There has been much debate regarding the role of the HR function and HR Managers in organisations. It is believed that HR needs to move away from fulfilling administrative duties and functions to a strategic business partner. Dave Ulrich, a prolific and respected writer in this area believes that:
'When HR practices are aligned with the needs of internal and external customers, firms are more likely to succeed. HR departments must be held to a higher standard then they have been till now. They must move their HR professionals beyond the roles of policy police and regulatory watchdogs to become partners, players and pioneers in delivering value' (Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results, Harvard Business School Press 1997:viii).
Such arguments and ideas have progressed to state that HR can play a number of roles. That of a:
* strategic business partner
* internal consultant
*Administrative expert
* Employee Champion
* Change Agent
* Architect
*Project Managers
*Good Learners
Despite the attention played to this debate, I would argue, as would many others I am sure, that the progress towards a more strategic role for HR has been slow. Despite continuous research and training being provided to many HR professionals, their primary role in the organisation is considered to be administrative and compliance based.
So are HR professional playing a more strategic role and if not what then are the major barriers? Is it a result of a lack of support from CEO's? A lack of business knowledge? A lack of skills and education or a continued legitimacy and identity crisis?
Can HR really become strategic?
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I echo Wallace' views very much. Systems integration in particular is an important aspect. All of the places I have worked have had reasonably sophisticated HRIS on board - but the interconnection with other modules such as those dealing with production/output has been a real stumbling block. In one of the readings (can't recall which one) the author noted that the first major impact of hard HRIS data for him (I think it was a him) was when he matched Overtime rates with productivity.....and the Exeutive team noticed that the greater investment in overtime was not necessarily reflected in higher production. It was something of a break through for the HR team - to challenge the belief that lots of work is always accomplished on overtime without the distractions of normal working hours.
ReplyDelete1. Companies' main target is about profit.Therefore, whether the HR can be used a more strategic role depends on what the companies' like. For example, if a company is very small, Hr should be but not a very important part in the decision making.
ReplyDelete2. In some high technology companies, HR is much more significant to be used as a support for the development of companies. There are many barries:
CEO
shareholder committee
line managers
finance department
other stakeholders
lack of knowledge, training, education
organization culture
firm structure