This article is part of our new State of Employee Feedback Series which will interview a diverse mix of HR experts and thought leaders with a goal of better understanding their perspectives on the current state of and future of HR.

The following is an interview we recently had with  Michael Levitt, Chief Burnout Officer, Breakfast Leadership Network.

What is the state of the human resources industry today? 

Human Resources has been the epicenter of organizations for as long as HR roles have existed.  The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of HR, especially with the remote work environments we faced during the first year of COVID-19, and now the hybrid work environment that many organizations utilize.

With the “Great Resignation” movement that many industries are facing, HR has to work with senior leadership as well as the entire organization to determine how to highlight the benefits of working with their companies, both in retaining key talent and recruiting new employees. 

What are the most common challenges you face when managing employee feedback and reporting? 

Employee surveys can provide false information because there’s no way to verify if the employees feel comfortable with sharing information on how they feel about the company.  Based on how employees answer the questions, they could be identified as someone with critical responses, even though surveys are supposed to be anonymous.   

Ongoing open communication separates decent companies from great ones.  Employees should feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas about the company, and the company should welcome feedback, regardless of the responses being positive or negative.

What are 3-5 pieces of advice for organizations in your industry looking to improve their employee feedback culture? 

I’m not a big fan of meetings, but having employee representatives in senior management meetings goes a long way in proving that employees truly have a voice in how the company operates. 

Another idea is to publish the feedback across the organization, no matter how positive or negative the feedback is.  Demonstrate that the company will address the feedback concerns in a public way, and as promptly as possible shows that the company is actually listening to the concerns, and will take action accordingly.

What’s the future of HR?  

With the increasing investment and research in artificial intelligence (A.I.) and artificial general intelligence (A.G..I.), there are some aspects of HR that will be automated.  However, there still needs to be mechanisms in place where HR professionals (the human kind) will be needed to address talent and company needs.  HR needs to automate low-end tasks, so they can focus on the ever-changing needs of employees.

How do you see your role evolving over the next 3-5 years?

I’ll be focusing on continued learning new technologies that will make certain HR tasks obsolete for humans to perform.  While there’s a humanistic fear of losing jobs, learning new skills that will meet the new needs and challenges that HR will face is the best investment you can make in your HR career.