HR used to be easy. Hand out cut-and-dry information, and make sure said employees consumed said information. But today, technology innovations impacting HR business processes have professionals simultaneously looking for ways to uplevel the function, and fearing that machines will take their jobs. Specifically, HR pros have had to contend with the following transformations, as the field moves from:
 

• Transactional HR to Strategic HR
• Uni-Directional Communication to Cross-Directional Communication
• Legacy Human Capital Management Systems to Flexible HCM Systems
• Technology Product Use by a Few to Technology Product Use by Many
• Technology Product Use in the Office to Technology Product Use Anywhere
• Digital Posting to Digital Relationship Building
• Static Online Learning to Experiential Online Learning

The Rise of Disruption

Almost 20 years ago, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen first coined the term disruptive technology, referring to technology that displaces an established technology and shakes up an industry or a groundbreaking product that creates a completely new industry.

Christensen separated new technology into two categories: disruptive and sustaining.

Sustaining technologies rely on incremental improvements to an already established technology, and large companies are designed to work with these types. They excel at knowing their market, staying close to their customers, and having a mechanism in place to develop existing technology. They also have trouble capitalizing on the potential efficiencies, cost-savings, or new marketing opportunities created by disruptive technologies.

Even in 1997, Christensen nailed the issue facing many HR organizations today:  it’s easy to dismiss the value of a disruptive technology because it does not reinforce current company goals, only to be blindsided as the technology matures, gains a larger audience, and threatens the status quo.

Although disruption is everywhere, there are four specific technologies in which the modern HR pro must become proficient: cloud computing (HR as a service), mobile, predictive analysis, and virtual reality.