Over the past few years, human resources department is often called as personnel department. The main task of this division is hire, fire, and nurture positive employees experience. However, these are the old jobs of HR. Nowadays, CEOs demand more from their HR department. They want their human resources to be their ‘right hand’ where they can rely on this department not only to bring in new hires but also boost employee engagement. For that reasons, the work of HR will no longer be the same like years ago.

Ram Charan, a CEO advisor, suggested to split human resources department into two main parts. The first part should focus on administration, such managing employee compensation and benefits, while the other focuses on improving people capabilities in business area. By splitting HR into two roles, it can gain business acumen needed to help organisations perform better.

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On the other hand, Dave Ulrich, a business professor at Ross School, University of Michigan argued that Charan’s way will remove a big role of human resources itself. He stated that splitting HR can be both unfair and simplistic. However, it will ignore the 20-60-20 rule in HR, meaning that 20 percent of the department allocated for professional adding value that helps company move forwards, another 20 percent for fixed mindset which is unchangeable, and 60 percent for balancing both that help company’s improvement.

All in all, it is important to understand the true roles of human resources department in today’s disruptive era. Jacob Morgan, an author and futurist, has analysed and concluded that future human resources should discern several aspects. Here are some important changes in human resources department:  

From hiring and firing to enabling, empowering, and creating experiences – it means that the new HR should able to dig employees’ potential while improving employee experience that can help company grow. You should also be able to ensure employees feeling of being valued and supported along every step of their career journey in the organisation.

From being a police of organisation to being a coach, mentor, and thought leader – the old HR tends to enforce the organisation’s rules to employee without minding employees’ ability. Today’s HR should be able to mentor and become a thought leader within organisations. You should help employee reach their best and gain insight on how to make betterment in their career.  

From maintaining status quo to destroying status quo – HR was responsible to obliterate the status quo so company can move forward. Nowadays, HR becomes company’s resource to a cohesive work environment where employees are happy and growth can happen.

From not technology advance to relying heavily on technology – HR should embrace technology to expand its role. Therefore, attending HR conference and leveraging new technology such as big data and analytics can help you make better strategic decision.

From no seat at table to a key seat at table – HR departments are evolving to be a key seat at a decision-making table. They need to make sure that company’s needs meets with employees’ needs and vice versa.

From payroll, compensation, and benefits to employee experience – rather than just handling the payroll and benefits, HR today should be able to create an environment where employees are happy to come, to work, and to do their best.

From defined workforce to dynamic and changing workforce – It was employee who should be adaptive in the past. Now, both employee and company play the same role. It becomes the work of HR to create a dynamic and challenging workforce to retain employee productivity in the workforce.

From focusing on employee input to focusing on employee outputs – as HR evolves, they no longer emphasise on employee’s input. HR today should focus more on employee outputs and how they can encourage employees to perform their best. HR should also play important role in day-to-day responsibility and workers activities.  

From performance appraisals to real-time recognition and feedback – HR today should involve more in everyday employee experience than ever before. Rather than giving annually appraisals on employees’ performance, you should be able to perform feedback which can create dialogue with employees. As a result, employees will feel more comfortable in working with you and improve their productivity.

From filling gaps in job to unlocking human potential — instead of just positioning people in divisions within the organisation, HR department now has huge role in unlocking employees’ potentials. HR also helps people to find their best skills, unlock and develop talents that might be buried below the surface. It is also important to shape talents to fill position that meets their skills and interests.  

From human resources job title to people, talent, experience title – lastly, many companies have changed their human resources title to Chief Experience Officer or Talent Manager. It indicates that the scope of HR jobs has evolved and there are more areas of employee experience that HR should explore.

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