Hybrid working and technology are key drivers of change for organisations, claims report

The latest findings from the CIPD’s People Profession 2023: UK and Ireland survey report, which surveyed 1,456 HR and workplace professionals across the UK, show that technology and hybrid working have had a significant impact on their roles and organisations. The report found that rapidly evolving technology, like generative AI, is having an impact on people teams as well as the wider business. Over half of UK people professionals, 55 percent, surveyed believe that advancing technology is transforming the way HR teams operate and deliver in their role.

In addition, 42 percent of people professionals believe their role is changing significantly due to technology, suggesting that job roles are evolving alongside the impact of digital transformation.  Of those surveyed, 41 percent of people professionals said that supporting employees’ mental health and wellbeing had become more difficult because of hybrid working, while 40 percent felt hybrid working made building organisational culture and values more challenging.

However, the CIPD is also highlighting the opportunities that these new ways of working can present and the crucial role of people professionals in providing training for line managers on how to support hybrid teams and by keeping hybrid working policies and organisational culture under constant review.

The poll also suggests that wellbeing within the HR profession itself is more positive than previous years. In fact, 32 percent of people professionals say their job has a positive (or very positive) impact on their mental health (compared to 31 percent in 2022), whilst a fifth (20 percent) say that their job has had a positive (or very positive) impact on their physical health also, compared to 16 percent in 2022.

In addition to these findings, this year the CIPD also looked at the state of the profession internationally and found some interesting comparisons:

• In Ireland, like the UK, it found that 42 percent of people professionals thought their role was changing significantly due to advancing technology, though this is lower than international counterparts.

• In the Middle East and North Africa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) respondents are more likely than their counterparts in Egypt and the UAE to state that their role is changing significantly due to advancing technology (56 percent). Encouragingly, hybrid working has had a very positive impact on people outcomes in all three countries involved in the survey.

• In Asia-Pacific, Australian people professionals are more likely to agree that digital change and technology is transforming people operations (77 percent), while HR practitioners in Singapore stated that supporting employee well-being and attracting and retaining talent is more difficult in a hybrid world (39 percent for both).