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Will HR and IT functions merge to reshape the role of the profession?

Steve Bridger

It's a bit of a provocative question, but not a hypothetical one.

In May, the huge biotech company Moderna merged its technology and HR departments under one executive, creating the new role of Chief People and Digital Technology Officer. This move reflected a broader push within the organisation to redesign work around human-AI collaboration (including the deployment of over 3,000 custom GPT agents to assist in - for example - performance management and benefits queries). We have discussed how the use of AI in recruiting is already rapidly accelerating that integration. AI in the workplace 

Is this a new trend - a fad that will blow over - or something that more organisations may adopt in the near future? 

This was another topic of discussion in this week's HR People Pod.

As the guests commented - this isn't about sticking two functions together to create a Frankenstein department - and HR will not be fixing employee laptops anytime soon - but the tywo functions already work closely - innovating, creating dashboards, etc. 

In few years ago a friend (who will remain nameless) rather harshly referred to the "cold hands of HR and IT". Can the two functions really merge together in err, warm embrace?

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  • HR has had many homes in the past and my guess would be some companies will merge and many others won't or won't even have HR. It's such a broad church out in the world I don't think a one size fits all.

    I've always taken an OD approach to my people work and I also focus a lot on guiding clients through change often tech enabled change. I've worked in tech teams, as their people management change lead and I've worked closely with tech (and many other functions) when it comes to change projects. Where I sit functionally is more about the org design, the signals it sends and what makes sense for the organisation. It's the geography but perhaps the bringing together of HR and tech is more about the past history -perhaps they were too far apart and not working collaboratively together in service of the organisation and the needs. Moving them into one joint function could be a powerful signal to indicate the future direction of travel.

    Like any change project though, structure and where it sits is only one part of the equation. Regardess of where it sits HR needs to be more involved and not be afraid to lead the technical conversation (AI is part of that) rather than be behind the curve.
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  • HR has had many homes in the past and my guess would be some companies will merge and many others won't or won't even have HR. It's such a broad church out in the world I don't think a one size fits all.

    I've always taken an OD approach to my people work and I also focus a lot on guiding clients through change often tech enabled change. I've worked in tech teams, as their people management change lead and I've worked closely with tech (and many other functions) when it comes to change projects. Where I sit functionally is more about the org design, the signals it sends and what makes sense for the organisation. It's the geography but perhaps the bringing together of HR and tech is more about the past history -perhaps they were too far apart and not working collaboratively together in service of the organisation and the needs. Moving them into one joint function could be a powerful signal to indicate the future direction of travel.

    Like any change project though, structure and where it sits is only one part of the equation. Regardess of where it sits HR needs to be more involved and not be afraid to lead the technical conversation (AI is part of that) rather than be behind the curve.
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