Featuring scholarly and practitioner insights from HR and people leaders, industry experts, and researchers.

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Rebecca Homkes about why uncertainty is the defining leadership skill of this decade. Dr. Rebecca Homkes is high-growth strategy specialist and the founder of a boutique consultancy firm, advising CEOs and executive teams focused on growth and success through uncertainty. She is a Faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education, Lecturer at the London Business School (LBS) Executive Education, Advisor and Faculty at BCGU (Boston Consulting Group), and previous Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE)’s Centre for Economic Performance. Dr. Homkes is also the director of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) global Active Learning Program (ALP); a former partner with GrowthX, a Silicon Valley investment ecosystem and innovation consultancy; and the faculty lead of fintech scaleup accelerators. A global keynote speaker, she is a member of several advisory boards, directed the joint McKinsey & Co and LSE Centre for Economic Performance Global Management Project from 2007-2014 and has regularly been featured in Harvard Business Review, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fortune, and Forbes.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this HCI Webinar, I talk with Luis Garcia about personalized adaptive workplace learning and assessment. Luis Garcia is a seasoned international executive with over 25 years of experience in technology, digital media, and education. He specializes in driving new ventures and products to rapid growth by building effective teams that harness innovation, technology, and creativity to solve complex problems. He is the president of PETE, an Orlando-based tech startup that offers a suite of cost-effective and customizable solutions that enable organizations to deliver personalized workforce learning at scale. The PETE team is dedicated to harnessing the power of AI to help organizations of all sizes optimize their training initiatives, spanning from onboarding to regulatory compliance, product knowledge, technical skills, and more, without hiring additional training resources.

This research explores a fundamental shift in human resources, moving away from traditional administrative departments toward AI-accelerated operating models. Major consulting firms and industry leaders are advocating for a role architecture that prioritizes strategic workforce design, data fluency, and human-machine collaboration. By automating routine tasks and redistributing responsibilities, these new frameworks aim to increase organizational agility and operational efficiency. However, the research cautions that simply dismantling HR without building managerial capability and ethical AI governance can lead to significant legal risks and decreased employee well-being. Ultimately, the research emphasizes that sustainable transformation requires proactive redesign based on business outcomes rather than reactive cost-cutting.

This research explores a fundamental shift in human resources, moving away from traditional administrative departments toward AI-accelerated operating models. Major consulting firms and industry leaders are advocating for a role architecture that prioritizes strategic workforce design, data fluency, and human-machine collaboration. By automating routine tasks and redistributing responsibilities, these new frameworks aim to increase organizational agility and operational efficiency. However, the research cautions that simply dismantling HR without building managerial capability and ethical AI governance can lead to significant legal risks and decreased employee well-being. Ultimately, the research emphasizes that sustainable transformation requires proactive redesign based on business outcomes rather than reactive cost-cutting. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This research explores a fundamental shift in human resources, moving away from traditional administrative departments toward AI-accelerated operating models. Major consulting firms and industry leaders are advocating for a role architecture that prioritizes strategic workforce design, data fluency, and human-machine collaboration. By automating routine tasks and redistributing responsibilities, these new frameworks aim to increase organizational agility and operational efficiency. However, the research cautions that simply dismantling HR without building managerial capability and ethical AI governance can lead to significant legal risks and decreased employee well-being. Ultimately, the research emphasizes that sustainable transformation requires proactive redesign based on business outcomes rather than reactive cost-cutting. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This research explores a fundamental shift in human resources, moving away from traditional administrative departments toward AI-accelerated operating models. Major consulting firms and industry leaders are advocating for a role architecture that prioritizes strategic workforce design, data fluency, and human-machine collaboration. By automating routine tasks and redistributing responsibilities, these new frameworks aim to increase organizational agility and operational efficiency. However, the research cautions that simply dismantling HR without building managerial capability and ethical AI governance can lead to significant legal risks and decreased employee well-being. Ultimately, the research emphasizes that sustainable transformation requires proactive redesign based on business outcomes rather than reactive cost-cutting. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Luis Garcia about personalized adaptive workplace learning and assessment. Luis Garcia is a seasoned international executive with over 25 years of experience in technology, digital media, and education. He specializes in driving new ventures and products to rapid growth by building effective teams that harness innovation, technology, and creativity to solve complex problems. He is the president of PETE, an Orlando-based tech startup that offers a suite of cost-effective and customizable solutions that enable organizations to deliver personalized workforce learning at scale. The PETE team is dedicated to harnessing the power of AI to help organizations of all sizes optimize their training initiatives, spanning from onboarding to regulatory compliance, product knowledge, technical skills, and more, without hiring additional training resources. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Abstract: The dismantling of traditional HR functions by high-profile executives signals a fundamental reckoning with how organizations manage their people operations. This article examines four future-oriented HR operating models—from Wowledge, McKinsey, Deloitte, and Mercer—that propose radically different role architectures for the AI era. Rather than eliminating people-management work, these models redistribute it through specialized roles designed for strategic impact, technological fluency, and operational efficiency. Analysis reveals convergence around core capabilities: architectural thinking for workforce design, data-driven decision-making, agile service delivery, and human-machine collaboration. The article traces evolution pathways for traditional HR roles, examines organizational consequences of poorly executed transitions, and provides evidence-based guidance for building sustainable people-operations capabilities. Leaders must proactively redesign their HR functions before market pressures force reactive dismantlement that fragments critical governance, escalates risk, and degrades employee experience. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.