Redesigning the HR function: the changing role of HR

Section two of the Personnel Today Management Resources one stop guide on redesigning the HR function, covering: the changing role of HR; and why HR is unprepared for change. Other sections .

In the beginning was personnel. The personnel department was where records on employees were kept and employee policies were written, and it was generally not a very dynamic place to be.

Then came the 1980s and personnel became human resources. Administration was a part of HR but was not all important. HR professionals started to see themselves as being more centrally responsible for shaping HR policies and working strategically alongside management to help the business perform. The game was now to make the best use of the organisation's human resources, and so the HR department became the home of appraisal schemes, performance management systems and other initiatives aimed at raising levels of motivation and performance.

But then, around the start of the next decade (or century to be more apocalyptic) came a backlash. It was suggested that the initiatives HR supported were becoming too detached from the realities of everyday business life. HR was becoming a proverbial 'ivory tower'. Two decades of performance management and the like had not delivered the benefits that had at one time seemed so huge.

So, as with all historical developments, there was a look back to the past and an analysis about what could have been done with the way things were to make them better. Out of this introspection came the realisation that internal dissatisfaction with HR was caused by the way its services were being delivered, and that the rising professionalism of HR had not necessarily led to an increase in its efficiency.

HR is now being asked to look at how it can run itself as a business for its internal customers. This focus is driving the move to such things as self-service, to an integrated approach to the business-employee relationship, robust management of HR information and more cost-effective administration.

This pressure has led many organisations towards a model for the HR function put forward most notably by Dave Ulrich. This model proposes three roles for HR (see Figure 2).

How businesses organise themselves around these roles will vary, but one approach increasingly adopted is to have:

Creating this new organisation and implementing the technology to support it is the main focus of much of today's HR function redesign.

The new tools and organisation mean many people managing and working in HR need a new set of skills:

How prepared is HR for this new role?

The brutal answer is that, with honourable exceptions, most HR departments are not prepared to take on these new roles and responsibilities. Why?

The new technological world seems too complicated

Many people in HR are more interested in HR policy and content than technology. This has meant technology has not penetrated far into the HR mindset. When it has, responsibility for it has often hurriedly been passed on to the IT department.

HR people's skills lie in a different area

For many years HR has focused on administration and what we might describe as provision of professional advice. In other words, they have concentrated on making sure everything within the business follows the requirements of such things as equal opportunities, health and safety and other relevant pieces of legislation and regulation. Indeed, when we look at the requirements for membership of HR's professional bodies we see that this is very much the focus. Technology and business issues come across as peripheral rather than central. No wonder the aspiring HR professional concentrates on policy issues.

Ask yourself this. How much would a professional qualification in HR prepare you for running a shared service centre as a business?

But times are changing

There are distinct signs that things are changing, however. A new breed of HR managers is starting to appear, people who are comfortable around:

These are the people who are going to become the most sought-after, well-paid members of the community.

Some organisations are starting to make managerial appointments that reflect this. High-performing line managers in service delivery positions and HR people with technology implementation experience are being moved into senior positions within HR, with the remit to transform HR into a customer-focused, operationally efficient function.

The next chapters look at effective ways of making the necessary changes to HR to position it appropriately within the business of the future, while avoiding the mistakes currently being made in such change programmes.