In this week’s Scaling Stories we were pleased to catch up with Stela Lupushor, a renowned HR leader and author whose books include Humans at Work and Humanazing Human Capital.

Our discussion centered on what it means to work in HR in 2023. So much has changed since BC, or “Before Covid”, as Stela puts it. Whether it’s the adoption of remote working, the emergence of new technologies, or questions about how diversity and inclusion programs are deployed, running an HR team has not exactly been straightforward lately.

Some changes have been profound. Remote working has caused a rupture in how HR interacts with staff, and in fact changed the make-up of a typical workforce.

Meanwhile, salary expectations have rocketed in the past couple of years, albeit there are now signs that wage growth is slowing.

And as the chair of the US Federal Reserve noted, one reason the labour market remains tight is because many workers sadly passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But while this rapid pace of change can take some getting used to, Stela offers some invaluable insights on how to forge a successful HR function in unpredictable times.

Rather than just mindlessly adopting technology and tools, Stela advocates “human-centric design”, or in other words, to understand “what it’s like to be a worker and how we might reimagine that journey and use technology to transform that experience so people can be productive – they can enjoy and be delighted by their experience”.

Stela suggests that HR leaders should proactively work to improve the workplace experience before a “contagion” effect takes hold. 

“I think the reward structure is what shapes behaviour,” Stela says. “And we as humans are gonna react to the context…So HR really has an opportunity to think or rethink what that reward structure looks like and how certain behaviours can be rewarded – not only for the purposes of maximising the shareholder value, but also rethinking the entire stakeholder system and designing it for all the stakeholders in mind”.

Stela’s words are echoed in a recent Fast Company article by Lars Schmidt, who writes: “The shift toward pay transparency requires HR to think more broadly about compensation, equity, and how we define total rewards”. Lars also predicts a “shift towards skill-based hiring” rather than “role-based hiring”.

In our chat, Stela touched on a range of fascinating topics: the nature of value creation; the erosion of trust in institutions; and the importance of autonomy in the workplace. Stela was even kind enough to share with us three podcast recommendations:

• The Ezra Klein Show for its exploration of topics like economics, politics and culture
• Quorum for its Web3 and crypto insights
• Azeem Azhar’s Exponential View for its analysis of exponential technologies and their impact on society.

It was great catching up with Stela, and once you’ve had a listen, hop on over to our Scaling Stories hub and check out our latest interviews with HR’s finest.