**7. Conclusion**

Due to the pandemic's effect on the economy, organisations were quickly forced to transform and adapt to the new normal in order to survive. It is vital that HR evolves and transforms across every element of the HR lifecycle to meet a new set of organisational needs. The pandemic is not just a public health crisis – it's also an economic transformation where products, services, customer experiences, and physical work locations may change. While new technologies can help immeasurably when viewed as a tool to contribute to well thought-out change, organisational objectives and priorities, that alone will not be enough. Resilient HR means that HR professionals and leaders, are set up to quickly enable this transformation – not only helping people come back to work, but also helping the company transform in the fastest, most positive way. HR leaders should therefore develop a strategy that encompasses the enhancement of their own HR competencies, future workspace, engagement, employment relations and resilience. The execution of the strategy will assist to strategically position and prepare the organisation to effectively deal with future work challenges and developments.

A range of avenues for future research can therefore be identified. First, research could be broadened to obtain more insight into the future of HR. Second, case studies can be conducted to investigate the views of public and private sector managers regarding their future expectations of their HR managers. Third, future research should also suggest a study using statistical methods to determine the relationships between HR competencies, future workspace, engagement, employment relations and resilience.

In conclusion, it is essential that HR must go beyond the here and now in order to properly prepare for the future world of work.
