The future of human resources

josh angles, b.b.a.'17

When Josh Angles graduated from the Haworth College of Business in 2017, he was excited about what the future would hold. After a year with PNC’s management development program, he decided to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pursuing a master’s degree in human resources and industrial relations. That experience taught Angles a lot about HR, and even more about himself. During graduate school, he was exposed to Zillow Group, where he now works as a program manager for recruiting programs and operations.

Angles has observed many things that will shape the future of the human resources profession.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we all see work, and I will remember what I have learned from this well into my career. Social distancing and shelter-at-home challenges to business continuity have been unprecedented. The need for cross-functional teams to understand onboarding, communication, interviewing and engagement is extremely important. This situation has taught all of us the value of developing successful models for working remotely and identifying gaps in processes. These lessons will shape how work will be done in the future at many organizations.”

One of Angles passions is diversity and inclusion, because of its importance to the workplace, and because of the complexity of building a corporate culture that embraces it. “Developing a more diverse workforce is essential for future hiring that controls for unconscious bias and is representative of different customer bases. The questions become very nuanced. For example, how do you make everyone feel aligned to a collective mission and culture across a global company, yet embrace authenticity and best practices? Many companies do not prioritize funding a culture team or spend the time to establish a concrete strategy, related to diversity and inclusion, and that is short-sighted, given its importance.”

The artificial intelligence component of human resources is something that Angles finds promising, but he notes it isn’t without significant pitfalls. “Artificial intelligence is completely altering how we recruit talent. Finding the right talent, free of bias, will determine the futures of many businesses. The legal ramifications of sourcing through AI are largely unknown, yet companies are marching full steam into this area to reduce HR spending. These tools are getting the wrong type of attention if a company is using them without the ability to map and audit the decisions made. Caution is vital when employing a system designed by biased humans (and potentially drawing on biased past data) to make hiring decisions.”

Personally, Angles is looking to develop his leadership skills as he encounters future opportunities as Zillow Group diversifies it revenue lines, calling for more talent in new areas.

“It’s important for managers to understand that everyone has different reasons for working. Some want to grow personally and professionally for an intrinsic reason; others are there to support what is most important to them, which may be outside the company. The need to understand what motivates those around you is vital to asking the right people, the right questions, to partner on the right projects. A good leader listens and changes their approach based on the person who is sitting in front of them.”