Our Story
The spark for creating the Future HR Academy occurred when our two founders met in October 2021, following the Global Covid-19 crisis and the huge shifts that were caused in the world of work. Independently, both, had been speaking to CEOs, CHROs, Chief People Officers and HRDs and realised that this shift provided a significant challenge, risk and opportunity for businesses, their people, and people departments (or HR).
Unbeknown to our founders, they had both been working on new models to support businesses and people leaders to adapt to these challenges, mitigate the risks and upskill their departments to take advantage of the opportunity. The world had changed so something entirely new needed to be created to learn our way into the future.
Whilst they knew of each other, they had never actually met and several things then happened on this fateful day. Firstly, it was clear that they both had a similar passion and inner fire stoking to shift the people profession forward like never before.
Secondly, they were both equally frustrated that the people profession wasn’t moving at the pace it needed to and that now had to be the time to act.
Finally, they both shared each other’s ‘homework’ and were astonished to see that the models they had independently created, where incredibly similar, challenging the status quo and spookily complimentary. Indeed, their experience and skill sets would prove to be very different, but complimentary.
It was agreed then and there, that if they couldn’t find anything that could meet the new needs of the people profession, that they would come together, merge models and create something entirely new. They searched and they found nothing, only the usual learning bodies, expensive consultancies, events, HR Communities, and accreditation institutions, but nothing that was adequate, let alone cutting edge, the journey had begun.
The world had changed so something entirely new needed to be created to learn our way into the future.
Our journey took us on an intensive, collaborative, and enjoyable path to deeply unpick what the challenges and issues are, to then decide how best to organise and build a new solution. We set about speaking to the profession, whilst consuming everything we could, research, news, books, webinars, podcasts, well you get the drift.
It was clear that the world had changed forever, as had the needs, expectations, dreams, requirements, and fears of society at large and therefore your employees/the employee. What is my purpose? is it aligned to the company I work for? can I work from home? will I still get to take my kids to school? can I continue to be flexible? am I trusted? are we looking after the planet? are they interested in my wellbeing? am I being developed? am I valued? are we diverse? the game had changed.
As expectations had changed, it was clear that every single business we were talking to were going through a significant change, what we have termed Reshaping for the Future. We also realised that this change wasn’t going away, what started with a global pandemic, then was combined with racial injustice, continuing socio-economic issues, war, sustainability, and urgent environmental action. So, what we needed to build had to be adaptable and fluid.
If organisations are Reshaping for the Future, then Future thinking skills, capabilities, and energies for leaders in the People Profession were much needed.