This time last year, I reflected on a year of remarkable cultural, economic and political change. 2016 has probably brought even more surprises from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union to the hotly contested presidential elections in the United States, and adding to the ongoing unpredictability of our economies.

Given the chance, and often to the confounding of pollsters, the ‘silent’ majorities are speaking up, even if just to give the increasingly less trusted ‘establishment’ a bit of a poke. There is a growing recognition that the steady opening up of markets, borders, jobs and movement of people as a consequence of globalisation is not benefiting everyone and that too many are not having their voices heard. The growing more nationalistic debates in many countries is part of the counter to this, and it’s clear we are going to have to find a new balance.

Within our own organisations therefore, these are very strong reminders of the need to listen, to create the channels of two way communication throughout, but also to reassure and value the diversity of our workforces and the importance of very real human connections.

Throughout the year we’ve also been encouraging the challenge to policies and rules, of the reliance on so called best practice, and to have a stronger focus and understanding of the impact and outcomes we are trying to create. As I highlighted at our annual conference last month in Manchester, we are working on the future of the profession and a move towards guiding principles, the evidence base for practice, and understanding outcomes, and away from the traditional standardised, one size fits all process model thinking of the past. In the more uncertain and changeable world we need to innovate ourselves as well as help to create organisations and cultures that can innovate and adapt, and to build resilience. We will need to do that by properly understanding the context of our businesses, our changing workforces and workplaces, and the changing world around us.

That’s why we’ve also been raising the debate more on the future of work, the impact of technology, and how we address challenges such as the new models of work, the skills and capabilities needed, and improving productivity. All these themes will clearly be ongoing, and HR and L&D have a big role to play in all these areas.

But productivity of itself as a goal can’t be the only thing. We have been so long driven almost solely by economic output, profit, and short term goals that the human at work has too often been rather lost. A view of people as units of production too often, rather than people as human beings - homo economicus vs homo sapiens. The human side of work is now coming much more to the fore, and must do if we are to create a better future. Engagement, collaboration, diversity, well-being, and behaviours are some of the critical human components, and these in turn are all key drivers of outcomes, including productivity.

So we need to strive even harder to bring these components to the foreground of organisational thinking and strategy. Organisations need to see they have a duty of care to their people, including financial well-being about which we will be reporting some of our recent research in January. For many the challenges are growing as we see the longer term predictions of economic growth and wages growth. Our role as a profession therefore becomes ever more important.