'Strategic adviser' | What is HR's top priority this year?

A new report tilted ‘2021 CHRO Agenda’, released by consulting firm The Hackett Group, has outlined the key areas in which HR should be prioritising its time and efforts in 2021.

Amongst the many relegations about the year ahead, the report noted that the HR function’s role as a strategic adviser to leaders and the C-Suite is the profession's number one priority this year – likely due to the central role that HR took in keeping businesses operating in the coronavirus pandemic.

The report explained that both practitioners and those outside of the HR field have acknowledged the function’s ability to be a strategic leader in both driving culture and in strategic change management – two areas that became essential when the pandemic hit last year.

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However, whilst visibility in HR’s leadership has grown in this time, a separate survey conducted by Sage found that, despite 65% of HR leaders believing that they played a "vital role" during the pandemic, most of the C-Suite executives surveyed by Sage said changes with HR departments driven by the pandemic ‘are only temporary’.