Brake or Accelerate?
Why CHROs Must Juggle Risk and Restraint to Deliver the GenAI Transformation for Their Workforce.
Natter met with Marilyn Chaplin, most recently Chief Human Resources Officer at technology giant NTT Ltd, for an honest conversation about GenAI and the role of the CHRO. She explains how HR can drive the GenAI agenda, the pitfalls to avoid and why building employee trust through conversations is essential for organizational success with GenAI.
As a leader at one of the largest organizations in the world, Marilyn was responsible for the experience of over 50,000 employees across 50 different countries. While that may seem like a daunting task, her entrepreneurial roots and strategic mind served as a unique foundation for this role. With previous experience as a founder and CEO, Marilyn confidently merged the changing business realities of GenAI with its human implications, weighing the workforce risks and opportunities to set up NTT Ltd for a future of growth.
“CHROs must have a seat at the table to communicate the workforce risk around AI and how it can be successfully positioned within the company.”
In being accountable for the entire workforce, Marilyn suggests that CHROs need to form part of the AI inner circle within their organizations to oversee the business intersections of GenAI and the impact on employees. This correlates with the data gathered by Natter and Accenture in the research roundtables, featuring 58 global CHROs representing over 7.4 million employees, where maintaining and improving culture through GenAI change management was cited as a core part of the new CHRO role.
Marilyn acknowledges that this can be unfamiliar territory, with many HR leaders having previously felt left out of organizational technology conversations. To leaders in this position, Marilyn emphasizes the importance of being proactive, “Come with the why; you’re there to talk from a workforce perspective. Bring examples of where you see risk and how you think you could mitigate that risk.”
“Why should we, as leaders, have authentic, honest, transparent conversations with our employees? To learn from their experience and make sure they don't feel that GenAI is being forced onto them.”
Representing the workforce perspective requires understanding your people. Marilyn urges global CHROs to fight the temptation to push GenAI across the organization, and instead prioritize workforce intelligence to capture new ideas and build trust. “Gauging employee appetite for GenAI should start with conversations that give everyone the opportunity to speak. This allows us to move beyond one-way responses and understand genuine employee sentiment. An empty comment box reveals nothing, but a pause in conversation can be very telling.”
Within NTT, Marilyn worked hard to maintain trust with her teams in the context of GenAI. This includes explaining why the brakes had been applied in certain situations. Take ChatGPT: “Rather than just saying no, we made sure employees understood the ‘why’. By creating a module that explains the risks around data – and that we would rather they use CoPilot within our own environment – the more they’ll see us as an organization mindful of data privacy.”
“We want people to upskill and reskill in digital skills, addressing the gaps. So that as the nature of work changes, they’re ready for that and remain relevant for the future.”
To nurture the workforce and effectively prepare people for the future, CHROs and HR leaders need to offer GenAI upskilling and reskilling. From the Natter roundtable data, the most-cited way participants plan to upskill the workforce to benefit from GenAI opportunities is to directly demonstrate value to employees. Consistent with this, Marilyn suggests creating a “skills framework”, enabling people to see other opportunities and connect with mentors across the organization, preferably from different global functions.
“Part of me says I have the brakes for a reason. There’s compliance, there’s risk, there’s bias. But the question is, what if we don’t engage with AI? If you brake too much, you’ll be left behind.”
When it comes to navigating the leadership paralysis that can accompany the unknown of GenAI, Marilyn is certain that action is essential. “Don’t be afraid to say ‘we’re going to test in this area’. But when we test it, we properly test it. We don’t just test the adoption, we test the outcome, and then we can scale it.” Within NTT, Marilyn tested using GenAI to improve time to hire by matching people’s skills to opportunities, with striking results: “In Year 1 we saw a 10% increase in internal promotions.”
While testing and iterating enables leaders to keep one hand on the brake, finding the correct speed of acceleration to remain competitive is a challenge. Marilyn cautions against racing towards the unknown, into the “froth and noise” of the vendor market, without first having the fundamentals in place. “If you don’t have your data structures, quality indexes and governance in place, and those global platforms and processes, it’s hard to achieve the AI gain.” It’s from these foundations that HR leaders can approach GenAI exploration with the workforce, prioritizing trust through conversations, and empowering their people to shape the organization for the future.
With huge thanks to Marilyn Chaplin for sharing her insights and expertise.
