Does HR now mean human resources - or hybrid resourcefulness?

Introducing the first of our Inspire quarterly master class webinars

Whatever your favoured definition for HR (see above), one thing on which we can all agree is that, in the wake of the pandemic, working life itself has now changed shape. And few have a clearer view of this transformation in the world of work than HR professionals.

Most will have been heavily involved in, at first, responding appropriately to the immense challenges posed by the pandemic, followed by adjusting urgently the way their people work in its midst, before planning and implementing what the office, workshop, factory, building site, shop or restaurant will look like in the future.

We can say, with a degree of caution, that this future appears to have arrived. Whatever shape it takes, hybrid is probably the word which best captures what it means.

But how does this translate into the practical, Monday-to-Friday and beyond?

In the first of our Inspire master classes, we wanted to explore a bit more closely the impact of hybrid working in practice.

What effect will it have on your key people, teams and employees in general?

Our masterclass will look at what you need to do to manage this technological, performance and morale-maintaining challenge as the sense of where we work - geographically, physically and virtually - comes under continuing intense pressure.

Chaired by employee benefits consulting veteran Alan Morahan, our expert panel also includes Punter Southall Aspire’s chief executive Steve Butler, Punter Southall Law’s employment specialist Michelle Last and Helen Wood, BAM Construction’s UK compensation and benefits manager.

Areas include how performance management should be applied and what has impacted issues and policy around the do’s and don’ts of conduct.

What’s widely termed ‘the L’Oreal culture’ could not be further away from haircare when it comes to balancing the legitimate needs of your employees with those of the business for which they work.

“Because you’re worth it” might be a memorable advertisement tagline but it’s also come to represent a shorthand for the well-publicised “Great Resignation” with a shrinking pool of candidates choosing from a rising number of vacancies and more insistent demands for individualised work patterns.

And when you consider you may now be in competition for talent with organisations which prioritise flexibility as a working practice in all its forms, this issue also becomes a recruitment and retention factor.

We’re also increasingly aware of companies wrestling with higher sickness absence while, at the same time, trying to chart meaningful productivity from more inventive methods of less effective presenteeism (leaving laptops permanently logged in: the new coat-over-the-back-of-the-chair)?

Our panel will ask how best to equip middle managers with the know-how to handle scenarios for which they will, understandably, have had no bespoke training with colleagues who are also themselves only just coming to terms with the new reality of work in 2022.

Informal yet informative, the webinar will offer a range of informed opinions from our employee benefits consultant, employment lawyer and guest employer to help inform your resourcefulness for what is set to be a new era in HR practice.