Human resources professional till today is like a supportive pillar for the organization. They were majorly responsible for looking after the administration work that includes taking care of the payroll and benefits; they were involved in documentation and also have an integral role in the recruitment process. They are the evolved form of the personnel department. While these continue to be the innate responsibilities of the HR professionals, the business operations tend to realize that they have a capability beyond this limit which will act in favor of the organization.
There is believed to be a talent crisis existing in today’s times that is having a grave impact on the employers all over the world. The role of an HR needs to be transformed and should mature to design a result oriented talent accumulation and retention strategy to scale up the business. Business growth and generation of the business revenue relies heavily on the productivity and quality of the workforce. Thus, if the evolution of HR is hindered then it will lead to a stunted business growth restraining the right talent.
Following its historic trails, HR has been put to the backburner and has failed to grow like the other domains- Finance, Marketing, Sales and Operations as it did not have the embellishment of numbers and statistical figures. Thus, it was perceived to be miles away from the language of business. The infusion of the Big Data and Analytics turned the tables for the HR functions- starting from hiring to training to retention of employees. HR was hence once showcased as the services offered by an organization, however, now it has advanced into the strategic realm where HR professionals can use analytics to find strategic solutions for the future prospect of the organization. Analytics proffers solution to an exhaustive range of HR functions that include performance management and development, outsourcing, succession planning, payroll management and cost-benefit analysis. Today’s HR experts majorly are involved in three functions. They are as follows:
- Demand and Supply analyst: HR has to understand and evaluate the talent gap in an organization. He or she needs to chalk out the talent requirements of an organization and know where to tap to find the right talent setting the equilibrium.
- Marketing enthusiasts: HR experts need to be aware of the marketing principles to create a strong brand of the company that will allure the right pool of talent. Post recruitment and development it is essential to retain talent as the attrition rate speaks a lot about the success and failure of the organization.
- Designers: They need to exhibit their creativity to find innovative ways to build a favorable working environment promoting cultural diversity and employee well-being.
So, how to make optimal utilization of the skills of an HR professional in strategy making?
- Ensuring that the HR representative of your organization is well-equipped with the right knowledge and tools necessary to consolidate the HR processes and align it to the business processes.
- Automation of the HR processes should be in the companies list of priorities. In that way, there will be an advanced and efficient of dealing with the HR management system.
- In a structured organization, the head of the HR Department, even the HR Manager should work in close association with the top management, that is he or she should report to the CEO to stay put in the strategy making process. In this way, the whole HR team will have the access to strategic planning. If HR is segregated under compliance or as the functional support team then it will lose on the contribution that it can make for strategizing the policies.
- The HR professional who wants to be a part of the strategy development should advocate and exhibit leadership qualities in promoting high performance establishing a sturdy HR system in place. This should percolate down to every employee, team, and department for the holistic growth of the organization.
Thus, hiring an HR person in the top management should be a part of every company and if you areapplying for one suchjob of say that of VP HR then it is better to settle for a strategic role as not only your responsibilities should be catering to recruitment, training, development, payroll and performance management but also you should be able to make policies that establishes these HR functions.