Web 3 HR: The New Wave of Organizational Transformation?
Over the past twenty years, the HR function has been busy managing the digital transformation of organizations. It was necessary to be equipped with HRIS to manage the administrative aspects of the collaborators. At the same time, it was necessary to invest in a new channel to find talented candidates: the Internet. Except that the Internet is constantly evolving, to the point of becoming something completely different over time. In 2022, in the era of metaverse, blockchain and other UFOs, it’s time to review the codes of the Internet, and what it means for HR and organizations.
Web 3: what is it?
Before talking about web 3 HR, it is perhaps necessary to remind some readers what web 3 itself is. And given the amount of articles on the subject, some of which I have published, no need to go very long here. Web 1 corresponds to the first generation of the Internet, extending approximately from 1990 to 2005. At that time, the Internet was above all an ocean of content sites, where everyone could make themselves known without having to respond to the sacred laws of Google, Amazon or Facebook. Remember Yahoo, Lycos, Altavista, and the rest?
Gradually, the Internet has become a place of entry and circulation strongly regulated by a few digital giants who made their fortune in web 1 or web 1.0. At this stage, the Internet had become more interactive, faster, more visual, and also much more centralized. This era of web 2 or web 2.0 extends until today. However, a new Internet is emerging month after month. It aims to be more decentralized, fairer for content creators, more secure, and even faster, more intuitive and more immersive. This new Internet is called web 3 or web 3.0.
To achieve a more intuitive, decentralized, and immersive Internet, there are several technologies that are beginning to converge: blockchain, XR, and spatial web. Beware, as the objective is not to affirm that these technologies will be those which will dominate tomorrow, but simply that they are today favored by the market and analysts, with very concrete use cases, including many in HR. If the three technologies mentioned have no more secrets for you, then you are ready for the coming wave. If this is not the case, it becomes urgent to take an interest in it, at least to form an informed opinion.
Blokchain and HR
The blockchain is undoubtedly one of the greatest technological advances of the last fifteen years. If you can’t understand or describe the blockchain, I invite you to read this article which details just what you need. For many, this technology is still too much summed up by Bitcoin and its volatility, or by NFTs of crypto punks or monkeys. However, the blockchain makes it possible to reduce the centralization and the faults of a system, by distributing the information in the form of encrypted blocks between the users of the network.
The technology is still largely perfectible, but it is already evolving rapidly. Recent blockchains have succeeded in dividing the CO2 emissions linked to their activity by a factor of 500,000, compared to historical blockchains such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. And even Ethereum is currently changing to migrate to these developments. Thanks to the blockchain, it is possible to manage the authenticity, traceability, security and rarity of content by default. This content can be an image, a contract, a work of any kind, in fact any format.
In terms of HR perspectives, there are many uses: securing employment contracts and payslips, certification of skills, management of internal mobility processes, authentication of experiences and training contained in a CV, etc. Since the technology is still new, it can be difficult to project it well into human resource management. However, the first uses arrived in this year 2022, and an exponential acceleration is to be expected for adoption.
VR & HR
XR stands for Extended Reality. This term includes virtual reality technologies (VR or Virtual Reality), augmented reality (AR or Augmented Reality), and some other hybrid concepts. By misuse of language, we increasingly sum up all the uses of XR with the term VR.
VR consists of allowing visual immersion in a digital environment with a more or less realistic appearance. AR consists of allowing digital elements to be visualized in our real environment, a bit like real-time and personalized holograms in view of the user. For these two technologies, it is necessary today to have interfaces which can be headsets or glasses of virtual and/or augmented reality.
The use of VR in training is not new, and some industries have even been using it for almost 30 years, such as aeronautics or the military. What must be specified is that these simulators work for situations where the parameters are well known and quantifiable. But when it comes to developing soft skills, or skills that are a priori less quantifiable or tangible, everything remains to be done.
The use of virtual environments can facilitate collaboration during creative processes, but also exposure to new and varied environments, which can be beneficial for the development of certain abilities. Again, everything remains to be done, and the market has yet to discover the recipe for exiting marketing ads!
Spatial Web & HR
The spatial web is actually a technology cluster on its own. It notably contains artificial intelligence and dynamic data visualization technologies. In a world where everything becomes data, being able to assimilate, process, enrich and visualize this data in real time or almost becomes a major challenge. Also, to ensure better fluidity of use, many processes must be processed automatically to enrich the available data and offer elements with high added value to the user.
To put it simply, we are talking about the Netflix algorithm which allows (sometimes) to offer films or series that we might like from all their catalog, but also that of Google, which personalizes the display of results, as well as of those of almost all content sites in the near future.
HR analytics is a tricky topic well known from professionals. For 20 years, the HR function has been trying to better quantify its processes and their quality, but without always succeeding. There are relatively few metrics tracked in HR, compared to the actual variety of data involved in talent management processes. You must already understand what data to use, then capture it in a reliable and scalable way, then analyze it and cross-reference it with other data. And this should be the case for all HR topics!
Artificial intelligence is gradually entering the market, particularly in recruitment and internal mobility, but having evolved over more than 10 years on this exact subject, we cannot say that maturity is sufficient, whether on the HR professional side or on the publishers of software solutions. This decade is going to be exciting, as it will see the HR function become truly more analytical.
Web 3 HR: what does it have to do with HR 2.0 or 3.0?
From an HR point of view, with the Internet, recruitment sites have developed, then recruitment via social networks, the employer brand, recruitment by direct approach, etc. All this without taking into account the internal transformations, linked to new training, productivity and employee engagement tools. Let those who thought they were finally seeing the end of it not give up yet, because a wave at least as important is coming: the web 3 HR.
Let’s be clear, there has never been any consensus on the names of HR 2.0, 3.0 or even 17.0. With each transformation, the market preaches for the transformation of the HR function, thus invoking a new version of capable HR. And honestly, I no longer keep accounts. On the other hand, web 3 is a term that is beginning to gain consensus around the world. So when we talk about HR web, we have to understand that it’s about applying web 3 technologies to themes related to Human Resources. But there is no direct correlation to be made with the self-proclaimed appellations of HR 2.0 or 12.0.
What is clear is that there is a reason to book a web 3 HR term. Indeed, the technologies described above will have an impact on all the processes of the HR function, from the employer brand to payroll, including recruitment, training and management. I am betting that in the next few years there will be lots of web 3 HR consultants, and web 3 HR experts or internal referents. With Tomorrow Theory, we’re actually training some in many organizations, so it’s going to happen fast actually!
Web 3 HR: how to take the leap?
With this new wave of transformations in the HR function and more broadly in organizations, HR professionals will have to meet four challenges before declaring victory. These four challenges are critical both for the performance of the organization and for attracting and retaining talent, because who says new technological wave, says new uses and new expectations. Let’s go back to these four challenges for a moment:
- Tools & equipment: Computers will need more power, software will need to be more intuitive and interconnected, and security systems will need to be less blocking. The fluidity of uses between systems is at the heart of web 3. When you think that in 2022 the systems of most large companies do not allow you to open an external Slack or a Google Doc document, you say to yourself that it going to be an interesting equation to solve.
- Skills: between blockchain, VR and the spatial web, that’s a lot of critical expertise that will be at the heart of the digitization of organizations. HR professionals will have to quickly carry out their own transformation, and support that of their organization at the same time, otherwise a strong and rapid obsolescence of many profiles is to be expected, especially in functions highly subject to transformation.
- Processes: Whether it’s working in the metaverse, receiving CVs in the blockchain, or managing HR dashboards prepared by an AI, it’s safe to say that the house will have to be redone from the ground up. Most of the current processes will not last, and it will be a question of adapting the workflows to these new possibilities, without which a transformation has little interest.
- Culture: Thinking by data, living in a world of permanent proof, recruiting in a few days, working from anywhere and even in a virtual environment… So many desirable or undesirable joys that the future holds for us, and to which it will have to be done to stay in phase. Above all, for HR, it will be a question of setting up a healthy productive framework to include these new technologies and uses while preserving employees.
There is a lot to do on all of these aspects, and it is to support the HR function and managers that Tomorrow Theory exists. I can never stress this enough, but this transformation is being prepared now, because it is certain that many organizations will undergo it, for lack of anticipating, just as they are currently undergoing the wave of web 2.0.
And for those that haven’t made the web 1.0 transition yet, chances are most of them don’t exist anymore! These transformations have such an impact on productivity and talent management that it is difficult to survive against the tide for too long, unless you have a unique historical positioning, and again.
Web 3 HR: what societal impacts?
I have already expressed myself extensively on my position in relation to web 3 technologies: I consider that they are not mature enough to bring real lasting progress, but that they are evolving quickly, and will be ready in the course of the decade. With the right energy and counterbalances, I think these technologies can create a lot of lasting value.
Rather than detailing these articles again, I rather invite you to take the time to consult them, to understand my positioning which I consider ‘techno-cautious’:
- Web 3: Should We Fight It Or Embrace It?
- Metaverse: Is It The Way Forward?
- Metaverse: Environmental Issues
- Metaverse: Social Issues
- Metaverse: Economic Issues
Remember, once again, that these technologies will be a reality of our daily lives fairly quickly, whether we like it or not. It is neither defeatism nor propaganda, simply pragmatism based on the evolution of digital uses for more than 40 years. People may be against this or that, but the reality is that most are happy to have a smartphone, Netflix, Google, Tie Tok and other algorithmic monsters, and when the interfaces are adapted, they will be happy to to use the uses of the next great wave of technology.
What matters is to educate ourselves and to reason, so as not to allow ourselves to be exploited by technological or political players, and above all to get involved, so that the values that matter to us are well embodied and transposed into these new uses.
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