Human "Resource".. Whats in the name???

A thought that comes to my mind quite often is, why do we address the department with different names like Human Resource, Human Capital Management, Personnel Management, etc. If Human is not the resource then which resource it really would be? Material resource is producing results only through Human Resource. We are traveling back to stone-age if we do not believe the contemporary. Though should not they be considered as an asset, thus be named as human capital...

Any thing that mobilizes the input to the business to customize the output (whether commodity or service) is treated as resource. A resource like plant and plant and machinery becomes asset, since it has appreciation value. Any resource, including finance, which does not have an re-sale and/ or appreciation value is treated as resource only. Financially, the 'human factor' does not have any appreciation value. All we have is investment on them, on which we expect immediate returns. If we go by the ERP model, HR is at the center core of the model, driving other resources.
Human Resource can become and be treated as asset, provided you can establish long run business return, with adequate manpower planning, structured investment through developmental programs and clear cut ROI with increased potential output, for each position with appropriate retention strategy.

However, it all depends on the people value & practice of the organization, as to how do they want to treat this resource from the business perspective.

We make the prospective candidate feel good by using such jargons, best asset-everything revolves around humans-we invest heavily in humans etc etc. Once the person joins us then day two on-wards we make him an equipment with a tag (employee code). Human as a resource sounds good, that's all. People are resource creator / resource conservator / resource generator and I am not convinced they should be treated as resource. People themselves have to preserve / conserve their own creativity/innovation in order to be ahead of any thing. No external force can compel people to do so.

I think employees are resources on hire. The rent (salary package) depends on quality of the resources. Only difference is that this resource has authority to decide whether to enter into the arrangement and when to walk out of it, unlike other resources.

What has changed an HR’s role

I often keep hearing people talk about how the dynamic environment has changed the role that HR plays in today’s organization. Thus I think it is worth exploring what has really changed a HR’s role.
The first that comes to my mind is the Glocalization of the world economy. Today there are various companies that employs a global workforce. An organization functions in different countries and cultures where the quality of life and attitude towards employees differs. But an organization, in a quest to develop its brand wants to treat all employees equitably. The responsibility of making this happen rests on the shoulder of the HR. Thus with a diverse workforce, today the HR functions at different levels. At the international level they develop a framework for the policies they need to follow for all the employees and at the local level they frame policies that keep in mind the quality of life, business practices, labor laws, cultural sensitivities etc. In fact with companies looking to employ transnational employees, they need to understand the difference between the cultures in which they operate and help employees adapt to different scenarios.
To employ teams operating out of diverse locations the organizations to expect the HR folks to be in know of what possibilities the new technology has to offer. With a diverse workforce the companies are faced with the employees demanding much more freedom at workplace. With this becoming more and more commonplace and advanced technology providing new tools, the companies today have developed a dynamic workforce that is more adaptive to remote collaboration and demands much more flexibility in work timings. This has also led to more creative employment contracts and greater incentives to attract and retain talent. The employees today has matured and better understands what the organization’s expectations are.  As a result there has been a gradual movement towards judging the performance on predefined outputs and deliverables.
Of course, with this the organizations have not let themselves be far behind in gradually setting the bar higher for the employees. This has lead to employee struggling to strike work-life balance. Once again the employees have only the HR to look up to to help them out. Engaging employees at workplace has turned out to be a popular practice these days and organizations look for better resources to communicate and reach out to the employees. They try to address all the different needs and expectations of the employees and even reach out to connect to community and portray itself as socially responsible. In the world of social networking website employees are increasingly web savvy. Intranet based tools have been developed by HR for communication, training and benefit administration. These tools have developed more transparency in processes and developed more trust between the organization and its employees.
With the change in the way business functions, the drivers of the business i.e. the employees have also developed more maturity. With the development of the knowledge economy the workforce with which organizations deals have a better understanding of what they are contributing to the organization. Now organizations are faced with free-lancers and contract workers making commitment not stretching beyond results and deliverables. Family and life interests plays a more prevalent role in people's lives and a greater factor in people's choices about work- there is more of a "work to live" than a "live to work" mentality. In the DINK culture, today couples give equal importance to their spouse’s career as well, thereby showing a greater level of personal commitment which they expect their employers to help them keep.
HR folks are slowly moving into a coaching role to help business managers deal with people issues and optimize team performance. As the business keeps growing the jobs are being redesigned to become more and more complex with a broader scope. In such situations it might be difficult for line managers to manage teams with equal if not more work pressures. Thus, HR can be the ones to whom they can look for assistance when in doubt.

The 21st Century HR

Over the years the HR professionals across the world have been making constant endeavor to claim a greater responsibility in the success of the organization. They have moved a long way from JUST creating and administering the processes in the organization, to please the executive management.
This role often included doing many things that others didn’t want to do. They have been the hated department in many organization. This was the phase in the history of management thought when the bottom line were numbers based on output and economies of scale and the employees were not believed to have a major impact on those numbers. Though successful managers always knew that managing people is an important criteria for success, it was only when many managers and executives failed to produce desired results or sustain excellent performance that the focus shifted to the importance of talent. With the development in this thought process, there was a need for a part of the management that was ready to take up the challenge and create policies that would focus on the development of the business and enabling the employees to contribute to the best of its abilities.
Over the past decade or so the economy across the globe has been through a dynamic phase. This dynamism originates from the various managers, executives and their teams that have dared to break the rules. The role of HR has changed according to the needs of the organization. They have taken up a different role of guiding the organization through the change process through collaboration with the business and providing strategic inputs to the business for aligning the organizational goals with that of the company. In some cases, the administrative part of their job has been outsourced heavily to ensure that they are able to focus on the new role in the organization.
As a strategic partner, HR today contributes in developing and accomplishing organization-wide objectives and business plans. They keep analyzing the way the work positions are designed and keep modifying it to provide greater clarity to the employees, enabling them to set realistic goals. They set up process to help every employee have a better understanding of how they contribute to the organization’s goal and help them identify and develop their skills to achieve better results. At the same time they also ensure that the key performers in the organization are identified and rewarded in a just manner. As a strategic partner they focus on getting in the right people at the right place and helping them shape their career in line with the organization’s growth path.
In a dynamic work environment it is easy for an employee to get lost without a trace. It is the role of the HR person to ensure that the culture of the organization compliments the kind of goals set by the organization. Fostering effective methods of goal setting, communication and empowerment through responsibility, builds employee ownership of the organization. The HR professional helps establish the organizational culture and climate in which people have the competency, concern and commitment to serve customers well. The organization develops a relationship with every employee in which the mutual expectations are clearly defined and the trust developed over a period of time makes this bond even stronger.
HR has been given a very paradoxical role of firstly making the employee feel at home in the workplace and then ensure that they can smoothly move out of their comfort-zones when organization moves through a phase of change. Both knowledge about and the ability to execute successful change strategies make the HR professional exceptionally valued. Knowing how to link change to the strategic needs of the organization will minimize employee dissatisfaction and resistance to change.

The thankless job

Whenever, I used to meet seniors in the field of HR, one question that always found a space in the conversation was why did you choose to pursue your career in Human Resource. Well, with a touch of humor I would say those folks at college duped me by that name personnel management. [For someone just out of college, every thing with management would mean its worth it ;)].
In school my academics were inclined towards pure science and not to everybody's expectation I chose not to become an engineer, but to my expectation almost all my friends were engineers and landed up in organizations which had a HR department of decent size. Whenever I used to have a word with them they would say that they hate the way HR functions. It is the 'Highly Reprimanded' department of the organization. They seem to nail down everyone with phrases like "we will get back to you" or "the position is on hold" or " we are waiting for the decision from the top" etc. In fact, sometimes it is embarrassing to see so many queries being constantly neglected.
But as a thumb rule, HR are the custodians of the processes within an organization.
Historically, as the organizations began to grow there was a gap that started to build up between the management and the employees. It was then that to bridge this gap that personnel department came into being. Thus as finance dealt with numbers, productions with machines, in came HR to deal with emotions, irrationality and the "human touche". HR was once considered the ‘mother hen’ within organizations – the place to go to with your grievances, personal or work-related? Perhaps technology and the need to keep up with other organizational functions have dimmed this role – making HR the last place to go to! HR generally acts as a punch-bag and thus turns out to be the most hated department in many organizations. When there is a happy news to announce, they ornate the scripts for CEOs and perhaps the PR-types. But when there’s a bad news to announce, they are suddenly the official spokesperson of the organization. Over a period of time as new concepts of management came into being there was need for a department to take up functions and responsibilities which no one else either wants or is capable of doing. From recruiting to orienting new employees, from writing job descriptions to tracking attendance, and from instituting and monitoring policies to monitoring benefits, there has been a need for someone to establish a structure and holding down costs of administration as the senior management took the lead in bringing in new management fundas. Thus HR is very administrative in nature and focuses a lot on processes. Bogged down with varying expectations of countless customers that they have to deal with day-in and day-out, it has come a long way in the last few decades to become an essential part of the organizations of the 21st century.
One of the major strengths of HR is connecting with the employees and effectively communicating the reason for their actions and develop a trusting relationship with the stakeholders. The most satisfied internal customers have been found to ve served by HR who are very transparent in their communication.To help with dealing all the ambiguities they face, formal policies and procedures manual are created keeping the fairness to employees and best interest of the company in mind. Where HR brings in a difference is, when they follow the processes not just as a formality but add a touch of personalization.
HR dept.s have constantly evolved to become more and more flexible to better meet the demands of a dynamic business environment. In the past decade or so this constant effort has paid off in beginning the drive to recognize HR as a strategic partner of the business, rather than just an administrative department.
HR has an information function that one should think through. Changes in policies, changes in benefits, even changes in laws must be communicated to all employees. Major changes may call for training such as in harassment a few years back. Major changes in medical insurance benefits have to be disseminated to all affected employees. Therefore, HR becomes a kind of pass-through in the information cycle.

My personal belief is that someone who chooses to be in HR has to have a different level of sensibility and motivation because it is essentially considered to be a thankless job.