"People will want to work differently, and that's before the covid"

What will the future of human resources look like? What will this sector look like in 2030? To speak on this topic, the UPF Barcelona School of Management has organized a webinar by Sílvia Ciurana, professor of the Master in Human Resources Management and director of corporate Human Resources at CaixaBank.

Graduated in law and MBA from Esade, Ciurana has been teaching classes in the master's degree in Human Resources Management for 18 years and began the session by talking about her career, first at a law firm and then at Pirelli to end in labor relations in CaixaBank. Years later she moved to the staff development and selection section. She ended up being the director of human resources at the La Caixa Foundation: "An honor that lasted five years." She then returned to the bank to direct the human resources part of the group companies.

She has continued to speak above all about how human resources should evolve in the future: "2030 is a relevant date to stop and think. The sustainable development goals include spas that expressly speak of people."

She has commented on some contextual trends such as the life prospects of the global population or continuing education: "We will go through stages of work, learning and reconditioning throughout life." She also has predicted that "in the future it will not be strange that coworkers are 20, 50 or 70 years old."

"The concept of people who stay a lifetime in a company is no longer like that, people want to come, learn, meet people and companies have to learn to let go," she said.

She has also spoken about new jobs and skills that will be needed: "80% of young Spaniards between 20 and 30 years old who find work in the near future will exercise new or just-born professions." She, therefore, has stressed that "we will have to learn constantly, quickly and be agile, otherwise we will be left out."

The pandemic has also had an impact on human resources, especially in terms of the perception of staff recycling, which has improved notably; or because of the potential of teleworking: "People will want to work in a different way, and this is prior to the covid, the pandemic has only accentuated it and we have verified that it can be done."

The added value of HR
"Human resources add value if they provide a systemic approach to the company, which brings together everything the company does in people", said the expert and has continued to shed light on how human resources departments can do this, through " talent, leadership and organization ".

"The change has come to stay, but what we can do is manage it and not manage us," she has riveted.

What is the best HR organization? For the expert, the answer to this question will depend on the size and organizational structure, but according to Dave Ulrich, she lists a person who is dedicated to finding trends; an expert person instead; a person focused on building skills; a key person to introduce technology; a person whose mission is to integrate the latest news to the team and an enthusiastic person who transfers all this to the company.

To finish, he wanted to highlight three ideas for all the people who work in the human resources sector: "To take care of someone you have to take care of yourself and be present; you also have to be curious and have the desire to learn and you have to have positive thinking. "