HR as strategic partner

What business organization worth the name would deny the importance of developing its human capital, now seen to be as important as financial capital? Indeed, who could be oblivious to the rumbles of the upcoming war for talent – a serious concern for companies who must find a way to replace the large number of baby boomer employees about to retire en masse?

That being said, the human resources function rarely plays a truly central role in drafting the company strategy or in supporting its execution. There are a number of reasons for this: human resources is traditionally seen as “merely” a support function; operational matters keep HR leaders so busy that they have little remaining time and energy to play a truly strategic role in the organization; they lack credibility among other company stakeholders; etc.

The authors of the selected publications thus advise companies to radically transform their human resources function to enable them to fulfill their strategic role:

– Reorganize the HR function to free up the time needed for strategic thinking. A profound transformation is often needed to keep operational pressures from absorbing time and energy that HR leaders could otherwise spend adding strategic value.

– Tackle HR strategy from a competitive standpoint. To be well positioned in the talent market, companies must have a real competitive strategy.

– Turn human resources into a genuine strategic catalyst by closely involving HR leaders in defining the strategy.