Strategy | Leading from the front: how HR can demonstrate ROI in the boardroom

One in four HR professionals are not involved in key strategic business decisions, a recent report has highlighted.

But as the country prepares for Brexit and we look to the captains of industry to steer our course, should we be asking have we got the right leadership teams in place if those who manage their most costly and valuable resource do not have a place at the table?

Maybe those at the top, particularly those involve in manufacturing or heavy industry, do not fully appreciate the pivotal role of the HR Director/Head of HR. Sales targets and profit margins may help the arterial lifeblood of a company to flow, but even in the educated ‘teenies’, it’s all too easy to brush off HR as the team that deals with ‘soft skills’.

In reality, HR manages a key resource, which for any organisation is its greatest expense and most valuable asset. Alongside the ‘expense’ of people costs and recruitment (particularly if a company has retention issues) is the value of people as the backbone of the company: its organisational knowledge, skill and experience, as well as its heart and soul.