Implications for
HRD
Although Internet of Things provides HRD with tremendous opportunities
for growth, it is not without challenges. In addition to its potential
for enormous economic impact, the IoT will affect the performance of a
range of organizations and individuals. As every aspect of our lives
becomes ever more connected, thousands of discrete data points are
created by just a handful of individuals on any given day. This provides
an environment conducive to hackers and cyber criminals trying to gather
sensitive employee and consumer information. When the emergence of new
technology outpaces security developments, the likelihood that IoT can
cause security and privacy breaches for HR practitioners is great. After
all, consumer data is one of the most precious assets of any
organization, and assuring the security and privacy of this data in the
age of IoT is imperative.
Schramm (2014)noted that IoT influence on HR is wide-reaching, from how
data about workers are gathered and analyzed, to recruitment and
employees’ safety. Schramm (2014) also asserted that the data results
gained through IoT today would help inform and influence HR in the
future. Hence, HR practitioners should carefully balance the gains and
opportunities that IoT presents, with the potential security privacy
issues relating to employee and other data.
As technology shapes and amplifies our culture, and therefore our lives,
it is vital for HR practitioners to understand and address the
implications that IoT can have in the context of different cultures. The
workforce of today is global. As such, HR/HRD practitioners should also
understand the implications of different symbols and meanings, and how
differently they can be perceived and interpreted by various cultures.
There are important implications for all stakeholders—consumers, IoT
user companies, technology suppliers, policymakers, and employees.
Catching up with the velocity at which the IoT affect work design and
task performance can be challenging, but taking no action will result in
virtual death. As much as the emergence of IoT has presented a challenge
to relatively new and emerging fields like HRD it has as well created an
opportunity for the ingenious to take a leadership role and announce
their relevance in a new way. We perceive two main challenges that the
IoT presents to HRD:
How to absorb the big data generated through the IoT – If the
existing HRD systems struggle to absorb actionable workforce analytics
data to understand how history informs the future, the enormity of the
big data generated by IoT can subvert the field if immediate action is
not taken. HRD can create an enabling environment for research in an
IoT workplace by developing a cutting-edge database that enables
continuous interaction between HRD scholars around the globe about
their current research aside those presented at conferences. This
strategy will help HRD scholars to identify others in the field whose
research aligns with their thoughts and research ideas and serve as a
catalyst for collaboration and exchange of ideas for enriched
scholarly work that makes a greater impact on society. Furthermore,
data from such a database can help students of HRD and emerging
scholars to be informed about ongoing trends in the field and save
them from the needless uncertainty about the relevance of their thesis
in their academic/scholarly pursuit.
How HRD can use the IoT to connect workforce development to the people
analytics principle –The use of technology and statistics to collect
and analyze data to help management make informed decisions on talent
acquisition and development is becoming more challenging as virtual
training and assessment become increasingly popular. Thus, some people
can fake their presence at such training and assessment sessions or
cheat with technology. This calls for HRD professionals to build a
strong network to help generate a comprehensive talent data from a
variety of locations and issues to help improve our work.
Professionals can share information constantly and make
recommendations to other professionals through a well-develop database
and HRD Collaboratories (Yawson, 2009). Linkedin and other
organizations have taken the lead, but HRD as a field can improve upon
their idea by having professionals in the different locations
contribute to one another’s work.