The road ahead for HR careers
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the future of Human Resources. HR, as you all know, is an organizational function with one foot in the past (administration, paperwork, systems, and rules) and the other stepping into the future (strategy, technology, and talent). And while we know it has value — and have in fact staked our entire careers on that value –it can be difficult to communicate that value to individuals in charge of cost-cutting. Where is the profession going, and how do we get there?
My thoughts came into focus as I read “Beyond administrivia: in savvy companies, HR sets the agenda for growth” by Joe McKendrick. He writes:
The side of human resources departments most managers and employees see is the administrative side — the folks who manage the payroll and benefits paperwork, keep salaries aligned, prepare new employee orientation packages, prepare severance packages, and make sure the enterprise is meeting the letter of all labor laws and regulations. But administrivia is just one small segment of HR’s mission. As a strategic partner, HR can help make or break business growth. Technology and supply chains help a business survive, but it is leadership and an innovative corporate culture that make a business thrive.
McKendrick goes on to recount some interesting case studies of CEOs who have involved HR in a forward-looking way. This all resonated with another blog post I read this week that fascinated me: Lance Haun’s “Is Human Resources fatally flawed?” Haun has been debating the question in his mind since April, he says. There are three main things that he has identified as possibly turning the tide on the profession:
- Most of HR’s (traditional) value could be (and often already is) outsourced: Talent recruitment and selection, employee relations, and benefit administration are already subject to outsourcing.
- Unclear goals and ROI: Smaller companies cannot afford large departments that are not revenue-producing, and HR may become a luxury department of large companies.
- No input on business direction: You don’t get a seat at the table without having business savvy, Haun says, and adds that many HR practitioners have “a true lack of business courage outside of the talent world.”
But just as Haun has identified three major HR problems, he has also dreamt up three new specialty roles for HR professionals to move into in the future — roles that take all of the above into account. You’ll have to visit his blog to read all the excellent details, but as a quick peek, he advises three new specialty functions: a workplace process and productivity expert, an internal ombudsman for employee relations, and an employee life cycle manager. Says Haun, “Those would be the functions I would choose to continue if I had to cut it down to the bare minimum with functions I could track ROI and clear cut goals on. Everything else I could outsource effectively if needed.”
This brought my mind to a slightly older, but still very relevant, article: “The new roles of the Human Resources professional” by Susan M. Heathfield of About.com. Heathfield also advocates a change in the HR function:
The role of the HR manager must parallel the needs of his or her changing organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptive, resilient, quick to change direction and customer-centered. Within this environment, the HR professional, who is considered necessary by line managers, is a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or advocate, and a change mentor.
The strategic partner is there to support attainment of business goals. The employee sponsor or advocate is there to protect the employees and enable them to do their best work for the organization. And the change mentor or change champion that she envisions is put in charge of change both in HR and across the organization.
Of the two models, I must say that Haun’s breakdown of specialities seems a little more useful and grounded to me, although both are good visions of the future of the profession. I believe that there will always be room for the HR generalist, because there will always be companies where a sole HR practitioner is the right size. But I also believe that people who expect to be in the field for 20-30 more years need to begin thinking of the road ahead for them and for their careers. It may well be time to begin specializing in process management or change mentoring! Have any readers out there been taking their HR career in this direction? We would love to hear about it.
Article by, Sarah and courtesy of RiseSmart.com – RiseSmart: Search Smarter. Rise Faster.
