tech research studies human resources

Disruptive technologies for human resource management: a conceptual framework development and research agenda

Journal of Work-Applied Management

ISSN : 2205-2062

Article publication date: 24 November 2022

Issue publication date: 24 April 2023

Disruptive technologies for human resource management (HRM) lack evidence about synthesizing its antecedents and outcomes in the empirical research landscape. This review study was conducted addressing two objectives: (1) to identify the themes of HRM technology empirically researched and (2) to develop a conceptual framework for the antecedents and outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM.

Design/methodology/approach

This article was positioned as a literature review based on the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology. Seventeen articles published between 2000 and 2020 were included for the review from Scopus and LENS.ORG databases. The article screening, inclusion and analysis and findings reporting were based on the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA).

In addressing the first objective, the review found that the electronic human resource management (E-HRM) intention and communication technology support impact E-HRM adoption, resulting in many outcomes. The outcomes include HRM service quality, organizational effectiveness, employee productivity and competitive advantage. In addressing the study's second objective, a conceptual framework was developed based on the gaps identified regarding the determinants and positive outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM. Thus, the conceptual framework was presented from two perspectives. The perspectives were deduced with review results and theoretical grounds.

Research limitations/implications

The findings related to the two objectives provide theoretical and practical implications. One significant practical implication is that action and work-based learning of managers and employees in organizations may suggest adopting disruptive technologies for HRM. Thus future studies can focus on them as determinants of adopting disruptive technologies for HRM to conduct empirical tests. Besides, the findings provide some other future research directions.

Originality/value

The study found empirically proven determinants of E-HRM intention and communication technology support impact E-HRM adoption, which results in many positive outcomes. These were synthesized based on the studies conducted during the period 2000–2020. This synthesis and theoretical grounding deduced a conceptual framework for determinants and outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM.

• Disruptive technologies for human resource management
• Systematic literature review
• Conceptual framework development

Priyashantha, K.G. (2023), "Disruptive technologies for human resource management: a conceptual framework development and research agenda", Journal of Work-Applied Management , Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 21-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWAM-10-2022-0069

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, K.G. Priyashantha

Published in Journal of Work-Applied Management . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

Disruptive technologies are advancements in modern technology that destroy traditional methods ( Aghion and Howitt, 1990 ; Rodriguez, 2016 ; Buhalis et al. , 2019 ). They are regarded as business drivers ( Gupta and Saxena, 2012 ), facilitating various business functions. Human resource management (HRM) is one affected by these technologies, known as a disruptive technology for HRM ( Gupta and Saxena, 2012 ), digital HRM ( Waddill, 2018 ), smart HRM ( Strohmeier, 2018 ) or smart human resources 4.0 (SHR 4.0). The disruptive technologies for HRM are social media, cloud computing, big data, data analytics, mobile technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) ( Waddill, 2018 ).

These disruptive technologies have created HRM functions more automated ( Lepak and Snell, 1998 ; Shrivastava and Shaw, 2003 ). Social media is used for various purposes, including candidate recruitment and selection ( Bersin, 2017a ), internal communications, team collaboration, training, learning and development ( Waddill, 2018 ). For better decision-making, big data/data analytic software packages provide information about job seekers' and internal employees' performance, satisfaction, engagement, health, safety and well-being ( Waddill, 2018 ; Priyashantha et al ., 2022a , b , c ). They also aid in modeling career paths ( Waddill, 2018 ). Cloud computing automates all HRM processes, such as Human Capital Software (HCM) solutions ( Antonopoulos and Gillam, 2010 ; Ziebell et al. , 2019 ). Employee tracking, performance management, health, safety, well-being and work design are all aided by the IoT ( Aronica, 2014 ; Agarwal and Kapoor, 2020 ). Then, mobile technologies facilitate all these social media, big data, analytic data software, cloud computing and the IoTs and have become a vehicle for other disruptive technologies for HRM ( Priyashantha et al ., 2022a , b , c ). According to industry experts and analysts, they result from improved HRM efficiency, employee experience and greater accessibility to HRM practices than ever before ( Bersin, 2017b ; Juo, 2017 ; Ulrich, 2017 ; Karan, 2020 ). This view needs to be further verified by reviewing the actual knowledge in the research landscape.

There is evidence that any HRM technology that has evolved, from Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) to electronic-HRM (E-HRM) or from E-HRM to disruptive technologies for HRM, can produce better results for the business than earlier HRM technology. Given the research evidence in the literature on HRIS or E-HRM and their determinants and possible outcomes ( Bondarouk et al ., 2017 ; Chandradasa and Priyashantha, 2021a , b ), there are limited empirical studies on the determinants and outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM ( Priyashantha et al ., 2022a , b , c ). There are views of book authors, bloggers and experts on different outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM ( Bersin, 2017a ; Barman and Das, 2018 ; Joshi, 2018 ; Strohmeier, 2018 ). A review study of four decades of E-HRM adoption research till 2017 ( Bondarouk et al. , (2017) and the latest review on the disruptive technologies for HRM ( Priyashantha et al ., 2022a , b , c ) has failed to find any determinants and positive outcomes of disruptive technology use for HRM. Thus, the empirical studies on HRM technology published during 2000–2020, downloaded from Scopus and LENS.ORG databases, were reviewed systematically. A conceptual framework was developed based on the gaps identified in the review. The underlined empirically proven evidence and the theoretical grounds in two perspectives were deduced to support the proposed framework. Since the disruptive technology for HRM is contemporary and relevant and lacks evidence on the proposed framework, the framework would help in understanding the determinants and possible outcomes of disruptive technology for HRM. Furthermore, the component of intention impacts the behavior of the theory of planned behavior ( Ajzen, 1991 ), facilitative conditions of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model ( Venkatesh et al. , 2003 ), and the resource-based view (RBV) theory ( Wernerfelt, 1984 ) can be validated from this proposed model. Additionally, the proposed framework can be used for empirical tests to validate the perspectives given.

In this background, the study's objectives were to (1) identify the themes of HRM technology empirically researched and (2) develop a conceptual framework for the antecedents and outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM. In addressing the first objective, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted. The methodology followed for that is discussed in the methodology section. The study selection process and methods, article risk of bias assessment and methods of analysis are explained in the methodology section. Moreover, the results and findings section consists of three sub-sections: study selection, article characteristics and the themes of HRM technology antecedents and outcomes. These three sections address the first objective of the study. The study selection outlines how the PRISMA article selection framework selected articles, whereas the article characteristics explain the basic characteristics of the selected articles. Then based on the term co-occurrence analysis done for the selected articles found, several themes are explained under the themes of HRM technology antecedents and outcomes. A conceptual framework was developed based on the themes identified, which are explained in section 3.4 . It addresses the second objective of the study and offers two perspectives. Finally, the discussion, conclusion and implications are outlined in this paper.

2. Methods and methodology

2.1 study selection process and methods.

This study is a literature review that followed an SLR methodology. A protocol was developed to determine the inclusion criteria of articles and analysis methods. The inclusion criteria are given in Table 1 . Articles included following a standard guideline recommended for a PRISMA SLR ( Liberati et al. , 2009 ). The PRISMA has three steps: identification, screening and inclusion. Keywords or searched terms, search criteria, databases and data extraction are all part of the identification stage. “Disruptive Technology For Human Resource Management,” “Electronic Human Resource Management” (E-HRM), “Digital Human Resource Management,” and “Human Resource Management Information Systems” (HRIS), antecedents and outcomes were the standard search terms used. The search criteria were developed using “OR” operative for the similar terms for disruptive technology for HRM and “AND” operative between the antecedents and outcomes. The search criteria were written in Scopus and LENS.ORG .

There are two types the screening of articles; screening and eligibility checking. The screening includes automatic screening and manual screening. The articles were included using the default automatic screening functionality of the databases by following the inclusion criteria from one to five mentioned in Table 1 . The number of articles excluded at this stage with the reasons caused is explained in section 3.1 . Further, two independent colleagues of the author assessed each article manually against the inclusion criteria one, two, three and four mentioned in Table 1 . For eligibility checking of the articles, the assessment of methodological reporting is essential ( Meline, 2006 ; Priyashantha et al ., 2021 ; Priyashantha and Dilhani, 2022 ). As an inclusion criterion, five included the empirical research that employed quantitative methodologies, the articles that followed the quantitative research methodology were included in the study, and others were excluded. Two colleagues of the author did the task independently, and the disagreements about inclusion were resolved through discussion. The number of articles excluded with reasons at this point is explained in section 3.1 .

Then the remaining articles were exported, containing the title, abstract, keywords, authors' names and affiliations, journal name, cited numbers and year of publication to an MS Excel sheet, which was used to feed the VOSviewer for necessary analysis. Figure 1 shows the article selection process and the reasons for excluding the articles.

2.2 Article risk of bias assessment

The quality of a review suffers due to researcher bias in article selection and analysis ( Kitchenham and Charters, 2007 ). The selection bias can be minimized by following a review protocol, a systematic, objective article selection procedure ( Xiao and Watson, 2019 ; Priyashantha et al ., 2022a , b , c ), and conducting a parallel independent quality assessment of publications by two or more reviewers ( Brereton et al. , 2007 ). Moreover, a preliminary protocol design that predetermines the analysis procedures can help to reduce analysis bias ( Xiao and Watson, 2019 ). Thus, those procedures were followed to eliminate bias in article selection and analysis.

2.3 Methods of analysis

The analysis method used was a bibliometric analysis. It was performed through the VOSviewer. It is a quantitative method for analyzing scientific activity in research ( Aparicio et al ., 2019 ; Paule-Vianez et al ., 2020 ). Among various bibliometric analyses, the term co-occurrence analysis is vital to identify the term used in article abstracts. The VOSviewer extracted the term co-occurrence data, creating term co-occurrence network visualization. This technique divides the term into several clusters ( van Eck and Waltman, 2014 ) so that the themes represented by each cluster can be discovered ( Priyashantha et al ., 2022a , b , c ). This approach was used to address the study's first objective, identify the theme of HRM technology antecedents and outcomes empirically researched.

3. Results and findings

3.1 study selection.

Initially, 23 articles were found in Scopus and 123 from the LENS.ORG databases to the search criteria mentioned in Table 1 . The automatic screening functionality of both databases excluded 104 articles based on the inclusion criteria listed in Table 1 . Notably, 10 articles were excluded as they did not meet criterion 1. Books ( n  = 8), book chapters ( n  = 4), dissertations ( n  = 6) and conference proceedings ( n  = 16) were excluded as they did not meet criteria 2 and 3. Six papers written in other languages were identified and excluded as they did not meet criterion 4. Besides, the manual independent assessment of two colleagues of the author found that 54 articles were irrelevant as they were outside the scope of the search terms. Additionally, in eligibility checking of articles found that the methodology was not clear ( n  = 2), qualitative ( n  = 10) viewpoints ( n  = 5) and case studies ( n  = 2), and they were excluded as they did not meet criterion 5.

3.2 Article characteristics

The descriptive data of the article set are given first. Figure 2 shows the categorization of the fields that the studies were conducted. Accordingly, most research has been conducted in business, among other areas. Other significant fields include knowledge management, HRM, human resources, marketing and E-HRM. Concerning the year-wise publications ( Figure 3 ) even from the 2000–2020 duration considered for the review, no publication was retrieved until 2011. In 2019, the publications peaked at 13 articles. Moreover, the citation count of each paper received implies the articles' influenceability and popularity in the area studied. In Figure 3 , the orange color bars show the number of citations received years-wise. Accordingly, 2019 is the year that has the highest number of citation counts received and reveals great influence and popularity. Other than that, Figure 3 shows a trend in publications and citations count during the total period. That reveals that 17 articles spanning the last 20 years represent not a vast but exponentially increasing foundation of knowledge in various aspects of technology for HRM. The source country of articles presented in Figure 4 reflects that many published articles originated in India. The second large is the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Malaysia.

3.3 Themes of HRM technology antecedents and outcomes

This section addresses the study's first objective, which was to identify the themes of HRM technology empirically researched. The themes were found using the term co-occurrence network visualization created by VOSviewer 1.6.18. The minimum threshold term occurrence value was set as five, and all the terms that had occurred five times and above in the abstract of each article were considered to create the term co-occurrence network visualization, shown in Figure 5 . Seven terms were detected by the VOSviewer and automatically connected them with lines based on how often those terms occurred in the articles. Further, they were categorized into four clusters shown in different colors. These connecting lines indicate a relationship between terms, and clusters denoted by colors indicate common themes. These common themes were identified by analyzing the findings of each article to identify their similar characteristics. The findings of each article are explained under those common themes below.

Cluster 1-Red – E-HRM Intention: The intention for E-HRM is referred to the desire or willingness to use the E-HRM ( Giri et al. , 2019 ). Since there were four terms, effectiveness, effort expectancy, performance expectancy and social influence, categorized into this cluster, they are said to be represented intention for E-HRM. Because perceived effort expectancy, perceived effectiveness or performance expectancy ( Al-Ajlouni, 2020 ; Al-Harazneh and Sila, 2021 ) and social influence ( Obeidat, 2017 ; Mahfod et al. , 2018 ) have been proven to be the determinants of E-HRM intentions.

The terms with less than five occurrences in abstracts found other determinants for E-HRM intention. They include perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use ( Rawashdeh et al. , 2021 ), subjective norms, perceived innovativeness ( Noerman et al. , 2021 ), and habits ( Al-Ajlouni, 2020 ), attitude and satisfaction of E-HRM ( Yusliza and Ramayah, 2012 ).

Cluster 2-Green – Communication Technology support: This cluster had three terms; communication technology, e-HRM and usefulness. These represent the use of communication technology in implementing the E-HRM ( Rathee and Bhuntel, 2021 ). Thus giving a theme for this cluster as communication technology support is reasonable.

Additionally, analysis of terms less than five occurrences in abstracts found other types of support. They include organizational information system (IS)-related support ( Ibrahim et al. , 2019 ) and web-based technological innovations ( Bissola and Imperatori, 2013 ).

Cluster 3-Blue-Outcomes: The only term included in this cluster of more than five occurrences of terms was HR service quality ( Wahyudi and Park, 2014 ; Iqbal et al. , 2018 ; Nurlina et al. , 2020 ). Organizational effectiveness, competitive advantage ( Obeidat, 2017 ; Iqbal et al ., 2019a , b ) and employee productivity ( Iqbal et al ., 2019 ) are the other outcomes found from the analysis of terms less than five occurrences.

3.4 Conceptual framework development

Relationship of i ntention for d isruptive t echnologies for HRM and c ommunication t echnology s upport with d isruptive t echnologies for HRM .

The theory of planned behavior postulates that intention impacts behavior ( Ajzen, 1991 ). One significant component of the UTAUT ( Venkatesh et al. , 2003 ) and the technology acceptance model (TAM) ( Davis and Davis, 1989 ) is the intention that impacts the use or adoption of technology. Prevailing empirical literature proves that the E-HRM intention impacts the E-HRM use or adoption ( Moghavvemi, 2017 ; Giri et al. , 2019 ). The desire or willingness for E-HRM is the intention ( Davis and Davis, 1989 ; Moghavvemi, 2017 ; Giri et al. , 2019 ), whereas the decision to use or launch E-HRM is referred to as the E-HRM adoption. As the red cluster highlights, the E-HRM intention is determined by factors of perceived effort expectancy, perceived effectiveness or performance expectancy ( Al-Ajlouni, 2020 ; Al-Harazneh and Sila, 2021 ) and social influence ( Obeidat, 2017 ; Mahfod et al. , 2018 ). Additionally, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use ( Rawashdeh et al. , 2021 ), subjective norms, perceived innovativeness ( Noerman et al. , 2021 ) and habits ( Al-Ajlouni, 2020 ), attitude and satisfaction of E-HRM also found to be the determinants of E-HRM intentions ( Yusliza and Ramayah, 2012 ). Based on these notions, as contemporary technology for HRM is the disruptive technologies for HRM, it can be deduced that the intention for disruptive technologies for HRM has a causal relationship with adoption of disruptive technologies for HRM.

Adoption of Disruptive Technologies for HRM creates positive outcomes for the organization.

The RBV theory postulates that proving resources can gain positive results ( Wernerfelt, 1984 ). Thus proving technology resources such as E-HRM or disruptive technologies for HRM may create positive outcomes for the organization. The empirical research found that HR service quality ( Wahyudi and Park, 2014 ; Iqbal et al. , 2018 ; Nurlina et al. , 2020 ), organizational effectiveness, competitive advantage ( Obeidat, 2017 ; Iqbal et al ., 2019a , b ) and employee productivity ( Iqbal et al ., 2019 ) were the positive outcomes of E-HRM adoption. Based on these pieces of information, it can be deduced that adoption of disruptive technologies for HRM creates positive outcomes for the organization.

4. Discussion

Disruptive technologies for HRM are regarded as the technology that can change the entire HRM landscape. This research mainly looked into the areas addressed in an empirical investigation during the period 2000–2020. Seventeen of the total 146 articles retrieved through Scopus and LENS.ORG were screened through the PRISMA article selection guidelines used for this review. The methodology adopted was the SLR. It is an objective technique using scientific and quantitative techniques to review the literature rather than subjective reviewers' interpretations.

Since the study's first objective was to identify the themes of HRM technology empirically researched, the term co-occurrence analysis of VOSviewer software was used in this task. Based on the term co-occurrence analysis result, the terms clustered into three categories represented the three common themes. They include E-HRM intention, communication technology support and outcomes. These findings highlight one important thing. That is, the researchers focus on E-HRM rather than disruptive HRM technologies. It implies that disruptive technologies for HRM have not been addressed in the empirical research landscape during the period of our concern.

Concerning the E-HRM intention, perceived effectiveness, effort expectancy, performance expectancy and social influence ( Obeidat, 2017 ; Mahfod et al. , 2018 ; Al-Ajlouni, 2020 ; Al-Harazneh and Sila, 2021 ) are the determinants of E-HRM intention. Additionally, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use ( Rawashdeh et al. , 2021 ), subjective norms, perceived innovativeness ( Noerman et al ., 2021 ), employee habits ( Al-Ajlouni, 2020 ), attitude and satisfaction with E-HRM ( Yusliza and Ramayah, 2012 ) are also found to the determinants of E-HRM intention. Concerning the theories related to these determinants, the TAM ( Davis and Davis, 1989 ) included perceived usefulness and ease. Additionally, the subjective norm is addressed by the TAM 2 model. The UTAUT ( Venkatesh et al. , 2003 ) model includes the performance expectancy and habits, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitative conditions. The innovation of diffusion theory ( Rogers, 1962 ) addresses perceived innovativeness. The attitude and satisfaction are addressed by the technology continuance theory ( Liao et al ., 2009 ).Thus all the determinants are addressed by the theories and provide sound theoretical grounding to determine the E-HRM intention.

Communication technology infrastructure development is essential in implementing the E-HRM. Thus, communication technology support ( Rathee and Bhuntel, 2021 ), organizational IS-related support ( Ibrahim et al. , 2019 ) and web-based technological innovations ( Bissola and Imperatori, 2013 ) is also a determinant of E-HRM adoption. Otherwise, the expected outcome and the interest in the E-HRM will be reduced. Concerning the theories related to the communication technology infrastructure development, all these supports and innovations are addressed by the facilitative condition in the UTAUT model ( Venkatesh et al. , 2003 ). Thus, this determinant is significantly supported by solid theoretical findings.

The outcome variables of E-HRM adoptions found were HRM service quality ( Wahyudi and Park, 2014 ; Iqbal et al. , 2018 ; Nurlina et al. , 2020 ), organizational effectiveness, competitive advantage ( Obeidat, 2017 ; Iqbal et al ., 2019a , b ) and employee productivity ( Iqbal et al ., 2019 ). These were the only variables that were subjected to investigations during the period. This phenomenon is discussed in the RBV theory ( Wernerfelt, 1984 ), where more resource provisions to employees can result in positive organizational outcomes.

The study's second objective was to develop a conceptual framework for the antecedents and outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM. Such a framework was targeted to develop as the disruptive HRM technology is the prevailing technology for HRM, lack of evidence relating to its determinants and outcomes and aiding framework for empirical investigations. Thus, the antecedents and outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM were deduced based on prevailing theatrical underpinnings and the empirical investigations done during the period. For that, two perspectives were presented.

One component of the first perspective is the intention of disruptive technologies for HRM causes the adoption of disruptive technologies for HRM. It was theoretically grounded by the “intention impacts behavior” component in the theory of planned behavior ( Ajzen, 1991 ). More specific theories relating to technology intention and adoption are the UTAUT ( Venkatesh et al. , 2003 ) and TAM ( Davis and Davis, 1989 ). Thus, technology intention impacts the technology adoption component of both these models were used to support the causal relationship between the intention of disruptive technologies for HRM and the adoption of disruptive technologies for HRM. Additionally, the same causal relationship was deduced by the empirical findings relating to E-HRM intention impacts on E-HRM adoption ( Al-Ajlouni, 2020 ; Al-Harazneh and Sila, 2021 ; Mahfod et al. , 2018 ; Noerman et al. , 2021 ; Obeidat, 2017 ; Rawashdeh et al. , 2021 ; Yusliza and Ramayah, 2012 ).

The other component of the first perspective was the causal relationship between communication technology support and the adoption of disruptive technologies for HRM. It was grounded by the component of facilitative conditions of the UTAUT model ( Venkatesh et al. , 2003 ). The facilitative conditions are technical infrastructure that supports the adoption of technology innovations ( Venkatesh et al. , 2003 ). Thus, communication technology support can be treated as a facilitative condition. They include communication technology infrastructure ( Mathieson, 1991 ), such as IS-related support ( Ibrahim et al. , 2019 ), fast Internet connectivity, web-based technological innovations ( Bissola and Imperatori, 2013 ) and mobile technologies ( Waddill, 2018 ) can be treated as facilitative conditions. Thus, they cause disruptive technology for HRM adoptions.

The second perspective is about the causal relationship between adopting disruptive technologies for HRM and the positive outcomes for the organization. It was supported by the RBV theory ( Wernerfelt, 1984 ). According to this theory, adopting technologies for HRM is expected to create positive outcomes. It was evident in the empirical literature that E-HRM adoption has resulted in HR service quality ( Wahyudi and Park, 2014 ; Iqbal et al. , 2018 ; Nurlina et al. , 2020 ), organizational effectiveness, an advantage in competition ( Obeidat, 2017 ; Iqbal et al ., 2019a , b ) and employee productivity ( Iqbal et al ., 2019 ). This information resulted in deducing that the adoption of disruptive technologies for HRM creates positive outcomes for the organization.

Instead of determinants discussed in perspective 1 , there may be other determinants such as organizational and contextual factors. Since adopting disruptive technology for HRM is an organizational change that happens through traditions of consultancy or enterprise development motivations ( Rowe and Brook, 2022 ). However, there is evidence that organizational changes can happen through action learning ( Zabiegalski and Marquardt, 2022 ) and work-applied learning ( Zuber-Skerritt and Abraham, 2017 ; Brook and Abbott, 2022 ). Furthermore, work-applied management learning ( Fergusson, 2022 ; Quew-Jones and Rowe, 2022 ) such as workplace mentoring, counseling and collaborative support in a changing context, help adopt the change ( Quew-Jones and Rowe, 2022 ). This action learning and work-applied learning of managers and employees in organizations may suggest adopting disruptive technologies for HRM as it is the prevailing technology in organizational agility, flexibility and ambidexterity. Such a suggestion is further grounded by a solid theoretical foundation in the second perspective that more benefits or outcomes are consequence from disruptive technologies for HRM. The second perspective could also motivate policymakers to adopt the HRM's disruptive technologies.

Other than that, there were some limitations of the study. One includes a limited number, in this case, 17 articles. That may be because of using only two databases for article retrieval. More articles could be downloaded if the articles were downloaded from other databases. The other one is the inclusion of only the empirical studies for the review. If these limitations were overcome, the results could be different.

5. Conclusion

Disruptive technologies for HRM are viewed as a prominent facilitator to benefit the entire employee life cycle, from recruitment to retirement. As disruptive technologies for HRM is the prevailing technology, many viewpoints are presented that it has more advantages and lacks evidence about synthesizing its antecedents and outcomes in the empirical research landscape. Thus, a review study was conducted based on the SLR methodology. It was based on addressing two objectives: (1) to identify the themes of HRM technology empirically researched and (2) to develop a conceptual framework for the antecedents and outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM. Seventeen articles published between 2000 and 2020 were included for the review from a total of 146 using PRISMA-compatible inclusion and exclusion criteria. All of the articles were obtained from the Scopus and LENS.ORG databases.

The review findings reveal that the E-HRM intention and communication technology support impacts E-HRM adoption, resulting in outcomes. The intention includes perceived effectiveness, effort expectancy, performance expectancy and social influence. Furthermore, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norms, perceived innovativeness, employee habits, attitude and satisfaction with E-HRM are determinants of E-HRM intention. Regarding the outcomes, HR service quality, organizational effectiveness, competitive advantage and employee productivity have been investigated. A conceptual framework was developed based on the gaps identified regarding the determinants and outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM. Thus, the conceptual framework for determinants and outcomes of disruptive technologies for HRM was deduced and presented from two perspectives. The perspectives were deduced with review results and theoretical grounds.

6. Implications and future research agenda

Since the current study developed a conceptual framework, it can be treated as the main theoretical implication of the study. The perspectives deduced based on the conceptual framework would help understand the determinants and possible outcomes of disruptive technology for HRM. Concerning the determinant of intention that impacts behavior, the theory of planned behavior ( Ajzen, 1991 ), the UTAUT ( Venkatesh et al. , 2003 ) and TAM ( Davis and Davis, 1989 ) models are validated. Concerning the determinant of information technology support, facilitative conditions of the UTAUT ( Venkatesh et al. , 2003 ) can be validated. The RBV theory ( Wernerfelt, 1984 ) can be validated regarding the outcomes. Moreover, the areas such as E-HRM intention (in Cluster 1-Red), communication technology support (in Cluster 2-Green) and outcomes (in Cluster 3-Blue) identified from the review can be used as dimensions for measurement instrument development for the constructs in the proposed conceptual framework.

Regarding the practical implications, practitioners can use the findings to make policy decisions for E-HRM. Since the prevailing technology is the disruptive technology for HRM in the trendy organizational agility, flexibility and ambidexterity, which has broader advantages than the E-HRM ( Waddill, 2018 ), findings imply adopting the disruptive technologies for HRM. Besides, different action ( Zabiegalski and Marquardt, 2022 ) and work-applied ( Zuber-Skerritt and Abraham, 2017 ; Brook and Abbott, 2022 ) learning initiatives may suggest the adoption of disruptive technologies for HRM as they are grounded by industry analysts' and experts' perspectives ( Bersin, 2017b ; Juo, 2017 ; Ulrich, 2017 ; Karan, 2020 ). Moreover such a suggestion may also be grounded by the theoretical foundation presented in the second perspective of the current study.

Additionally, the findings provide implications for future researchers. As the current study included only 17 articles for the review, one significant implication is the limited research on the area studied ( Priyashantha et al ., 2022a , b , c ). Similar reviews can target more databases on the same search terms used in the current study. Another important implication is that the proposed conceptual framework can be empirically tested. In other empirical investigations, researchers could investigate whether there is any mediating impact between the variables in the proposed framework.

Other than those, another vital implication is the many untapped areas of disruptive technologies for HRM in the research landscape. There are many applications of disruptive technologies for HRM nowadays for almost all HRM functions. Even though industry experts view that disruptive technologies for HRM have caused a change in the entire HRM landscape, minimal applications of disruptive technologies for HRM functions have been researched ( Priyashantha et al ., 2022a , b , c ). They can be targeted for research. Alternatively, researchers can focus on many other determinants or outcomes of the adoption or intention for disruptive technologies HRM.

Adopting disruptive technologies for HRM may depend on various factors, including action ( Zabiegalski and Marquardt, 2022 ) and work-applied ( Zuber-Skerritt and Abraham, 2017 ; Brook and Abbott, 2022 ) learning initiatives. It was discussed in section four, and future studies could concentrate on these elements to conduct empirical tests.

Employee disengagement (80%) and workplace stressors such as role conflicts and health and safety difficulties are highlighted in global surveys ( Gallup, 2021 ). These difficulties must be addressed as soon as possible ( Priyashantha et al ., 2022a , b , c ). There is a belief that incorporating HRM technologies into the workplace can help to reduce these concerns ( Turner, 2020 ). Our review found no studies investigating such sociological phenomena of disruptive technologies for HRM. Future researchers could focus on these areas for their research.

Likewise, future researchers have many implications from this study to include in their research agendas. Those will ultimately help to create sound knowledge on disruptive technologies for HRM.

PRISMA flow diagram

Areas of study of the selected articles

Number of publications and citations by year

Source country of articles

Term co-occurrence network

Conceptual framework

Inclusion criteria

Source(s): Author's conception (2022)

Funding : No funding was available for this research.

Data availability : Data collected during the current study are not publicly available. However, they can be available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Conflicts of interest : There are no conflicts of interest.

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Research Roundup: How Technology Is Transforming Work

• Dagny Dukach

New studies explore its impact on hiring, employee experience, and more.

Digital technologies promise to bring new levels of productivity and efficiency in a wide variety of applications and organizations. But how are they transforming the experience of the employees who actually interact with them every day? In this research roundup, we share highlights from several recent studies that explore the nuanced ways in which technology is influencing today’s workplace and workforce — including both its undeniable benefits and substantial risks.

From AI recruiting tools to industrial automation and robotic assistants, new digital technologies are transforming the modern workplace. Many of these systems promise to improve efficiency, productivity, and well-being — but how are they actually affecting the people who interact with them every day?

• Dagny Dukach is a former associate editor at Harvard Business Review.

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The research–practice gap in the field of HRM: a qualitative study from the academic side of the gap

• Review Paper
• Published: 15 June 2020
• Volume 15 , pages 1465–1515, ( 2021 )

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• Jesús de Frutos-Belizón   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3194-6910 1 ,
• Fernando Martín-Alcázar 1 &
• Gonzalo Sánchez-Gardey 1  

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In recent studies, researchers agree that there is a substantial gap between research and practice in the field of human resource management (HRM). The literature exploring the causes and consequences of this gap does not represent a finely structured discourse; it has focused on analysing the gap from the practitioner side, and it is based on opinions and theoretical discussions rather than on empirical evidence. In this paper, we try to shed some light on this so-called “valley of death”. We attempt to identify the causes underlying the disconnect between academics and professionals in our field by drawing on empirical qualitative evidence obtained from interviews with 15 expert academics in the field of HRM. Thus, the approach presented in our work differs from that of the prior literature in that it is focused not on the opinions of individual authors but on the personal experiences of a larger expert sample composed of independent, experienced scholars in the area. Based on in-depth semi-structured interviews, we analyse the factors explaining why academics are not always willing to focus their research on professional needs or orientate their research outputs to the practitioner community.

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Acknowledgement

This study has benefited from financing from the Research Project ECO2014-56580-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitively, and the Research Projects P12-SEJ-1810 from the Andalusia Government (Spain) and PR2016-018 (Research Projects University of Cadiz).

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Department of Business Management, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain

Jesús de Frutos-Belizón, Fernando Martín-Alcázar & Gonzalo Sánchez-Gardey

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• Notes: The academics interviewed appear in alphabetical order. This order is not related to the number assigned to each academic interviewed. All information about the interviewees was obtained through Elsevier’s Scopus database and public information in their CVs
• *The Centre for Performance-led HR (CPHR) at Lancaster has been successful at bringing together world–class academic experts to work with top HR directors to overcome the most pressing issues facing senior HR specialists. It is a unique partnership between Lancaster University Management School and major corporations and was nominated as one of five Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiatives in the 2009 Times Higher Education Awards
• **NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centres (PSTRCs) work to pull advances in basic research with potential relevance to patient safety into an applied research setting
• ***The LINK Research Institute, based at Dublin City University Business School, sets out to understand the factors that contribute to successful organisations, both private and public, in Ireland and internationally. The LINK Research Institute enjoys mutually beneficial collaborations with a wide range of organisations. This includes various consulting projects with a wide range of organisations such as: Fáilte Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, The Electricity Supply Board, The Health Service Executive, The Department of Social Protection, Novartis, Intel, Mars, Airbus and Pfizer
• ****The Global Future of World Foundation aims to help Business, Academia and Goverments around the globe to prepare the workforce of the future for a sustainable world by detecting and predicting trends and paradigms for successful transformation ( http://globalfutureofwork.com/ )
• + The Institute for Business Research serves as the hub for externally funded business research within the Broad College of Business, and as part of the Michigan State University (MSU) campus-wide research infrastructure, collaborates with other MSU Colleges/Departments as well as the Offices of Regulatory Affairs, MSU Technology, Sponsored Programs, Business Connect and Contract and Grant Administration
• ++ The People Management Center (PMC) is an organization located with the department of Human Resource Studies at Tilburg University, which serves as a platform for global HR excellence to connect staff and students of the department, TIAS Business School and the business partners in the HR field

Appendix 2: Interview guide

According to your research experience, do you consider that research is individual or collective? What individuals or agents do you collaborate with in the development of your research projects?

Could you say that you have a stable research group? Do you have stable relationships with agents outside the group?

Could you briefly describe how work is normally organized in the research projects in which you participate?

Do you engage with professional partners in the development of research? How was this experience? What difficulties and benefits did you find in these collaborations?

Normally, what motivates your choice of research topics?

Could you specify the different steps of the research processes conducted in your group?

Which of them do you think are more important?

Do you think your research is relevant to the professional community?

Have you ever carried out a research project collaboratively with the professional community?

Do you consider that research in our field must be produced only for academics? Is it considered possible or viable to produce research jointly with the professional community?

How much time would you say that the whole process takes, from the time you have a stimulus to research until the time an output is generated?

What specific steps of the process do you feel are more time-consuming?

Do you usually change your research ideas and initial impressions after contrasting them with the rest of the members of your research team? Do you also do this with non-academic agents?

Does your research group have formal procedures (such as regular meetings) established? Do they incorporate external agents?

Could you say that the group has established routines to develop research activities?

Does your research team have a strong shared culture?

What do you think are the skills, knowledge or experience necessary to carry out a successful academic career? How would you describe a successful researcher in terms of knowledge, skills and experience?

How are these skills distributed in your group? Are there members specialized in some specific activities or phases of the research process?

How would you describe internal relationships within your research team?

Have you ever had communication problems between the members of the unit? How would you describe your communication with external and/or professional agents?

How is your research normally funded?

Do you receive funding from non-academic institutions, such as firms or professional foundations?

How do you think that the prevalent academic culture affects the development of your research?

Could you describe the process through which your research results are disseminated?

What are the criteria used to select the specific means through which research results are disseminated? To what extent do you make use of non-academic or professional channels?

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de Frutos-Belizón, J., Martín-Alcázar, F. & Sánchez-Gardey, G. The research–practice gap in the field of HRM: a qualitative study from the academic side of the gap. Rev Manag Sci 15 , 1465–1515 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-020-00397-x

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2023 HR Technology Trends: Talent Marketplaces, Expanding AI and Optimizing Existing Systems

​Creating internal talent marketplaces, optimizing investments in existing systems, supporting hybrid work and expanding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) will be top technology priorities in 2023, according to HR analysts and practitioners interviewed by SHRM Online .

While talent conditions will vary widely by industry—with some companies continuing to lay off employees while others increase compensation and perks to attract and retain workers amid ongoing labor shortages—there will be commonalities in how HR leaders deploy existing and emerging technologies in an uncertain economic climate, experts said.

Optimizing ROI from Existing Technology Stacks

Technology analysts believe shrewd HR leaders will focus on optimizing their existing technology ecosystems before considering investments in new platforms this year.

"In times of economic uncertainty, organizations should lead with process optimization across the tools and resources they already have in place," said Kimberly Carroll, managing principal of IA, an HR advisory firm in Atlanta. "If net-new technologies are then determined to be needed, it should be in the context of the most valuable outcomes supporting the highest-impact HR processes."

Kara Yarnot, vice president of strategic consulting services for HireClix, a talent acquisition consulting firm in Gloucester, Mass., said a top priority for HR leaders in 2023 will be effectively integrating tools they already have in technology stacks.

"Stand-alone, nonintegrated systems create manual work and increase the likelihood of errors," Yarnot said. "They also can negatively impact the employee and candidate experience."

David Wentworth, principal analyst of learning and development for the Brandon Hall Group, an HR advisory and research firm in Delray Beach, Fla., said one of the most valuable things learning and development (L&D) leaders can do in 2023 is audit their current technology systems to ensure platforms are being used to their full potential.

"Identify the current challenges L&D is facing and see which, if any, can be addressed with the tools and technologies already in the building," Wentworth said. "Is every system adequately integrated into its environment? Conversations with your existing technology providers can remedy many of these challenges without a need to look for new solutions in the market."

Internal Talent Marketplaces Stay Hot

Internal talent marketplaces were one of the hottest HR technologies in 2022, and experts expect these digital platforms will continue to gain traction this year. These systems match workers with internal job openings, side gigs or projects; list available mentors; detail learning opportunities that support career paths; and more.

"Investments in internal talent mobility will pay off more than ever in 2023," said David Brodeur-Johnson, a principal analyst specializing in employee experience for Forrester, a global market research company.

John Kostoulas, a vice president in Gartner's HR practice, said Gartner clients continue to show strong interest in talent marketplaces. "HR and other organizational leaders can benefit from data created by these marketplaces to support workforce planning and other talent processes," he said. "Employees benefit from greater visibility into work opportunities and options to build skills and experiences toward career growth. Managers or project leaders benefit from more flexible staffing and improved talent visibility."

Emerging (and Overlooked) Tech Expands

HR leaders will deploy more emerging as well as historically underutilized HR technologies in 2023 to enhance the employee experience, improve recruiting results and help identify key skills gaps in the workforce.

Kostoulas said "orchestrators and overlays" serve to streamline and unify the HR-related digital aspects of the employee experience across a fragmented technology landscape. "These typically include portals, micro-applications, and low- or no-code tools," he said.

Carroll said employee portals, knowledge management tools and case management tools can provide more relief to HR business partners, people leaders and employees in the year ahead.

"HR needs to move past the 'hand-holding' mindset and leverage these tools to establish a single source of truth, enable more self-service for employee requests, and provide timely and accurate responses to internal customers," Carroll said. "When properly deployed, these tools free up HR to focus on the highest-value and most-strategic activities."

Evelyn McMullen, a research manager specializing in talent acquisition for Boston-based Nucleus Research, said more organizations will benefit from using nascent AI-based tools that help identify existing skills in the workforce. Such technologies can help HR leaders close skills gaps that drag down company performance.

"AI-driven skills graphs and other means of identifying employees' soft and hard skills are at a point where they can be adopted by HR," McMullen said.

Brodeur-Johnson said skills ontology software and related tools will prove increasingly important in 2023. "Tools that help you take a full accounting of the skills and capabilities your people have, as well as what they're most interested in working on, will be a huge help," he said. "We're also seeing companies apply AI-based skills intelligence tools to help them redeploy people or even inform layoff decisions."

Technology to Support Hybrid Work

Technology will play an increasingly larger role in supporting hybrid work as that model becomes a permanent fixture in more organizations, experts said. One challenge to overcome is proximity bias, said Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs, a video collaboration technology company in Boston.

"There will be a large focus from HR teams on figuring out how to train managers to actually manage by results," Weishaupt said. "We'll also see the evolution of productivity tracking to more results-based assessments that factor in new functions like creative departments, where quantitative data is more difficult to come by."

Suneet Dua, products and technology chief revenue and growth officer for consulting firm PwC, said there will be a greater emphasis on benchmarking tools and new methods to track productivity and performance of hybrid workers in 2023.

"Benchmarking tools collect numerous data points, from measuring employee sentiment to tracking the number of employees using office spaces or training tools," Dua said. "In terms of productivity and performance, we're already seeing many companies implementing tracking methods for remote workers or developing plans to do so."

But Dua cautions that excessive employee tracking can erode worker trust. "HR leaders interested in tracking productivity should prioritize more-meaningful metrics, including the quality and quantity of employee output," he said.

New Applications of AI Grow ... Along with Regulatory Scrutiny

As HR seeks to do more with less in 2023, the use of AI will grow to include recruiting, identify skills gaps in the workforce, analyze engagement survey data and answer employees' frequently asked questions.

"Using AI to analyze worker data beyond traditional demographic and performance metrics will be one key in 2023," said Erin Spencer, a senior research analyst specializing in HR technology for Deloitte Consulting. "More HR departments now view their workforce data as a strategic asset to help guide key business and talent decisions in areas such as upskilling, scheduling, staffing and more."

Companies also will begin to find real-world applications for "generative AI," like the much-ballyhooed ChatGPT, a recently released tool from OpenAI that not only acts as a search engine but can perform complex tasks like writing essays or computer code. Such leaps in the technology, along with a continued lack of transparency from some HR vendors about how their AI tools work, will result in more regulatory and legislative scrutiny in the coming year. For example, a New York City law will go into effect in April 2023 that requires employers in that city to conduct an independent audit of AI tools they use for employment decisions.

"As more federal guidance is introduced, as with the recent White House 'Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights ,' we expect to see increased clarity around legislation and how it's intended to enable the harnessing of AI for the good of humanity," said Eric Sydell, executive vice president of innovation at Modern Hire, a recruiting technology company in Cleveland.

Improving Management Skills, Alleviating Workloads

Experts believe companies will turn more frequently to tools like online coaching and learning platforms to help managers build the skills—and resilience—necessary to lead in increasingly challenging environments. Organizations also will introduce more AI and other automated tools to remove manual or nonessential tasks from managers' plates.

David Hassell, CEO and co-founder of 15Five, a performance management technology platform, believes companies will place management training center stage in 2023. "With record-breaking burnout and phenomena like quiet quitting, skilled management is today's success-defining element," Hassell said. "In remote environments, interpersonal relationships can suffer or never form in the first place. Manager training is key to helping keep people engaged, motivated and productive."

David Somers, a group general manager with Workday, also believes supporting and retaining front-line managers will be a top priority in 2023.

"The tight labor market and long tail of the pandemic have put front-line managers under incredible pressure," Somers said. "HR leaders will focus on ways to retain this critical part of the workforce by automating repetitive tasks such as managing payroll and labor, and by leveraging data such as schedule quality and productivity to understand managers' unique needs."

Employee Experience: No Longer Just an HR Strategy

More C-level leaders will make the employee experience a broad strategic objective in 2023, experts say, removing it from its human resource silo. "Employee experience has become a business strategy, not just an HR strategy," Kostoulas said.

For HR, that means aligning its technology system with the key tenets of an employee experience strategy. In 2023, more companies will make the employee experience integral to IT, operations, finance and facilities strategies, he added.

"In 2023, HR leaders will leverage new technologies focused on the individual employee experience," Spencer said. "Technology has to create benefits across an organization, whether it's through increasing access to data, upskilling talent to work beyond traditional boundaries, or providing enhanced learning and development opportunities."

Recruiting Tech: Video, Programmatic Advertising and Marketing Automation

Recruiters will deploy evolving AI tools to create even greater efficiencies in candidate screening and interview scheduling, use more programmatic advertising and turn to employee-generated videos to attract candidates in what will remain a highly competitive recruiting landscape.

"With recent labor shortages and the need to improve long-term employee development and retention, improving top-of-the-funnel recruiting processes will be a top priority for HR and talent acquisition leaders," McMullen said.

She said approaches like programmatic job advertising that can strategically deliver ads to the right prospective candidates will be valuable in 2023. "That will be important as the economy faces uncertainty and employers must maximize the efficiency of their job advertisement budgets."

Yarnot said recruiters need to double down on creating an engaging candidate experience this year. "Whether we enter a recession or not, top candidates will always have choices and opportunities," she said. "Every recruiting leader should apply for a job on their career site via a mobile device to experience it from the candidate's perspective. They should then make changes to ensure that process takes less than five minutes."

Yarnot said recruiting leaders also will benefit from more strategic use of video in 2023. "Authentic, employee-generated videos result in the most engagement from candidates," she said. "As such, recruiting teams should use videos in job ads, on a career site, in candidate e-mails and throughout the hiring process. The videos should communicate your values, tell your employees' stories, introduce candidates to your leadership team and explain the hiring process."

Learning and Development: Focus on Analytics, Personalized Learning and VR

Experts say L&D functions will have three main areas of focus in 2023. One is creating more personalized, contextual and adaptive learning experiences for employees. "That's anything that can help ensure employees are getting exactly the learning they need, when and where they need it, especially at scale," Wentworth said.

L&D teams also will seek out software tools that make it easier to derive actionable insights from the learning data they collect, Wentworth said. "They need data analytics tools that match the data analysis skills of their teams," he said.

Janice Burns, chief people officer for Degreed, a skills-building platform headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., said she expects to see more L&D functions introduce data science and business intelligence tools to their teams.

"L&D leaders have an unparalleled opportunity to gather a wealth of data created through digital learning to provide a dynamic overview of the skills being built in the workforce," Burns said. "Overlaid with HR and recruitment data, this can be used to determine skill gaps and spot opportunities where L&D can help businesses meet their goals by ensuring the right people have the right skills."

Wentworth said L&D functions also will continue to invest in or upgrade virtual reality (VR) technology in 2023. The confluence of lower equipment costs, increased processing power and enhanced bandwidth make VR simulation tools more practical than ever, he said.

"People need to be able to practice new skills and behaviors without the consequences of on-the-job interactions," Wentworth said. "Simulations can be leveraged for anything from sales techniques to difficult conversations to DE&I [diversity, equity and inclusion] training."

Dave Zielinski is principal of Skiwood Communications, a business writing and editing firm in Minneapolis.

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HR’s new operating model

The way in which organizations manage people used to be relatively straightforward. For more than two decades, multinational companies generally adopted a combination of HR business partners, centers of excellence, and shared service centers, adjusting these three elements to fit each organization’s unique nature and needs.

Today, this approach—introduced by Dave Ulrich in 1996 1 David Ulrich, Human Resources Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results , first edition, Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 1996. —is rapidly evolving. In interviews with more than 100 chief human resources officers (CHROs) and senior people leaders from global multinational businesses, we identified five HR operating-model archetypes that are emerging in response to dramatic changes in business and in the world—including heightened geopolitical risks, hybrid working models, and the rise of majority-millennial workforces.

These emerging operating models have been facilitated by eight innovation shifts, with each archetype typically based on one major innovation shift and supported by a few minor ones. The key for leaders is to consciously select the most relevant of these innovation shifts to help them transition gradually toward their desired operating model.

Eight innovation shifts driving HR’s new operating models

Today’s increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and often ambiguous business environment is forcing companies to transform at an unprecedented pace. The global COVID-19 pandemic and rapid evolution of workplace technology have accelerated the adoption of various alternative, hybrid working models—as well as new challenges in monitoring employee conduct and performance. The emergence of majority-millennial workforces has led to a profound shift in employee preferences. And the “Great Attrition” of workers , 2 Aaron De Smet, Bonnie Dowling, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, and Bill Schaninger, “‘ Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The choice is yours ,” McKinsey Quarterly , September 8, 2021. exacerbated by demographic developments in many parts of the world, has intensified existing talent shortages.

HR plays a central role in navigating this upheaval, creating a need for the function to rise to a new level of adaptability and responsibility . 3 Laura Blumenfeld, Neel Gandhi, Asmus Komm, and Florian Pollner, “ Reimagining HR: Insights from people leaders ,” McKinsey, March 1, 2022. While every organization has its own trajectory and HR operating model, our interviews with senior leaders revealed that organizations are innovating in ways that are collectively changing the HR function from the “classic Ulrich model”:

• Adopt agile principles to ensure both strict prioritization of HR’s existing capacity and swift reallocation of resources when needed, enabling a fundamentally faster rate of change in the business and with people and how they work.
• Excel along the employee experience (EX) journey to win the race for talent in the time of the Great Attrition , 4 Aaron De Smet, Bonnie Dowling, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, and Bill Schaninger, “‘ Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The choice is yours ,” McKinsey Quarterly , September 8, 2021. enabling both employee health and resilience.
• Re-empower frontline leaders in the business to create human-centric interactions, reduce complexity, and put decision rights (back) where they belong.
• Offer individualized HR services to address increasingly varied expectations of personalization.
• ‘Productize’ HR services to build fit-for-purpose offerings with the needs of the business in mind, and to enable end-to-end responsibility for those services through cross-functional product owner teams in HR.
• Integrate design and delivery with end-to-end accountability to effectively address strategic HR priorities, reduce back-and-forth, and clarify ownership.
• Move from process excellence to data excellence to tap into novel sources of decision making using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• Automate HR solutions to drive efficiency and capitalize on the power of digitalization in HR.

These innovation shifts are driving the emergence of new HR operating models, albeit with different degrees of influence depending on the nature of individual organizations (Exhibit 1). In analyzing the drivers, we identified five HR operating archetypes.

Five emerging HR operating models

These eight innovation shifts have enabled companies to rethink how they manage their people and the best way to do so. Exhibit 2 shows the five emerging HR operating models we identified, which are all enabled by two core elements: a strong, consistent data backbone and a user-friendly, highly reliable service backbone. When asked which two archetypes best fit their HR operating model, 48 percent of people leaders attending a recent webinar selected Ulrich+, 47 percent EX-driven, 36 percent leader-led, 31 percent agile, and 6 percent machine-powered. 5 Reimagining HR Webinar Survey, McKinsey, November 2022, n = 140 senior people leaders. Figures do not sum to 100%, because of the possible selection of multiple answers.

This model is an adaptation of the classic Ulrich model, with HR business partners developing functional spikes and taking over execution responsibilities from centers of excellence (CoEs). In turn, CoEs are scaled down to become teams of experts and selected HR business partners. They are supported by global business services and have a digital operations backbone. Many CHROs believe the classic Ulrich model is not up to solving today’s HR challenges, with HR business partners lacking the skills and time to keep up with the latest HR developments. Inflexible CoEs limit agile reactions, while other organizational boundaries have steadily become more permeable. Multinational businesses with mature and stable business models are often the ones that experience these pain points.

An agile transformation

A global financial institution underwent an agile transformation with a focus on IT delivery, supported by an agile HR operating model with 2,000 staff members. It first structured its HR function along the employee life cycle, aligning resources to the employee experience (EX) journey: when they join, work, develop, perform, and exit. The evolution to an agile model was supported by three HR innovation shifts:

• reducing the number of handovers by integrating run (servicing and operations) and change (product delivery) activities into “workstreams”
• setting up workstreams with end-to-end service responsibility (for example, design and delivery of recruiting), common goals, and steering
• allocating resources to agile pods with product crews for each workstream and agile ways of working

Projects that cut across multiple product crews were supported with a center-of-excellence initiative manager at the divisional level, and the stream-by-stream transition plan was phased over two years.

This model calls for a smaller number of HR business partners, with an emphasis on counseling top management, while CoE professionals focus on topics such as data and analytics, strategic workforce planning, and diversity and inclusion. The freed-up resources are pooled to implement cross-functional projects. CHROs who favor this operating model believe that HR needs to accelerate to keep up with the increased focus on execution exhibited on the business side and to prevent HR from hindering rapid transformation. Companies are applying this and other agile methodologies when experiencing rapid growth or discontinuity. (For an example of this model, see sidebar “An agile transformation.”)

Optimizing the employee experience

A global software company adopted a new business strategy to maximize the customer and employee experience, committing to a two-year transformation journey. Its first step was to mirror the customer experience for employees by identifying and revamping “moments that matter” along the employee life cycle. Three HR innovation shifts facilitated this: persona-driven HR services began following a customized approach; product owners took on end-to-end responsibility over HR concept, design, and delivery to deliver moments that matter; and HR, IT, and business operations combined into a comprehensive data function.

This model is meant to help CHROs gain a competitive advantage by creating a world-class EX journey. Putting EX first means allocating disproportionate resources toward “moments that matter.” For example, HR, IT, and operations experts could be granted full responsibility to jointly plan, develop, and roll out a critical onboarding process. By creating a world-class EX, HR becomes the driving force in bridging cross-functional silos and in overcoming the patchwork of fragmented data and processes that many organizations suffer from today. The companies employing this model are highly dependent on their top talent, with a small set of clearly defined competencies. (For more on this model, see sidebar “Optimizing the employee experience.”)

In this model, CHROs transition HR accountability to the business side, including for hiring, onboarding, and development budgets, thereby enabling line managers with HR tools and back-office support. This archetype also requires difficult choices about rigorously discontinuing HR policies that are not legally required. Too much oversight, slow response times, and a lack of business acumen in HR have led some companies to give line managers more autonomy in people decisions. Companies exploring this choice typically have a high share of white-collar workers, with a strong focus on research and development.

Machine-powered

With this model, algorithms are used to select talent, assess individual development needs, and analyze the root causes of absenteeism and attrition—leaving HR professionals free to provide employees with counsel and advice. As digitalization redefines every facet of business, including HR, CHROs are looking for ways to harness the power of deep analytics, AI, and machine learning for better decision outcomes. Organizations that are experimenting with this are primarily those employing a large population of digital natives, but HR functions at all companies are challenged to build analytics expertise and reskill their workforce.

Innovation shifts shaping HR model archetypes

While innovation shifts have shaped the traditional HR operating model and led to the emergence of new archetypes, not all innovation shifts are equal. Each archetype is typically based on one major innovation shift and supported by a few minor ones (Exhibit 3).

For example, a leader-led archetype is mainly shaped by the shift of empowering the leaders and the front line. At the same time, it gives more flexibility to the needs of the individual (the “cafeteria approach”) because leaders have more freedom; it also builds on digital support so leaders are optimally equipped to play their HR role. Alternatively, an agile archetype is strongly focused on adapting agile principles in HR, but it typically also aims to move toward a productized HR service offering and strives for end-to-end accountability.

The critical decision for senior people leaders is to consciously select the most relevant of these innovation shifts to transition gradually toward their desired operating-model archetype. For example, the leader-led model puts business leaders, rather than HR, in the driver’s seat, allowing line managers to choose the right HR offerings for their individual teams. And for companies that decide to deploy machine-powered HR, the key is building and relying on deep analytics skills. This model uses integrated people data to make targeted, automated HR decisions.

In large, diversified organizations, CHROs may find that different archetypes fit the differentiated needs of specific businesses better and may adopt a combination of HR operating models.

Transitioning to a target operating model

Transitioning to a future-oriented archetype is typically a three-step journey. First, CHROs and their leadership teams align on the right operating-model archetype for their organization based on the most pressing business needs, expectations of the workforce, the wider organizational context, and the company’s dominant core operating model. In large, diversified organizations, CHROs may find that different archetypes fit the differentiated needs of specific businesses better and may adopt a combination of HR operating models.

Second, HR leadership teams prioritize the three or four most relevant innovation shifts that will move their function toward their chosen operating-model archetype. When doing this, people leaders need to reflect on strategic HR priorities and, even more important, the shifts required to establish the operating model given its feasibility, the potential limits to the speed of implementation, and the magnitude of change. (Today, we find that the capacity to change the HR information system is often the most limiting factor.) For example, if a company is operating in a traditional hierarchical “command and control” way, the sole shift of HR into an agile archetype requires profound and demanding changes to ways of working, likely beyond only HR. Similarly, a business accustomed to a “high touch, concierge service” HR approach will find that a shift to a leader-led archetype is challenging and requires significant effort to implement.

Finally, teams think comprehensively about the transition journey, working toward core milestones for each of the prioritized innovation shifts individually and ensuring a systemic, integrated transformation perspective at the same time. This requires mobilizing for selected shifts, building new capabilities, and acting on an integrated change agenda in concert across business and HR.

Sandra Durth is a senior expert and associate partner in McKinsey’s Cologne office, Neel Gandhi is a partner in the New York office, Asmus Komm is a partner in the Hamburg office, and Florian Pollner is a partner in the Zurich office.

The authors wish to thank Fabian Schmid-Grosse and Christian Winnewisser for their contributions to this article.

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Research: Technology Is Changing How Companies Do Business

In the fast-paced world of modern business, technology plays a crucial role in shaping how companies operate. One area where this impact is particularly significant is in the organization of production chains—specifically the way goods are made and distributed.

A new study from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business advances understanding of the U.S. production chain evolution amidst technological progress in information technology (IT), shedding light on the complex connections between business IT investments and organizational design.

Advances in IT have sparked significant changes in how companies design their production processes. In the paper “ Production Chain Organization in the Digital Age: Information Technology Use and Vertical Integration in U.S. Manufacturing ,” which published April 30 in Management Science, Chris Forman, the Peter and Stephanie Nolan Professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and his co-author delved into what these changes mean for businesses and consumers.

In running a manufacturing plant, a key decision is how much of the production process is handled in-house and how much is outsourced to other companies. This decision, known as vertical integration, can have big implications for a business. Advances in information and communication technology, such as those brought about by the internet, shifted the network of production flows for many firms.

Forman and Kristina McElheran, assistant professor of strategic management at University of Toronto, analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data of over 5,600 manufacturing plants to see how the production chains of businesses were affected by the internet revolution. Their use of census data allowed them to look inside the relationships among production units within and between companies and how transaction flows changed after companies invested in internet-enabled technology that facilitated coordination between them. The production units of many of the companies in their study concurrently sold to internal and external customers, a mix they refer to as plural selling. They found that the reduction in communication costs enabled by the internet shifted the mix toward more sales outside of the firm, or less vertical integration.

“The internet has made it cheaper and faster for companies to communicate and share information with each other. This means they can work together more efficiently without the need for as much vertical integration,” said Forman.

While some might worry that relying on external partners could make businesses more vulnerable, the research suggests otherwise. In fact, companies that were already using a plural governance approach before the internet age seem to be the most adaptable to these changes. Production units that were capacity-constrained were also among those that made the most significant changes to transaction flows after new technology investments.

“Technology is continuing to reshape the way companies operate and are organized,” Forman said. “More recently, changes in the use of analytics in companies have been accompanied by changes in organizations, and the same is very likely ongoing with newer investments in artificial intelligence.”

The research highlights the importance of staying ahead of the curve in technology. Companies that embrace digital technologies now are likely to be the ones that thrive in the future. And while there are still many unanswered questions about how these changes will play out, one thing is clear: The relationship between technology and business is only going to become more and more intertwined in the future.

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

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Technology Ethics & Policy Rising Scholars Program Research Fellows

🔍 school of humanities and sciences, stanford, california, united states.

Technology Ethics & Policy Rising Scholars Program Research Fellows

The School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S) is the foundation of a liberal arts education at Stanford. The school encompasses 24 departments and 24 interdisciplinary programs. H&S is home to fundamental and applied research, where free, open, and critical inquiry is pursued across disciplines. As the university’s largest school, H&S serves as the foundation of a Stanford undergraduate education no matter which discipline students pursue as a major. Graduate students work alongside world-renowned faculty to pursue and shape foundational research that leads to breakthroughs and discoveries that shed new light on the past, influence the present, and shape the future. Together, faculty and students in H&S engage in inspirational teaching, learning, and research every day.

McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society (Ethics Center) is committed to bringing ethical reflection to bear on important social problems through research, teaching, and community engagement. To expand research and career opportunities at the intersection of ethics and technology, the Ethics Center has launched a Technology Ethics and Policy (TEP) Rising Scholars Program and is hiring its second cohort of Research Fellows for this program.

The TEP Rising Scholars program aims to bring early-career scholars who have a bachelor’s degree and an interest in issues at the intersection of ethics, policy, society, and technology into full-time research positions at Stanford University. The goal of the program is to serve as a bridge into long-term careers in ethics, technology, and policy. Successful outcomes for participants include going on to competitive graduate programs in related fields or into impactful jobs in government, the private sector, or civil society.

The TEP Rising Scholars Program is seeking Research Fellows to participate in our 2024-2025 cohort. Ideal candidates will have excellent analytical and organizational skills and outstanding academic credentials to support research, teaching, and administrative activities at the Ethics Center.

Two positions are available in 2024:

1. Ethics and Society Review (ESR) Research Fellow

The ESR is designed to engage researchers in reflections of the ethical and societal consequences of their work. With the ESR, grant funding from participating institutions is not released until the researchers successfully complete an iterative ethics and society review process for their proposed project, with the guidance of an ESR panel of experts from a range of disciplines. This position involves contributing to, both, the administrative and the research aspects of the ESR. The Fellow will assist with a range of essential administrative needs of the program, including (1) managing communications for grant reviews, (2) maintaining detailed

records of each review conducted, and (3) updating the ESR website. Additionally, they will also help with several research tasks, including (1) reviewing relevant literature, (2) collecting, cleaning, and analyzing research data, (3) contributing to the publication of findings by drafting reports, presentations, and other public materials.

2. Embedded Ethics Research Fellow

The Embedded Ethics program incorporates ethics modules into the core undergraduate computer science classes at Stanford. The program team includes postdoctoral fellows with training in philosophy or computer science and course assistants who work in partnership with computer science faculty. We are hiring an Embedded Ethics Fellow to support the team with research, curricular, and administrative duties as follows: (1) help deploy and iterate on the Embedded Ethics survey tool for programmatic assessment, and cleanse/analyze collected data (2) conduct literature reviews on ethics learning and assessment (3) contribute to the publication of evaluation findings by drafting reports, presentations, and other public materials (4) support Embedded Ethics postdocs in ethics content creation for computer science courses, and (5) support the Embedded Ethics website maintenance. This position may also be asked to oversee and/or perform duties associated with scheduling, organizing, and operating events and/or conferences.

Research Fellows will have the opportunity to participate in the intellectual community of the Ethics Center and campus centers, like the Cyber Policy Center (CPC) and Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), including auditing courses, attending workshops and conferences, and being mentored by prominent scholars in their fields.

This is a 100% FTE, one-year fixed term, non-exempt position. This position will be based on the Stanford campus and will be considered for an option of telecommuting (hybrid of working on-site and off-site), subject to operational need. Ideally, selected candidates will begin in early September 2024.

How to Apply

We invite you to apply for this position by clicking on the “Apply for Job” button.

To be considered, along with your online application, you must submit:

1) Resume/CV

2) 2-page cover letter describing how your academic, personal, and/or professional experiences have prepared you for this position and how the TEP Rising Scholars Program will contribute to your career development. Applicants are encouraged to include reference to related courses, research, or other experiences that may have prepared them for the program. Please indicate which role (Embedded Ethics or the Ethics and Society Review) you are applying for in your cover letter.

If you believe that this opportunity is a match for your knowledge, skills and abilities, we encourage you to apply. Thank you for considering employment opportunities with the School of Humanities and Sciences

CORE DUTIES:

● Plan and perform research tasks requiring initiative and judgment by applying basic knowledge and understanding of scientific theory when precedents do not provide specific guidance. General instruction provided by the supervisor as needed. May interpret study results in collaboration with supervisor or PI.

● Participate in the development and administration of survey instruments and rating scales requiring judgment in applying non-routine procedures. Analyze and summarize results for review with supervisor. Audit the accuracy and validity of data

● Review and audit case report forms for completion and accuracy with source documents, and ensure compliance with research protocols.

● Identify, select, extract and summarize data and structured information. Present summary of findings to supervisor.

● Conduct literature searches, and write literature summaries and manuscripts, requiring preliminary judgments after the supervisor outlines conceptual approach.

● Build and organize data as requested by principal investigator or supervisor; use common statistical programs requiring the application of job control language in generating and organizing data.

● Adapt new, nonstandard methods outlined by supervisor in designing and evaluating phases of research projects, (i.e., educational materials, questionnaires, strategies for recruitment, data quality control procedures and processes). May follow up with Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure renewals are approved and completed, seeking guidance where necessary.

● Assist with development, communication and design of research findings to internal and external audiences, which may include web updates, social media, and/or white papers, for use in recruitment, educational, or awareness of programs, with guidance from supervisor.

● May orient and train new staff or students.

* Other duties may also be assigned.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Bachelor's degree in a field or combination of fields such as computer science, philosophy, data science, sociology, science & technology studies, political science, psychology, public policy, history, communication, and other related disciplines.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

●       General understanding of scientific theory and methods, typically gained through completion of an undergraduate degree in a related field.

●       General computer skills and ability to quickly learn and master computer programs.

●       Ability to work under deadlines with general guidance.

●       Excellent organizational skills and demonstrated ability to complete detailed work accurately.

●       Effective oral and written communication skills.

●       Ability to work with human study participants.

In addition, preferred requirements include:

• Passion for investigating issues at the intersection of ethics, technology, society, and policy.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

• May be required to work non-standard, extended or weekend hours in support of research work.

The expected pay range for this position is $26. 44 to $36.54 per hour.  

Stanford University provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the university reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographic location and external market pay for comparable jobs.

At Stanford University, base pay represents only one aspect of the comprehensive rewards package. The Cardinal at Work website ( https://cardinalatwork.stanford.edu/benefits-rewards ) provides detailed information on Stanford’s extensive range of benefits and rewards offered to employees. Specifics about the rewards package for this position may be discussed during the hiring process.

Why Stanford is for You

Imagine a world without search engines or social platforms. Consider lives saved through first-ever organ transplants and research to cure illnesses. Stanford University has revolutionized the way we live and enrich the world. Supporting this mission is our diverse and dedicated 17,000 staff. We seek talent driven to impact the future of our legacy. Our culture and  unique perks  empower you with:

●       Freedom to grow . We offer career development programs, tuition reimbursement, or audit a course. Join a TedTalk, film screening, or listen to a renowned author or global leader speak.

●       A caring culture . We provide superb retirement plans, generous time-off, and family care resources.

●       A healthier you.  Climb our rock wall, or choose from hundreds of health or fitness classes at our world-class exercise facilities. We also provide excellent health care benefits.

●       Discovery and fun.  Stroll through historic sculptures, trails, and museums.

●       Enviable resources . Enjoy free commuter programs, ridesharing incentives, discounts and more

The job duties listed are typical examples of work performed by positions in this job classifications and are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, tasks and responsibilities. Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.

Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants

requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact Stanford University Human Resources at [email protected]. For all other inquiries, please submit a contact form .

Stanford is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

• Schedule: Full-time
• Job Code: 4234
• Employee Status: Fixed-Term
• Requisition ID: 103225
• Work Arrangement : Hybrid Eligible

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Tech can’t replace human coaches in obesity treatment

• Feinberg School of Medicine

A new Northwestern Medicine study shows that technology alone can’t replace the human touch to produce meaningful weight loss in obesity treatment.

“Giving people technology alone for the initial phase of obesity treatment produces unacceptably worse weight loss than giving them treatment that combines technology with a human coach,” said corresponding study author Bonnie Spring, director of the Center for Behavior and Health and professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The need for low cost but effective obesity treatments delivered by technology has become urgent as the ongoing obesity epidemic exacerbates burgeoning health care costs.

But current technology is not advanced enough to replace human coaches, Spring said.

In the new SMART study, people who initially only received technology without coach support were less likely to have a meaningful weight loss, considered to be at least 5% of body weight, compared to those who had a human coach at the start.

Investigators intensified treatment quickly (by adding resources after just two weeks) if a person showed less than optimal weight loss, but the weight loss disadvantage for those who began their weight loss effort without coach support persisted for six months, the study showed. 

Eventually more advanced technology may be able to supplant human coaches, Spring said.  

“At this stage, the average person still needs a human coach to achieve clinically meaningful weight loss goals because the tech isn’t sufficiently developed yet,” Spring said. “We may not be so far away from having an AI chat bot that can sub for a human, but we are not quite there yet. It’s within reach. The tech is developing really fast.”  

Previous research showed that mobile health tools for tracking diet, exercise and weight increase engagement in behavioral obesity treatment. Before this new study, it wasn’t clear whether they produced clinically acceptable weight loss in the absence of support from a human coach.  

Scientists are now trying to parse what human coaches do that makes them successful, and how AI can better imitate a human, not just in terms of content but in emotional tone and context awareness, Spring said.

“We predicted that starting treatment with technology alone would save money and reduce burden without undermining clinically beneficial weight loss, because treatment augmentation occurred so quickly once poor weight loss was detected,” Spring said. “That hypothesis was disproven, however.”

Drug and surgical interventions also are available for obesity but have some drawbacks.   “They’re very expensive, convey medical risks and side effects and aren’t equitably accessible,” Spring said. Most people who begin taking a GLP-1 agonist stop taking the drug within a year against medical advice, she noted.

Many people can achieve clinically meaningful weight loss without antiobesity medications, bariatric surgery or even behavioral treatment, Spring said.   In the SMART study, 25% of people who began treatment with technology alone achieved 5% weight loss after six months without any treatment augmentation. (In fact, the team had to take back the study technologies after three months to recycle to new participants.)

An unsolved problem in obesity treatment is matching treatment type and intensity to individuals’ needs and preferences. “If we could just tell ahead of time who needs which treatment at what intensity, we might start to manage the obesity epidemic,” Spring said.

The SMART Weight Loss Management study was a randomized controlled trial that compared two different stepped care treatment approaches for adult obesity.

Stepped care offers a way to spread treatment resources across more of the population in need. The treatment that uses the least resources but that will benefit some people is delivered first; then treatment is intensified only for those who show insufficient response. Half of participants in the SMART study began their weight loss treatment with technology alone.   The other half began with gold standard treatment involving both technology and a human coach.

The technology used in the SMART trial was a Wireless Feedback System (an integrated app, Wi-Fi scale and Fitbit) that participants used to track and receive feedback about their diet, activity and weight.

The study was published May 14 in JAMA. Other Northwestern authors are Dr. Juned Siddique, Jean Reading, Samuel Battalio, Elyse Daly, Laura Scanlan and H. Gene McFadden.

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