Relying solely on excellent human resources is not enough to face the fast-changing future of the business world, a number of practitioners said on Tuesday (2/9/2025), amid digital development and transformation.

QuBisa founder Suwardi Luis said resilience and adaptability are far more important for prospective workers to have in preparing to enter the job market.

"With good coordination, we decided that the event will still be held. From a different point of view, organizing this national event can provide an illustration that not all of Jakarta is chaotic, and most business leaders are optimistic that they can still move forward and move," said Suwardi. at the Indonesia Human Capital and Beyond Summit (IHCBS) 2025 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) BSD City, South Tangerang, Banten on Tuesday (02/09/2025).

The event was attended by GNIK Executive Director Dharma Syahputra, Kompas Gramedia CEO Liliek Oetama, and Kompas Gramedia Corporate Communications Director Glory Oyong.

Suwardi stated that IHCBS was present to answer the increasingly urgent need to increase the capacity of Human Resources (HR).

"The transformation of improvement is not in planning, but in the capacity to execute strategies. Of the 174 companies we surveyed, 32.5% stated that they succeeded in executing strategies well because of strong and reliable human resources," he said.

Three turning points

Professor of Innovation and Leadership Practice at Hult International Business School Riaz Shah explained that in a rapidly changing world, human civilization is currently facing three turning points that affect the formation of human resources.

• First, demographic change is characterized by a downward trend in global fertility from 4.83 children per mother in 1970 to 2.30 children per mother in 2020. Japan, as a case in point, even saw its population decline by 900,000 people by 2024, with death rates higher than birth rates.

"There are economic, social, and generational reasons, in addition to health factors. Governments of many countries will often not be able to address the issue in its entirety through a single, parsimonious policy," says Shah.

• Second, Generation Z's attitude and work motivation has changed significantly compared to previous generations.

"With young people becoming more financially vulnerable and mentally stressed, Gen Z workers are increasingly selective in their job choices, want flexibility, and emphasize work alignment with individual well-being and values," Shah said.

• Third, the disruption of imitation intelligence (AI) in the form of generative AI, agentic AI, and physical AI which has broad implications for HR competencies.

"Upskilling and reskilling are becoming increasingly important. Human resource recruiters need to be able to find future roles that blend natural human talent with AI to achieve optimal productivity and well-being ," Shah emphasized.

To avoid being eroded by these three turning points, Shah recommends three important steps for talent management:

• First, keep curiosity high by asking more questions and not stopping learning, including from younger workers who are more agile and quick to adapt to technology.
• Second, maintaining human intuition by honing emotional intelligence, collaboration, caring, and accommodating a diversity of viewpoints.
• Third, be bolder by leading change,smart risk-taking, and incorporating data insights in decision-making.

"The future has never been more uncertain than the one we now face. True leaders make uncertainty a source of energy, facing it not just as a danger, but as an opportunity," Shah concluded.

How to learn

Here are some of the best innovations that industry players have made in transforming the professional environment:

HR Director of Pertamina International Shipping (PIS) Dewi Kurnia Salwa, said that the company continues to pay attention to the trend of increasing demand for fossil fuels, digitalization, price volatility, and the risk of oversupply to adjust HR needs.

"The HR characteristics that we develop try to meet the criteria of workers who are digitally capable, collaborative, adaptive, resilient, ready to face challenges, and able to help companies to answer the needs of the global market," said Dewi.

To this end, PIS has developed a number of measures to recruit and develop inclusive, environmentally sound and responsible leadership talent through various regenerations. In the future, the outputs of regeneration will be better prepared to be placed at the helm of managerial leadership.

"The formation of leadership cadres must open access to networking and capacity building at the global level, with the support of digital resources, have high competitiveness, and be able to navigate global megatrends with resilience, innovation, and grow optimally," he concluded.

In the face of change, the desire to obtain optimal and work-ready human resources is increasingly critical. Najeela Shihab believes that every company's HR recruitment needs to be more realistic in accepting talented young talent, and needs work experience to be able to develop better.

"The expectations of our ready-made talents are too high, often demanding things of fresh graduates that they never experienced on campus, citing lack of time and target demands. By understanding lifelong learning, the process of upskilling and reskilling must take place throughout the work process," said Najeela.

KTM Solutions, which he leads, for example, is increasingly pushing the use of AI not only as a learning tool, but also as a productivity instrument, such as the use of AI in the asynchronous interview process of job candidates.

In this way, in addition to more objective interview results, it also proves that human resource investment can be empowered and not replaced by AI.

Andrey Andoko confirmed that the transition of AI is inevitable in the lecture process and in the world of work. Instead of encouraging students, Andrey stated that it is the teaching staff who must be more adaptive to AI, provide opportunities for students to utilize AI in the learning process, and develop beyond AI skillsets upon graduation.

"By familiarizing students with case studies and project-based learning, UMN's final year students learn the exact competencies they will face in the world of work. We balance internship obligations and entrepreneurship encouragement, so that they are not only looking for work, but also creating jobs. Even though you don't have to set up a business or start-up, the important thing is that you have the mindset to move forward," Andrey concluded.