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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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  • I don’t think HR and IT necessarily need to merge, but I do think the boundary between them needs to become much clearer.

    IT will usually own the systems, security, integration and technical governance. HR should not try to become a technical function. But HR does need to own the people impact: job design, capability, trust, employee relations risk, manager behaviour, consultation, adoption and the ethical use of people data.

    The danger for HR is waiting until a system has already been selected and then being asked to “manage the people side” afterwards. By that point, many of the important decisions have already been made.

    A useful model may be:

    1. IT owns infrastructure and security.
    2. HR owns workforce impact, role design and employee trust.
    3. Legal/DPO owns privacy, compliance and contractual risk.
    4. Leaders own business use cases and accountability.
    5. Managers own day-to-day implementation and communication.

    So I would not frame it as HR merging with IT. I would frame it as HR needing enough digital and AI literacy to be an equal governance partner rather than a late-stage implementation function.

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  • I don’t think HR and IT necessarily need to merge, but I do think the boundary between them needs to become much clearer.

    IT will usually own the systems, security, integration and technical governance. HR should not try to become a technical function. But HR does need to own the people impact: job design, capability, trust, employee relations risk, manager behaviour, consultation, adoption and the ethical use of people data.

    The danger for HR is waiting until a system has already been selected and then being asked to “manage the people side” afterwards. By that point, many of the important decisions have already been made.

    A useful model may be:

    1. IT owns infrastructure and security.
    2. HR owns workforce impact, role design and employee trust.
    3. Legal/DPO owns privacy, compliance and contractual risk.
    4. Leaders own business use cases and accountability.
    5. Managers own day-to-day implementation and communication.

    So I would not frame it as HR merging with IT. I would frame it as HR needing enough digital and AI literacy to be an equal governance partner rather than a late-stage implementation function.

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