Longer lifespans, more frequent industry disruption and more diverse technology-enabled modes of work collectively point towards more common and more substantial career changes taking place during people’s working lives. As people increasingly aspire to such career shifts, there is a risk of conflict with employers who prioritise retention and HR practices which aim for cost-efficiency, consistency and risk reduction in workforce management.
This paper reports the results of a semi-structured interview process, engaging ten HR and careers professionals, with more than 80 years experience between them across a range of sectors and countries. The process is designed to develop practical ideas for how HR practice might evolve and thrive to better serve such a workforce. Ideas are identified across the full range of an employee’s potential journey, from pipeline building prior to application, recruitment, in-company career and exit/alumni management.
Motivations for employers are identified in a quantitative evidence base relating productivity and wage gains to increased exposure to multiple employers and employee mobility, but interviews suggest such motivations are unlikely to be evenly spread across sectors and roles.
This potential evolution of HR practice is placed within an historical context that extends from the Taylorism of the late 19th century through workplace conditions and talent management, to position such an “HR 4.0” as the continuation of a trend in which HR pays attention to an increasingly broad range of features that define a person’s working life.