The scarcity of qualified profiles will be the main challenge in the labor market in the years to come, says the Human Capital Research VP of SAP.

Contrary to popular belief –the inclusion of technology in companies destroys jobs-, Steve Hunt, VP of Human Capital Management Research at SAP, states that technology does not eliminate, but, on the contrary, it creates employment “as it drives economic growth”.

However, technology has divided the labor market into two clearly separated parts, says the expert. “There is a very qualified labor market that includes people who design and fix machines; and another labor market with no qualification at all, people who simply run machines”, describes Hunt.

What are the consequences of this labor market division?

Technology tends to eliminate semi-qualified jobs. For example, years ago, if you wanted to be a mechanic, you could start by working at a gas station, loading gas and learn how to work on cars. It was a way to start with a non-qualified job and go to a qualified job. However, technology has made cars so complicated that there is no way someone can learn to work on them without attending a technical school. In addition, the process of loading gas has become so automatic that you do not even need people to do it. Nevertheless, if someone actually does it, he may end up doing it for his whole life. Something similar happens with cashiers in supermarkets: it used to be a semi-qualified job, and could be the entry door to working in other areas or becoming a branch manager. Nowadays, there are automated cashiers and you only have a person who is bagging groceries, a job that requires no qualification at all.

On the other hand you have a person who works on the operation of the machines, which is very complex. There used to be a road that took you from non-qualified jobs to qualified jobs. Technology is eliminating that road, and is creating a gap between those two very different labor markets. That is what we see. We still do not know what this means, but it is one of the challenges we face: using technology to help people go form the unqualified to the qualified.

What other challenges emerge linked to workforce?

The growing scarcity of qualified workers is one. It affects more those countries where the population pyramid is inverted (fewer people are born than the ones that die) or flat (population does not decline, but it does not also grow). We can see the consequences in the case of engineering. There are companies losing engineers with 30 years of experience, and they look for engineers with 15 years of experience to replace them, but they cannot find them simply because there aren’t any. Consequently, they hire people with little experience and the challenge becomes to retain them and speed their learning process.

You are the author of Commonsense Talent Management: using Strategic Human Resources to Improve Company Performance. How do you define strategic human resources?

To make it simple, there three things that are necessary to have a successful company. First, a strategy: how you are going to make money. Strategy used to be a differentiating element, but in the Twitter era, if you have a strategy, everyone knows which it is. Secondly, you need resources to develop the strategy. Finally, you need people who use the resources to make it possible to execute the company’s strategy. And that is what strategic human resources are about. There are certain basic processes linked to human resources, such as hiring people, setting goals, provide feedback, etc. But what it is really about is getting people to use resources to execute the strategy and this, in a world that changes so fast, is what matters the most. The reason is that what makes you win is not having a good strategy or resources; what makes you win is executing the strategy is a faster and more efficient way than your competitors. And being able to shift if the strategy needs to change. Being agile.

How is technology included in the development of strategic human resources?

The research group I lead is, basically, a team of psychologists. We focus on how to use technology to influence the behavior of people in the workspace: how to create a coaching environment, how to make better decisions, how to increase learning, commitment, development. Technology adds value to the management of human resources in two ways: on the one hand, it helps to administrate efficiently; on the other hand, it changes the way in which companies manage their workforce. What technology can do is actually quite simple: it helps to set clear goals; it makes processes open and transparent. It is not about telling people what to do, but of having conversations about the strategy. Technology enables connections: between my goals and the meaning of the work I am doing and enabling people to be more connected with other people.

Source: Clarin