainly been a year of consolidation with mergers and acquisitions in the HR and learning space, which have been significant both globally and regionally.

What does this mean for the business consumer?

It could be positive or negative, depending on your current vendor partner relationship. If you are happy with your vendor partner and service provider and feel you work in more of a partnership than a mere supplier relationship, then the chances of them being able to offer more services and provision with the same quality and support are high, and that’s a win-win. On the other hand, if you don’t have a particularly tight relationship and, through their merger, you just see more products, then it may be time to re-look at your provider. Bigger doesn’t always mean better in this case.

How do you see technology influence HR in 2024?

Well, let’s start in the obvious place, the world of AI. It’s been no surprise that this has both delighted and petrified the HR and Learning community in 2023. Seeing from my side for the future of HR and Learning, AI is extremely exciting, but buyers need to educate themselves on the levels of AI and not get sucked into the pitch of ‘we have AI, so it’s got to be a good platform or course, etc.’ You need to sort out what is intelligent and not merely artificial. Know the difference between good computer programming and machine learning.

Blockchain has been a surprise package in 2023, relative to education (not crypto), where governments and educational institutions are investing in this framework for some great automations and security services. It’s well worth looking into if you are not already invested in a blockchain plan.

The Metaverse is still waiting in the wings for me in 2024, even with the new wearable headsets from Meta Quest and Apple. The incredible experiential learning and engaging content are still reliant on the participants to endure lengthy periods of wearing clumsy hardware to get the full effects and I am not sure people are ready for that leap just yet in 2024. My advice would be to take some content that will work in the virtual and augmented worlds but can still function in our comfortable 2D realm.

What is your advice to our community of HR and Learning professionals in our region?

Embrace change and roll with it. Learn more about technology and the affordances it allows in our industry. Be playful and inquisitive. Learn something new so you can teach or help someone. Leaders are getting younger, so learn to communicate effectively and try to see things from their viewpoint. Continue to contribute to our HR & Learning community, knowing that what goes around comes around for us all.