HR4.0: Shaping People Strategies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Abstract

Managing a successful transition to a new world of work will require significant and well-coordinated efforts by both the public and private sectors. While governments will need to update education and labour policies, provide more support for reskilling and upskilling, and enhance social protection to help workers successfully manage their transition, business es will also have to invest in their workforce through training, lifelong learning and efforts to foster diversity and inclusion.1 How business leaders manage this transition will help to de fine a new contract between workers and companies, and determine whether the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) leads to a positive outcome for society. The human resources func tion and its evolution thus shapes not only how relevant and forward-thinking people strategies are implemented inside companies; it also has broader societal implications. This pa per aims to define the key ways in which human resources management must change within the 4IR and how the HR function can help deliver against these imperatives. This con cept, HR 4.0, is critical for a changing context