To keep up with the pace of the 4IR and function efficiently, a clear focus on technology and the automation of HR processes, agility, innovation, productivity, saving costs and the ability to remain competitive is necessary. The evolution of cloud computing and the development of new architectures and computational principles lead to the transformation of software and may bring radical changes in the business strategies of companies across all sectors of the economy (Gokhberg, Sokolov, & Chulok, 2017). Considering the impact of technologies such as cloud applications and AI and the digitisation of operations, the work roles most likely to be eliminated are those involving routine, rule-based administrative and transactional tasks whilst those requiring relationship management, negotiation, problem-solving, judgement and domain expertise typically will remain (DiRomualdo et al., 2018). Artificial intelligence may boost analytic and decision-making abilities by providing the right information at the right time (Wilson & Daugherty, 2018).

The challenges brought about by technological innovations should be addressed by complementary and innovative approaches to provide innovative solutions that include radical methods that can be deployed to anticipate emerging technologies and their impact from a holistic perspective (Morrar, Arman, & Mousa, 2017). McClure (2018) found that there exists a sizable population of ‘technophobes’ or those who fear robots, AI and technology they do not understand. In the 4IR, there could be retrenchments because of automation processes and the use of robots (Pandian, 2018). Jin (2021) states that the digital transformation of HR is vital in the 4IT and the 5G Era. The HR professional must be a technology integrator (Ulrich, Kryscynski, Ulrich, & Brockbank, 2017).

Human resource professionals’ decision-making could be improved by being data driven. Consulting firms, academics and individual HR professionals have examined the basic applications of HR data to create well-functioning HR practices, but HR should rather focus on creating the organisational capabilities that are the foundation of high-performing institutions (Brockbank et al., 2018). The growth of data volumes available for analysis assists with managerial decisions and business intelligence (Gokhberg et al., 2017). It is essential to employ a clear data strategy to produce, capture and refine the data that is necessary for process redesign (Shukla, Wilson, Alter, & Lavieri, 2017).

Ethical behaviour will remain essential in the future world of work. When ethics and values are sacrificed for superficial benefits, success tends to be limited (Silver, 2018). Ethical leadership further is a manifestation of honesty and credibility, concern, doing the right thing, openness of communication, a personal life based on morality standards and being fair in decision-making, which influences ethical behaviour (Aryati, Sudiro, Hadiwidjaja, & Noermijati, 2018). In order for HR to be reinvented, its main five stakeholders must receive outcomes that matter to them: employee (productivity and well-being), strategy (direction and execution), customer (net promoter score and customer share), investor (financial results and intangible confidence) and community (reputation) (Ulrich & Smallwood, 2021).

In the South African context, the reinventing of HR necessitates resilience to assist companies to transform in a fast and positive way (Schultz, 2021). In addition, the rebalancing of priorities and rethinking of HR lead to the fact that resilience becomes equally important to strategic thinking, cost and efficiency (Schultz, 2021). Mefi and Asoba (2021) found that there are technological skill deficiencies amongst South African HR practitioners arising from the transition to industry 4.0. Calitz et al. (2017) highlighted a fear of retrenchment because of changes such as introducing cobots (i.e. collaborative robots). As organisations progress to the future and adapt to new realities, HR practitioners should stay abreast of changes to prepare for the future world of work (Schultz, 2019). One of these challenges is to ensure an updated human resource information systems (Ngwenya et al. 2019). Another challenge is the impact of COVID-19 on employees in the workplace (Bussin & Swart-Opperman, 2021), which HR practitioners will also need to deal with.

‘A role is a comprehensive pattern of behaviour that is socially recognised, providing a means of identifying and placing an individual in a society’ (Britannica, 2021:online). A role for the purpose of this study is the set of behaviour expected from HR practitioners:

Increased productivity presented the underlying thrust for each industrial revolution (Xu et al., 2018). To ensure productivity within HR, it is essential to rethink the role of HR. DiRomualdo et al. (2018) suggested that the HR department needs to rethink roles, for example, which activities can be fully digitised and how existing roles should be redefined. This department should further consider which high-impact areas and existing HR roles currently do not address adequately. The HR manager should coordinate industrial changes, such as automation, including the use of robotics to increase the efficiency of business operation (Pandian, 2018). The HR manager should further assist business leaders in navigating towards the best business decisions, often by means of technology (Hogg, 2019). Human resource faces a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be strategic, integrating the business digitisation process whilst assisting the workforce in transitioning to value- and purpose-based employment, instead of previous task- and skill-based employment (Papageorgiou, 2018). During digital transformation, HR departments will have the role of change agents to ensure that the organisation has the capacity for change (Karasek, 2020).

As business strategies and teams grow more agile to keep pace with recurring change in companies, HRM must also adapt (Schultz, 2021) and assist with business transformation (Bersin, 2020). Human resource managers should understand the basic business drivers such as global business, economic growth, capital markets, changing customer behaviour and competition (Thakur, 2020). According to Ulrich et al. (2017), the HR practitioner must be a strategic positioner and be able to position a business to achieve success in its market. Specialising in big data systems, maintenance and the analysis of both HR-specific and enterprise data are required in the digital age (DiRomualdo et al., 2018). Data privacy will be an important issue of HR analytics in the future. As there will be an increasing amount of data available (‘big data’), there will be a blurring of lines in using data for business progress. By applying metrics and analytics in all functions of the HR department, management decision-makers can modify comprehensive employment systems by effectively managing the company’s human capital (Durai, Rudhramoorthy, & Sarkar, 2019). By having access to the knowledge and inner workings of all of the best HR data sources, the HR Technology Centre of Expertise (CoE) is an ideal place to focus resources on workforce analytics to drive business insights and recommendations (Fernandez, 2019). As HR departments rush to deploy cloud technologies, robotics process automation and HR analytics, there is a growing need for a CoE dedicated to HR data and technology.

Human–machine collaboration enables companies to interact with employees and customers in novel, enhanced ways (Wilson & Daugherty, 2018). Legions of data analysts, IT professionals and experts in financial fraud are needed at the interface between humans and machines to guard against criminal interventions (Wilson & Daugherty, 2018). In working with machines, humans are advised to build machines for specific tasks, to explain their actions to other humans and to sustain the quality, safety and ethics of how cobots are used (Wilson & Daugherty, 2018). Furthermore, the use of cobots in production must be designed in such a way that employees experience the new technology as supportive and not as a rival (Wilkesmann & Wilkesmann, 2018, p. 247). The HR practitioner should therefore be able to act as a change agent to ensure that employees are appropriately informed about cobots and the further possible impact of 4IR. Being a change agent in the future world of HRM is of utmost importance (Jin, 2021; Ulrich et al., 2017).

In the South African context, business acumen will be a prerequisite to enable and influence the future role of HR in a positive way (Schultz, 2021). Dhanpat et al. (2021) stated that technical, managerial and soft skills will be critical for competitive advantage in 4IR. The 4IR not only holds changes for the future world of work but it also holds significant threats and opportunities to the relationship between employment relations stakeholders (Mabasa, 2020). Mefi and Asoba (2021) stated that the human–machine interface skills will be essential for South African HR practitioners. Cobots increasingly collaborate with humans in factory production and assembly environments in African organisations (Calitz et al., 2017). Traditional thinking about the workspace will be needed in the future world of work (Schultz, 2021). In conclusion, the HR role within South Africa will have to be improved to meet the demands of the 4IR (Bothma, 2019; Patel, 2019). This may lead to new skills for HR practitioners (Dhanpat et al., 2020; Maisiri & Van Dyk, 2021). It is interesting to note that a mindset shift for the 4IR will be necessary (Molloy & Ronnie, 2021).

Given that this study surveyed a wide range of participants, a qualitative survey as a research design was used. Braun et al. (2020) stated that this type of survey can harness the rich potential of qualitative data but seems to be underutilised. The qualitative type of survey does not aim at establishing frequencies, means or other parameters but at determining the diversity of some topic of interest within a given population. This type of survey does not count the number of people with the same characteristic (value of variable), but it establishes the meaningful variation (relevant dimensions and values) within that population by studying the diversity in a population (Jansen, 2010). Open-ended questions were utilised to collect data.

Members who are affiliated with the South African Board of People Practices (SABPP) formed the population of this study (4500 members). Those members of the SABPP who were employed as HR practitioners in the private and public sector and not in academe were invited to participate in the study. The reason for this inclusion criterion was that active involvement in the field was deemed more pertinent than academic knowledge in this study. A total of 108 members volunteered to participate in the study. Considering the present study’s focus on the future, as well as the type of data collection technique used, all participants were included in order to obtain rich data about the future of HRM. After analysing the input of participant 105, saturation of data was reached. No new information and views were therefore produced. The answers of the participants were very short and that is why the number of participants was more than in a usual qualitative face-to-face interview setup. Each of the 105 participants wrote on average 34 words. This provided a clear indication of the vastness of participants’ views about the future of HRM. Finally, 42 males and 66 females participated, including 61 participants from the private sector and 47 participants from the public sector. The age range was between 25 and 65 years.

Data were collected by means of an open-ended questionnaire to obtain rich data from participants. The following three open-ended questions were sent to participants by means of a SurveyMonkey link:

For the purpose of this article, only the first two questions were analysed and reported upon because they are related to the study purpose. As a result of a qualitative survey as a research design, SurveyMonkey was used to collect the data.

The data were organised into Excel spreadsheets in a way that facilitates analysis. The researcher followed the thematic analysis approach to analyse the data collected (Tesch, 1990). This involved searching for phrases and words that appeared to be the same based on the literature on the future of HRM. Simple colour coding was used to identify themes (Skjott Linneberg & Korsgaard, 2019). The main themes were identified, which led to the conclusion and recommendations. Thematic analysis allowed for data to be presented in words and themes and also allowed for easy interpretation of the findings (Bengtsson, 2016). This type of analysis enabled the meaning and interpretation of the data whereby the researcher allocated codes and assigned themes to the collected data (Neuendorf, 2019). The text was allocated appropriate labels, themes, codes and categories in alignment with the research objectives of the study (Bazeley, 2013).

A combination of inductive and deductive coding is the most commonly used approach, what is sometimes referred to as a blended approach (Graebner, Martin, & Roundy, 2012) or abduction (Alvesson & Kärreman, 2007). There is a strong tradition in qualitative research of developing codes ‘directly’ from the data. The researcher developed codes from the data by using phrases or terms used by the participants themselves, rather than using the, often theoretical, vocabulary of the researcher. In this way, the codes stayed close to the data, mirroring what is actually in them, rather than the ideas and prior understandings of the researcher, who is working vigorously to remain open minded (Skjott Linneberg & Korsgaard, 2019). This approach is most often referred to as the inductive approach. Generally, the codes in deductive coding are theoretical concepts or themes drawn from the existing literature. The following main literature was used for deductive coding: Brockbank et al. (2018), Silver (2018), Wilkesmann and Wilkesmann (2018) and Calitz et al. (2017).

Trustworthiness involves the following elements: credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability (Bless, Higson-Smith, & Sithole, 2013). In the present study, credibility was established through peer debriefing and member checks (Madill & Sullivan, 2018). Peer debriefing was performed involving a disinterested peer – a peer who is not involved in the research project – to aid in probing the researcher’s thinking around all or parts of the research process. Member checking was not carried out because of the fact that a brief summary of the findings or sharing the whole findings was not shared with the research participants because of the data collection technique. The study used a transparent process of coding to ensure that the research process was logical, traceable and clearly documented to ensure dependability (Sinkovics & Alfoldi, 2012). According to Zhang and Wildemuth (2009), confirmability is determined by checking the internal consistency of the research product. In the present research, this was achieved by ensuring that the data are available so that other researchers or reviewers can access or audit it to ensure that the results were not fabricated.

Permission to conduct this study was obtained from the SABPP. Ethical permission was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the Tshwane University of Technology (Pretoria Campus), Ref#: FCRE2018/FR/10/025-MS. The researcher adhered to essential ethical standards in all aspects of the research process. All possible participants received an overview of the study, before inviting them to participate voluntarily. As a result of the nature of the qualitative survey, participants were assured of the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses by using SurveyMonkey. They were also informed that they could withdraw from the study at any stage, if they wish. All participants indicated their consent to participate in the study after accessing the relevant information by means of the SurveyMonkey link.

In order for the HR practitioners to thrive in the 4IR, their focus should be on technology in order driven to support business results as seen by Participant 31:

If HR practitioners are not technology driven, business results and other HR processes may not be effective and efficient. Participants 24 and 104 were of the opinion that it is essential to automate HR processes by means of digitisation:

An important issue that surfaced is the fact that technology creates fear amongst employees. Technophobes are those who fear robots, AI and technology, and according to Participant 27, they are a reality in South African organisations:

Technophobes are also threatened because of possible job losses. It is therefore crucial that HR practitioners reduce such fears by providing awareness campaigns and relevant technology-related training to all employees. Human resource practitioners should also engage constantly with employees in order to allow employees to verbalise and deal with their fears in a constructive manner. This is a prominent role of HR practitioners in the 4IR:

In order to successfully deal with technophobes, it will be essential that HR practitioners assist management in creating an environment conducive to alleviating employees’ fears. Such an environment will assist employees to positively embrace technology:

It is evident that HRM should drive technology to support business results, but this might create fear among employees. Human resource management should therefore create a positive work environment and ensure that employees do not feel threatened and rather embrace technology.

It is essential that HR practitioners and HR managers must make informed business decisions in their role as business partners. One way in doing this is to use technological, qualitative, intelligent data to make such informed business decisions. The fact that people data should be readily available is something that HRM should take serious note of. The understanding and dealing with data analytics are therefore inevitable. An important role of HR in the 4IR will be to employ data analytics in making proper business decisions:

There was a strong sense amongst the participants that data could also be used to improve people and business practices and lead to life-changing practices. It is therefore important that HR practitioners should see data as influential in their role in the 4IR:

Human resource practitioners sometimes shy away from numbers, but the ability to deal with numbers in the future workplace is essential because it will rely on data analytics to assist with business decision-making and to provide information about staff issues.

The ethical behaviour of HR professionals is crucial in the future world of work. To ethically driven is a non-negotiable in the 4IR. According to Participant 35, an HR professional needs good ethics:

In the same vein as ethics, the African concept of ubuntu was also mentioned. Ubuntu was developed by conducting inductive coding. Ubuntu is a term meaning ‘humanity’ and is often translated as ‘I am because we are’ or ‘humanity towards others’ (Gade, 2011). Ubuntu as African humanism, is a philosophy, an ethic and a worldview (Gade, 2011). Since the transition to democracy in South Africa with the Nelson Mandela presidency in 1994, the term has become more widely known outside of Southern Africa:

Through HRM, ethics can be given credibility and aligned with how businesses and HR practices are executed. It is important to understand that ethical behaviour is rooted within a person, and HRM should therefore be self-driven and dynamic by portraying their own ethics and encourage others to also be ethically driven. Complying with legislation is a further dimension and requirement of ethics in the workplace and HR should therefore adhere to what is right:

Ethical behaviour and the humanity of HR professions are crucial in the future world of work. Therefore, HR professionals should ensure that they are self-driven and dynamic and that they comply with legislation in order to do what is right.

Change is inevitable in the future, and HR professionals need to be able to adapt to change. It is important for HRM to be change driven in order to build relationships of trust and respect and not to neglect these relationships:

Human resource professionals should take cognisance of the fact that changes relating to employee–employer relations should be addressed and that they themselves stay relevant in the future workplace. In building these relationships, HR professionals should assist employees in coping with the swift changes related to the future workplace:

The ability to adapt to change, build essential relationships of trust and respect, assist employees in coping and address employee–employer relationships are important aspects that the HR professional should focus on to stay relevant in the future. The fact that the HR practitioner should be change driven requires HRM to lead change and be a leader:

Becoming change driven, entails more than merely being a change agent because HRM needs to both lead change and engage with staff to facilitate change. In the 4IR, change must be driven by HR practitioners because of the fact that it will be expected from them by management and employees.

An important role of HR in the 4IR is to enable the organisation – including its employees – to be ready. The business should be prepared for, changes, skills development and data management. This will be made possible if HR practitioners possess critical and strategic thinking skills in order to enable the business for readiness and be business driven:

Advanced systems and alignment to the best practices of the business form part of HRM in enabling the business in the 4IR. Jobs will need to be redesigned, and people will need to be reorganised to meet future demands and to deal with technological changes:

In order to be business driven in the 4IR, a critical role of HRM will be to drive the organisation to become a learning organisation, to drive innovation and to oversee continuous improvement. Human resource management can understandably not do this in silos and should therefore create an awareness through constant engagement with management and employees:

In order to enable the business to be successful, HR practitioners should assist with preparing future readiness that entails change, skills development and data management. Human resource practitioners should be critical and strategic thinkers in order to properly enable the business to be prepared for the future world of work. Aligning systems, developing best practices, supporting staff to adjust, redesigning jobs and reorganising people also are essential parts of the role of HR. Human resource should drive a business to become a learning organisation and continually drive innovation and improvement to enable the business to be successful in the 4IR.

Presilience as a theme was developed through inductive coding. Schneider and Mcquirk (2020) opined that:

Schneider and Mcquirk (2020:1) also stated that presilience focuses on building the mental endurance, across the whole organisation not only to ‘bounce back’ but also to completely avoid crises, manage them effectively and minimise any negative effects – ideally it represents the idea of ‘bouncing back better.’ Essentially, presilience entails risk intelligence, agility and flexibility. Flexibility by itself is not sufficient; HR should also be agile:

Human resource needs to be reinvented by thinking about and doing things in a new manner and by continually obtaining the necessary skills and learning. Flexibility and agility are necessary for supporting organisational strategy and to drive organisational performance through people. To stay relevant, HR should measure its performance against the financial success of the business, ensure that the needs of employees, management and the organisation are met and act as the custodian of equality and fairness. Redefining the future world of work necessitates HR to capacitate staff to remain relevant in terms of what the organisation needs:

In order for HR to capacitate employees properly, a new mindset, adaptability, flexibility and agility will be essential, in order to embrace continuous disruption:

A part of being presilient in the 4IR, an HR role that might be challenging is to alleviate unemployment, inequality and poverty through training and development, especially in a developing country, such as South Africa:

The main reason why HR needs to capacitate employees is to assist them in remaining relevant and to have presilience. The new focus is on the people who are managing and responding to risk and presilience is about enhancing their inherent skills and capabilities to be adaptable, flexible and agile in response and then building the systems to support them as opposed to making them fit into the system. Presilience is the attribute and process of successfully preventing where possible, preparing for, responding to and recovering from adverse, major business interruption events and crises whilst looking for opportunities. Unlike resilience, which focuses purely on recovery and the ability to ‘bounce-back’, presilience focuses on building the mental fortitude, across the whole organisation not only to ‘bounce back’ but also to completely avoid crises, manage them effectively and minimise any negative effects – ideally it epitomises the idea of ‘bouncing back better.’ Presilience is much more than simply being reliable and ensuring business continuity in case a negative event happens, it’s about high performance and outcomes to ensure better performance. It’s about constant learning and adaption to seize opportunity, not simply recovering from a negative event. Presilience focuses on leaders and teams applying high-level critical reasoning skills to the problem in front of them, quickly developing a plan, making effective decisions within a simple framework and executing effective action through clear, effective and directive communication (Schneider & Mcquirk, 2020:1). A challenging role for HR is that of alleviating unemployment, inequality and poverty through training and development.