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This HR leader strongly believes that the workforce needs to have the smarts and mental resilience to pivot quickly for changes in structures and operating models.
Pallavi Srivastava, Director Talent, APJ, Thermo Fisher Scientific, has taken on multiple hats during her HR career by leveraging her belief and faith in using technology to propel HR solutions of the future.
Prior to this role, Pallavi has worked with Johnson Controls as APAC HRBP for business functions, and spent close to two decades in various global and regional HR leadership roles with IBM — a tenure she spent in India, New York, and Singapore.
A prolific speaker and an HR thought leader, she is often invited for industry interactions as guest lecturer with students in several Singapore universities —NUS, NTU, SP Jain and SUSS. Pallavi also articulates her insights on HR digital transformational aspects through her articles in regional media publications.
Leading up to her session at #TalentTechAsiaSummit, Mary Ann Bundukin sits down with Pallavi to learn about the need for talent to stay adaptive, resilient, and equipped with critical skills in emerging technologies such as AI and analytics.
Q Thinking back to your first day in HR, what is the most important learning that sticks with you until today?
I came into HR from a consulting profile. Therefore, my most important learning always has been that the HR business is 'business', and HR’s levers of influence on the business are the people. In everything we do, we influence business growth via its most important resource — the people. This helps me to always keep business priorities front and centre of any HR programme, and also keeps us grounded to make sure we are bringing value to our people through success in their roles.
Q What steps do you believe are necessary to transform today's talent into the talent that the business needs?
I strongly believe we need talent that has the capabilities to adapt to uncertain environments, have the smarts and the mental resilience to pivot quickly for changes in structures and operating models, and have superior skills in new technology areas like analytics and AI. These are profession-agnostic requirements, and also irrespective of organisational seniority. The scope and impact of how they assimilate these capabilities might differ, but the basis remains the same.
At the same time, we also need people who have fungibility of skills. Single-focus career paths will not make the cut for more senior roles.
We will need our upcoming talent to skill up in multiple areas so as to navigate shifts in job designs which are already taking place on account of AI.
Q Could you share emerging trends that you believe will have the most significant impact on HR in the next few years?
If we continue to adopt and adapt AI technologies (generative AI/ChatGPT type capabilities) and predictive data modelling for talent identification, hiring and development, etc., and continue to incorporate analytics into our day-to-day jobs, we will see HR’s role shift to become policy custodians of these AI-driven frameworks in HR (talent, compensation/L&D, etc.).
We will also be the gate keepers of some of the algorithms written by coders. HR skills will include bias and ethics training, and an understanding of algorithmic models. Already with HR tech being a 50+bn-dollar industry, we will need to make the shift rapidly. Therefore, I believe that HR roles will start hiring for these skills aside from core functional knowledge.
This is a journey and not every organisation or country will be at the same level of maturity. However, the HR profession will continue to evolve as the skills of upcoming talent evolve, to meet the changes in a macro-economic environment.
HR cannot afford to be the slowest cog in the wheels of change.
A corollary to this, however, is that to counter some of the negative effects of a tech-driven world, we will also need to focus on developing analytical and critical thinking capabilities in our talent, and especially in our leaders. Else, we run the risk of leaders getting complacent on learning — after all, there may be so much information flow that the art of questioning may get lost.
Going forward, it is absolutely critical that we retain and enhance the capabilities of our leaders and influencers to make objective decisions despite what algorithmic models say.
Q What are you most looking forward to in your session at #TalentTechAsiaSummit?
Understanding the impact and scope of new technologies on our profession. Listening to experts on how best to leverage these even as we create awareness around the pitfalls of solely focusing on AI adoption and not creating opportunities to hone our abilities for critical thinking in parallel.
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