The Future HR Leader

Published on April 14, 2020

The Future HR Leader

According to Gartner, HR leaders are focused on five key measures to continue driving business outcomes. The priorities include: building critical skills and competencies, strengthening the current and future leadership bench, incorporating organizational design and change management, driving digital business transformation, and enhancing employee experience. Gartner research shows that only 9% of chief human resource officers agree that their organization is prepared for the future of work.

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Dawn Rogers, Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Pfizer

7 Critical Strategies for Future HR Professionals

Dawn Rogers, Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Pfizer

Dawn Rogers is the Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Pfizer, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. Her experience spans Pfizer’s global business, including HR leadership roles in Commercial in both developed and emerging markets; Research and Development; and Enabling Functions. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dawn spent 11 years in Human Resources at Serono and three years at Abbott (formerly Kos Pharmaceuticals), a start-up company, where she built their commercial organization in preparation for the first product launch and an IPO.

To move forward in HR, looking both at small details & thinking big picture, asking questions about what is affecting companies and their people today and tomorrow is extremely important. In an interview with David Reimer, CEO at Merryck & Co., Dawn says, "For somebody like me who’s built a career out of operational excellence and being able to deliver on every detail, it means getting comfortable walking away from some of the details. And to do that, you have to have the right people in place on your team to do all the things you can’t focus on".

The importance of improving the "employee experience" is an opportunity for companies to refresh and expand this concept to address the "human experience". They also need to understand the ambitions workers have to connect work back to the impact it has on not only the company, but society as a whole. Dawn says, "You want to be able to test messages and whether they’re being received the way you intended. We need to use more contemporary digital survey tools to get a constant pulse of feedback. People have to see the company is showing real and valid interest in them, and that what they’re telling you is informing things that are happening".

During the challenging times of the COVID-19, Dawn also counsels her employees on setting priorities and boundaries so they can be happier both at work and at home. In The Wisdom Coalition Podcast, she says women sometimes second guess their decisions too much. She says, “I’ve never had a man sit in my office and wonder if he should have gone to the school play or the board meeting".

Dawn says, "If we’re going to achieve our Purpose – breakthroughs that change patients’ lives, we’re going to need to clear the path. Finding ways to simplify the things that we’re doing – not just inside HR, but across our entire business – is a key area that we’ve doubled down on here".

Dawn holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Management. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Center Valley, Pennsylvania, with her husband, John, and their two sons.

7 Critical Strategies for Future HR Professionals

According to SHRM, "The role of the HR professional has changed dramatically along with the workforce and economy, and that evolution will continue as machines and technology replace tasks once performed by humans... Tomorrow's HR leaders will need to be bigger, broader thinkers, and they'll have to be tech-savvy and nimble enough to deal with an increasingly agile and restless workforce".

SHRM summarizes seven critical areas that analysts say are key to future HR success. They include business strategy, analytics and, of course, people.

1. Embrace technology and analytics

Millennials are now the largest generation in the workplace and they are used to getting information right away through a computer or smartphone. HR professionals need to revamp employee experiences, like onboarding, checking benefits and applying paid time off and have them available to accommodate the customer experience younger employees want.

2. Understand how the company succeeds

Future HR leaders need to understand how their industry and their company works. They should be wondering what the CEO and what the CFO worry about. As HR moves into the C-suite, it needs to start acting like part of the executive team.

3. Stay focused on people

Future HR professionals need to give their top employees a reason to come to work for them since the competition fierce for good talent. HR needs to create an environment where people enjoy being at their company and can't imagine being anywhere else.

4. Be ready for the new workforce

The future workforce will include transient workers and gig workers who come and leave jobs like no other. Future HR leaders will need to strategize tasks throughout the company can be automated and then re-skill the employees whose jobs are affected by automation.

5. Market a modern benefits package

To attract and keep top talent, future HR professionals must offer and administer a benefits package that is attractive to the modern worker. The package should include parental leave, caregiver leave, expanded fertility benefits, gender reassignment & transformation assistance, financial wellness programs, and other benefits that support important life events.

6. Stay abreast of compliance issues

HR professionals will need to be agile enough to comply with laws related to the gig economy and remote workers.

7. Be certified (or update your skill set)

Future HR professionals need to expand their knowledge of both traditional tasks and overall business strategy as some HR functions become automated or outsourced. The field of HR is changing rapidly and HR professionals need to pursue education opportunities. Taking courses in business finance to develop a more authoritative voice in the executive suite may be helpful.

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