2018 is already off to a flying start with the on-going advancements of the overall HR function.

Organizations must act fast to keep up with the competition.  As we have mentioned in our previous A-Z lists, the HR Gurus we highlight are a great resource to keep if you want to stay up-to-date on how the experts are dealing with the changes so far in 2018.

So what is the focus for HR in 2018?

This year, focus is on the employee experience and culture. There’s still an on-going race to digitalize human resources and we’ve seen more organizations incorporate people analytics into their business structure.

That’s not all. The Agile Organization Model and the Gig Economy is re-defining how workplaces can operate, further highlighting the importance of culture in business.

This year, focus is on the employee experience and culture!

“In 2018, the CHRO has a huge role to play in culture development. The need for firefighting will not go away and neither will the need to upgrade HR processes and systems. Nevertheless, in 2018, CHROs need to carve out more time for culture, helping leaders and stakeholders understand the way it operates, building the future culture story, activating everyone, and then supporting learning and iteration.” – Sherrill Burns, Co-Founder of Culture-Strategy Fit

A source of motivation

Maybe you need inspiration on ways to boost engagement, enrich your company culture, promote gender equality, update your HR software or simply find new ways to motivate and retain your workforce and don’t know where to start.

Luckily, we have got some great HR Gurus in our first A-Z list of 2018, who teach us by means of tweets, articles, white papers and shared background experience.

Our top twenty-six as a whole, contain leaders that are developing initiatives for creating value, generating strategic development for programmes and procedures whilst driving digitalization and culture change forward. We also continue to see numerous experts from the Baltic States thanks to the continuing developments we saw in the Nordic region towards the end of last year.

We continue to see numerous experts from the Baltic States

“As an up and coming tech hub for entrepreneurs with big ideas, the Baltics have plans for the future and an eye on the global marketplace.” – Alison Coleman, Contributor for Forbes

All of the HR gurus in our A-Z list are there for good reason, but in this quarter we are shining a spotlight on Andzelika Berga.  As the new Head of People and Culture at Luminor, Berga is breaking the stereotype of HR Manager by promoting innovative work environments and motivating employees through shaping relationship culture.

Andzelika Berga’s passion for people and culture and ability to focus on the employee as “the core and the heart of every company” is what has led her to achieve successful engagement and branding results throughout her career and we can’t wait to follow her journey with Luminor – definitely a HR Leader to follow for inspiring practices.

  Undine Abele, HR Business Partner at Air Baltic Corporation

  Andzelika Berga, People and Culture @Banking, Finance and Tech, Employer Branding, Change Management, Talent Acquisition, HR 

  Ward Christman, Founder@HRTechAdvisor & Chief Advisor/Co-Founder@HRTechAlliances

  Hari desh, Talent Acquisition at Indegene

  David Espeso, Global Lead, Business Strategy & Service Design, Innovation Leader | Omnichannel Customer Experience | MBA

  Marija Felkel, CHRO T-HT

  David Green, People Analytics leader | Award Winning Writer | Speaker / Chair | LinkedIn HR Power Profile | @david_green_uk

  Jeff Haden, Author: THE MOTIVATION MYTH (Portfolio), Inc. Magazine Contributing Editor, speaker, ghostwriter

  Jon Ingham, HR/OD strategist. Author of the new book, ‘The Social Organization’. Focused on digital workplaces & the future of work.

  Gunther Janssens, Passionate about HR Transformation, Change & Customer centric cultures. Open for new challenges.

  Roberts Kilis, Teaching at SSE Riga, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

  Drew Lawrence, Relationships Matter

  Dave Millner, Executive Consulting Partner, IBM Workforce Science (Known as @HRCurator)

  Kim Staack Nielsen, MBA, DBA, CEO and Chairman, DANSK HR

  Aija Bite-Ozere, HR Director at Tele2 Latvija

  Hy Pomerance, Chief Human Resources Officer at QBE Insurance

  Didi Q-Mos, Helps Startups to Deal with some Vertical Industries.

  Professor Alf Rehn, Professor of innovation, design and management at Faculty of Engineering, University of Southern Denmark

  Jörgen Sundberg, Employer Brand Consultant

  Kadi Tamkõrv, Head of HR and Support Functions

  Sabarinath U, HR Specialist -Compensation & Benefits , HR Analytics

  Dirk Verburg, Management Consultant & Executive Coach

  Eileen Whelley, EVP & CHRO

  Li Xu, Head Of Product Management, SAP Anywhere at SAP

  Olga (Lapteva) Yelistratova, HR Manager at C.T.Co

  Ilze Žilde, Head of HR and Office administration in the Baltic states at ERGO Insurance & ERGO Life Insurance SE

So there you have our top A-Z HR Gurus for Q1 2018.

We would love to know which HR Leaders inspire you so please tell us who would make your Q1 2018 HR Guru’s list in the comment section below!

Robyn.

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