- Workers are probably not as enthusiastic about the gig economy as employers are, according to Daniel Thorniley, president of DT-Global Business Consulting. "You can't go to a bank and say you're going to pay your mortgage on a gig basis," he said. "You can't say 'I'll pay this month, and next month too, but then I'll take a month off because I'm flexible'." He warned that for many people the gig economy will not live up to the hype. "It sounds exciting but we shouldn't imagine it as a panacea or paradise for everyone."
- You can use people data to better focus your cyber security training. Vasileios Giagkoulas, HR analytics analyst for Shell, used data to identify those within the company who were most likely to fall for phishing scams. "By targeting less than 30% of employees we were able to successfully address more than 50% of potential cyber security issues," he said. "What do you gain from that? Less time spent fixing laptops means more productivity, and you reduce the risk of security threats to your organisation."
- The UK is heading for a STEM skills crisis unless organisations can find new ways of reaching out to students, according to Nick Holley, director of learning for the Corporate Research Forum (CRF). "In the UK 125,000 STEM workers retire every year, and 90,000 new STEM workers graduate and enter the workplace," he said. "Do the maths. Some firms have started working with teachers in schools, to get them enthusiastic about careers in science and engineering and pass that enthusiasm on to their students, and to help them take the right exams to reach that."
- Firms need to consider if a top-down method of governance is right for them, according to Heiko Fischer, CEO of consultancy Resourceful Humans. "You want your company to be 0% bureaucracy, 100% enthusiasm," he said. "The problem is, information in the real world flows democratically. For example, you can use TripAdvisor to form an opinion about where to go based on other people's reviews. But inside an organisation that isn't mirrored. It's still a top-down flow of information. We're moving at the speed of a system, but not the speed of work."
Insights from HR Tech World
?As HR Tech World draws to a close, here are some of the best insights from speakers and exhibitors
