CIPD Chief Executive Peter Cheese has urged HR professionals to play their part in creating a’responsible business’ amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
He asked, “How can we build organisations that are able respond to an uncertain world?”
Cheese outlined the challenges that HR teams face, including the rapidly changing nature of job roles, the ethical use of AI, and how they engage with the government and unions in new developments, such as the Employment Rights Bill.
He said that the focus would be on core and fundamental skills, such as emotional intelligence, critical thinking and collaboration.
“AI will have a rapid impact on the work that we do, so we need to make sure the jobs created are beneficial for the people and that they are based on the principles of good working.
We need to consider how we can use technology to create good jobs in the future. The work must be human-centred and we should make the most of both our people and technology.
He noted that the CIPD was involved in discussions with Labour on certain aspects of the Employment Rights Bill. While there were “themes dear to our hearts”, he acknowledged that some aspects of implementation, such as the day-one rights, would be complex.
Professor Michael Wooldridge, director of foundational AI at the Alan Turing Institute and professor of computer sciences at the University of Oxford, delivered the keynote address at this year’s ACE. He echoed Cheese on the importance of employers taking an objective approach to AI’s role in the workplace.
“For the majority of us, generative AI will be just another tool we use in our work lives, like browsers and computers.” “But productivity is the sweet spot for AI and we have productivity problems,” he said.
HR, for example, could mine unstructured data like policies and minutes of meetings to gain insights.
He urged his audience to learn how to “use the AI version of critical reasoning”, which involves questioning the answers provided by AI tools.
He explained that this involves learning to question the AI tool’s responses. If you ask it a simple question, and it answers yes, can you explain why? It is important to not treat AI like a superintelligence that has all the answers.
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