WILL HR EXIST IN FUTURE OR THE STYLE AND ROLE WILL CHANGE

Future of the HR Four Bold Bets On Where HR is Headed.

Human resources has been at the proverbial crossroadsbetween demonstrating strategic value and providing traditional HR servicesfor far too long. Even with advances in HR technology, shared services, employee selfservice, and outsourcing, the function remains stuck. As the business environment grows more global and complex, the need for leadership on people and organizational issues is greater than ever. Yet decades of administrative focus, lack of business acumen, little accountability, and an inability to demonstrate value leave many HR organizations unable or unwilling to take on the challenge. The pressure is mounting, and all eyes are on HR to see what happens next.

Will the function become a purely strategic business partner as transactional work is outsourced? Or Will it serve indefinitely as an administrative back office? Or Will it evolve into a patchwork of various specialties ranging from coaching to payroll administration to compliance training? The HR of the Future will be marked not so much by the specific programs and practices it runs, but by the overall impact it brings to the business in the areas of talent and organizational performance. While there is no silver bullet, HRs survival and success will depend on the following four bold bets. These bold bets are overlapping and reinforcing, providing a solid foundation for adding organizational value and expanding the influence of HR leaders. Serving as the R&D function for human capital, Delivering a steady supply of needed talent, Driving organizational performance, and Building integrity and trust in the workplace.

A History of Change and Reinvention The HR function has continuously evolved since its origins in the early 1900s. Its purpose and role, not surprisingly, have been shaped and refined by the demands and needs of the time. The first personnel departments delivered recruiting, recordkeeping, training, and welfare, and provided union relations. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, as awareness of the impact of worker morale on productivity evolved, personnel specialists expanded into areas of motivation and incentives. Following World War II and the tight

labor market, the HR function became even more professionalized as companies began to address benefits, competitive pay, and regulatory compliance. During the 1970s and 1980s, increased competition and a tight economy put cost pressures on all functions, including HR. Companies debated outsourcing HR, moving HR responsibilities to other functions, and even dismantling personnel programs altogether. Much of this pressure, as it does today, came from the inability to present meaningful data to prove HRs value. Yet, the scope of HR continued to grow in response to new needs, including increased government regulation and worker diversity. It wasnt until the 1980s that HR moved beyond a focus on operational and transactional issues to address more strategic people matters. Takeovers, buyouts, mergers and acquisitions forced organizations to cut costs, improve performance and quality, and focus on customers. And while HR leaders were not driving these changes, in an era of legislation protecting employees, HR was at least consulted on these matters. Today, the shift is even more pronounced, with many HR organizations moving to eliminate, automate, or outsource much of the transactional work. As this occurs, and retained HR has less back-end responsibility, there is greater opportunity to focus on more strategic, higher-value services. For some, these transformations mark a major turning point for HR, allowing the function to innovate while reducing costs. For others, the true benefits have yet to materialize as HR struggles to make the transition. According to one Hewitt study, the latter group still spends approximately 43% of its time on program administration and customer service, while more innovative HR functions devote 30% or less of their time on these routine activities. The pressure to manage costs and do more with less is greater than ever. To this end, the trend in HR technology investments, shared services, and outsourcing will most likely continue. Experts predict that HR business

process outsourcing (HR BPO) alone will continue to see 15% to 20% growth over the next several years. At the same time, the talent challenges HR is being tasked with addressing are growing in volume and complexity. Workforce globalization, health care and pension reform, and governance and compliance are all new issues faced by HR. With all this pressure and complexity from within the business, there are greater pressures externally. These forces include: The Economy:- While some believe that the economy will improve and optimism will return, its likely that the pressure to reduce HR costs will continue. In addition, the competition for talentwhile always strongwill become more severe. The bottom line for HR is a greater focus on proving its business value. This means managing and delivering more with less. Globalization and Workforce Demographics:- Todays workforce is more global, virtual, and diverse than at any other time in history. It is about to become more so. In the United States, for example, by the year 2010, there were 10 million more jobs than people to fill them. In the last 20 years, the increase in the share of workers with a post-high school education was 19%; in the next 20 years it will be 4%.5 In 2000, 27.8% of workers were Hispanic, African-American, or Asian. In 2025, that number will be nearly 40%.6 And in todays flat world, where you are matters little. Todays talent whether customer service representatives, radiologists, engineers, software developers, or administrative assistantscan be sourced anywhere in the world. HR leaders need to be proficient at finding the next Bangalore, developing and promoting talent from anywhere, and creating the infrastructure to build a high-performing global workforce. For HR, this will mean managing new types of relationships and adapting to a highly diverse population in terms of needs, business requirements, and cultural expectations.

Dynamic Business Environment:- Shifting regulatory requirements and warp-speed technological innovations are creating havoc with business processes and complicating the competitive landscape. To keep pace, HR will need to be more nimble and adept at anticipating and responding to changing business dynamics. This means new and broader competencies that focus on business processes and change management, as well as a new way of workingmore virtual and faster. Technology and The Growing Virtuality of Work:- Global labor migration has doubled in the past 40 years, and electronic immigration is increasingly common. Technology is redefining the workplace and workday. In addition, low-cost communication and rising education levels in emerging countries make it a business benefit to consider greater outsourcing and offshoring of noncore or transactional work. Estimates for the number of jobs that could be potentially outsourced in the next 10 to 15 years range from 3 million to 14 million. All of these changes mean a fundamental shift in the relationships HR must forge and manage with an increasingly dispersed workforcechanging the definition of employment, rewards, and the tools that can be used effectively to manage productivity. Cultural Uncertainty:- In the post-9/11 world, marked by an unsettled geopolitical environment, the increasing need for security and trust, and a growing awareness of environmental and social issues, people are seeking a sense of community and belonging. , People spend two to three thousand hours a year in an organization, and that should be the setting where those social and community needs are metwhen those needs are met, incredible value occurs, both to the person whose needs are met and to the organization.

HRs Transformational Opportunity Given these internal and external forces, the climate is right for HR to take hold of its future and make some bold bets. The time to act is now. Talent and people issues could not loom larger for businesses today. There is widespread acceptance of the importance of talent, not only because of the reemerging talent war, but also due to the growing recognition that human capital is the most critical differentiator in business success. After nearly two decades of reinvention plans, most HR organizations continue to struggle with fulfilling what all agree is the holy grail of the function: the strategic business partner role. Few have a clear sense of what the role entailsbeyond the oft-repeated knowing the business mantrabut all HR professionals know that adding more value is critical to the functions survival. Looking ahead, HR needs to be more precise and prescriptive in defining its role. How can the HR of the Future capitalize on this opportunity? Two things need to happen. First:- HR needs to redirect its current focus on functional initiatives (e.g., benefits, compensation, staffing, and training) to more integrated strategies designed to solve specific business problems (e.g., talent, performance). This will require breaking down traditional HR silos to create teams that look at and are accountable for holistic business solutions. Second:- HR needs to track its success not by simple static metrics like program delivery or cost cutting, but by value creationthat is, an outcome the business is willing to pay for to get more of. Only by driving hard for value and outcomes can HR truly be a valued contributor to the business. Today, too much of what HR does is fragmented and without accountability.

Four Bold Bets on Where HR Is Headed Based on research, the HR of the Future must place its bets on four areas: performing predictive analytics, delivering a steady talent supply, driving organizational performance, and building integrity and trust in the workplace. What makes these bets particularly bold is not so much the focus itself, but the fact that the HR of the Future will driveand be held accountable forthese areas in their entirety. Rather than decrease HRs role, these four bets broaden the functions scope and impact, pushing HR to operate more like a business unto itselfa business focused on driving organizational capability. All four areas bring a holistic approach to addressing human capital challengeswith a clear tie to fact-based results and metricsand produce a more strategic, business-focused HR organization. Human capital R&D:- The HR of the Future is taking the lead in advanced data mining and predictive modeling of human capital processes to identify new business insights. Moving beyond traditional scorecards or dashboards that provide a static snapshot of progress, these HR functions are taking a true R&D approachthrough systematic, fact-based, and scientific methodsto uncover new relationships and opportunities for human capital to drive organizational performance. Talent engine:- The HR of the Future is redefining and expanding its focus in the area of talent by managing a seamless human capital supply chain to ensure the organizations talent engine is always humming with a ready supply of top talent. This includes the challenge of harnessing the capabilities of a more diverse, global, and virtual workforce. Leading HR organizations are breaking down barriers and taking a holistic approach to managing the sourcing, development, and mobility of their top talent and inventing new approaches to accessing required skills for both today and tomorrow. High performance:- The HR of the Future is taking accountability for driving performance at the organization, team, and individual levels. By managing performance as an end-to-end process and focusing on

business outcomes, HR has an opportunity to integrate the various components that impact performance into one framework. This means a much more rigorous approach to establishing performance expectations, tying opportunity to potential, and ensuring rewards are tailored by population. This includes newer HR areas like space management and organizational design that impact employee engagement and productivity. Organizational steward:- The HR of the Future is assuming a renewed role in building a sense of community, trust, and integrity, and even spiritual meaning for the organization. In response to the anxieties of a post-9/11 and the growing awareness that people want more meaning out of their work life, more and more companies are striving to build a stronger connection with employees and their communities. What HR brings to the table is not merely employee advocacy experience, but a unique ability to weave together the various components of stewardship, build a stronger bond between employer and employee, and prove the long-term benefits of investing in employees.

By:Nitasha Kapoor