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.