The anticipated changes to the world of HR will give rise to the emergence of many new roles, which are highlighted in a recent joint report from Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work and Future Workplace: 21 HR jobs of the future.

“As HR leaders are often consumed with handling impending disruption to jobs due to automation, changing workforce demographics or multi-generational workforces, they have less time to address the key issue of how these massive transformations will impact the organisation – and fundamentally change the role of HR professionals,” said Robert Hoyle Brown, vice president of the Cognizant Centre for the Future of Work.

Cognizant formed its Embrace network to drive and support an inclusive working environment for LGBTQIA+ colleagues. The community has become more important than ever during the pandemic, when employees have not been able to be physically together.

The Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic says it has been providing local residents with more than 2,000 meals per week using a private donation that originally was supposed to for an after-school program.

Pari Sanghavi, senior director, life sciences supply chain and manufacturing at Cognizant and Jim Lehane, global leader business development at Zenith discuss how manufacturing must change following COVID-19.

Many leaders in large companies are out of sync and out of touch with their workforce, markets, and competitive landscapes. That is according to research, which found that only 12 per cent of global executives feel their business leaders have the right mindsets to lead them forward in a new world of work and credibly transform the business.

COVID-19 has taken a dramatic toll on many industries, most notably retail. Up until now, the retail industry flourished by ensuring higher footfall to boost sales. Today, however, retailers need to tackle the epic challenge of working — within curbs — to manage footfall, while meeting changing consumer demands. Will we ever again look at increasing footfall as a measure to boost sales?

Social distancing was a virtually unknown expression until recently. Today it is a critical prevention strategy for people around the globe. As it becomes a cultural norm – and as consumers seek ensured hygiene, health, security, and trust – how retailers and brands amend their customer experiences today will have implications on future loyalty-building and growth efforts.

Finding new ways to boost supply chain management efficiency is more critical than it's ever been. Robotic process automation -- or RPA -- is one technology that may help.

Jason Oxman is joined on the Download On Tech podcast by Cognizant’s Global SVP Head of Artificial Intelligence Bret Greenstein and Vice President of Government Affairs & Legal Tobi Young. Bret and Tobi cover how Cognizant is responding to the COVID-19 crisis for their employees and for their customers, as well as the ways that technology is being utilized to combat the effects of COVID-19 and ways that the use of technology by individuals, companies, and governments might be different moving forward.