The role of HR is changing…

Previously known as the team who simply hire, fire and deal with people issues, proactive HR teams are moving away from a reputation of the disciplinarians of an organisation, to that of valued strategic business partners.

It couldn’t be more necessary. With businesses stifled by stagnating productivity and a talent tight market, advice from HR professionals is more valuable than ever in driving a high-performance culture across the business.

In addition to having a wealth of knowledge in a vast number of specialisms, there’s one aspect of the HR professional’s role that makes them especially valuable to an organisation - HR knows people. People are an organisation’s biggest asset, so the value a HR team can add by understanding what’s really going on within their organisation is vast.

As experts, they truly understand what drives their workforce and what’s happening on the internal grapevine which in turn, provides the insight and power to reveal what employees need in order to succeed. They must also understand where the business is heading, its challenges and future priorities.

Unfortunately, the strategic value of a HR function is not always recognised. Even when it is, many HR professionals find themselves too consumed by the burden of day-to-day activities to be able to focus on gaining the strategic insight they need.

The ability to bridge the gap between the two is where HR truly reveals its value – rationalising what the business wants and understanding how to enable its workforce to make this happen.

However, marrying the two can be a time-consuming and onerous task. The role of HR is changing so how can these two areas be combined to provide the insight needed to shape the direction of the business?