leadership matters
“BUT WHILE EMPLOYERS MAY REJOICE AT THE PROSPECT OF
AFFORDABLE, AGILE TALENT, IT RAISES A HOST OF NEW QUESTIONS
AND NEW CHALLENGES FOR HR TO WORK THROUGH.”
Even beyond the parameters of hiring part-timers or contrac-tors,
we are seeing innovations like Uber and Task Rabbit, where
the “worker” has almost complete autonomy about setting the
terms of their own work.
But while employers may rejoice at the prospect of affordable,
agile talent, it raises a host of new questions and new challenges
for HR to work through.
How can we ensure that adequate training and onboard-ing
takes place for contract workers who may only work for a
company for a short time? How can we ensure institutional
knowledge transfer when a large component of the organization
may be made up of contingent workers? How can we build a
strong, cohesive workplace culture if a third of our workforce
turns over every six months?
These are just a few of the crucial questions HR will be
pondering for the foreseeable future. We delve into the conver-sation
in this issue, but that’s just a jumping-off point. These
are challenges we will surely continue to work on for years to
come – and just another piece of work for HR to add value to a
company’s success. n
Karen Stone, CHRE, is chair of the Human Resources
Professionals Association.
6 ❚ MAY 2018 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL
