Projection of Future of HR issues The human resources department what was once quaintly called personnel is changing.

g. Rather than simply handling a companys day-to-day tasks such as payroll and pensions, HR units are seeking to play a fuller part in the business, including strategic decisions taken at the very top. The pace of change has been rapid. Jeremy Tipper, managing director of Capital Consulting, a recruitment outsourcing (RO) firm, says: There has been a greater shift in HR in the past five years than in the past 50. But this move towards a greater strategic role is raising an important question, namely: Is human resources up to the job? According to Martin Reddington, co-author of Transforming HR: Creating Value Through People, the trend in the 1990s was for business processes to be re-engineered with the aim of making them leaner and meaner. Human resources wasnt immune to this and came under the same pressure as other departments to demonstrate it could be more efficient and offer greater value. Behind this impetus were the pressures to make HR more cost-effective; to improve its services to the rest of the company; and to address the key strategic drivers of the organisation. Companies wanted decisions to be taken more quickly, line managers to be more responsible and to have shorter lines of communication within their organisations. They were also keen to save money by automating routine administrative functions such as record keeping or payroll, which led to a fundamental review of what human resources departments actually did . . . and what they could do instead. If cost is the main driver, the company will introduce more automation or invest in a shared services operation, which is a centre of expertise dealing with queries then and there on the phone, says Reddington. Companies can also make use of e-HR, where employees carry out administrative functions themselves using IT, while remaining human resources staff are given a distinct role with the title of strategic business partner. Says Reddington: If you havent got shared services and ehuman resources, business partners get dragged down away from high strategic operations. Justin McAvoy, director of the RO consultancy Reflect, says: A few years back, human resources was considered a mainly administrative role, handling personnel issues. But as the economy became more service-oriented, people became more important, so as a profession HR grew rapidly. It is now more strategic, its about adding value rather than just being a support function, and is increasingly getting representation at board level. It isnt only internal pressures that have transformed human resources over the past few years. Reddington says change was hastened by outsourcing companies that asked businesses whether they were getting the best value from their in-house human resources departments. That external process has caused internal reviews to take place and so new options have opened up in terms of outsourcing, he explains.

Outsourcing, in its many forms, has become a popular way for companies to free their human resources staff to concentrate on subjects such as business strategy. One of the reasons we get brought in is because recruitment becomes too big for the human resources department and we can free them up for other things, says Tipper. Measuring the value of effective human resources is not easy. But there are increasingly sophisticated methods by which a HR department can demonstrate its value to the company, such as increasing profit per employee. Says McAvoy: Human resources has become better at measuring what it does. However, Professor Malcolm Higgs, director of the School of Leadership, Change and HR Management at Henley Management College, warns that there is often a gap between what is expected of a human resources team and what can be delivered. He recently advised a financial services organisation that wanted to engage talent and manage its people better and so needed input from its HR department at the highest levels. The chief executive admitted, however, that his HR staff were just not up to the task because they hadnt had the opportunity before. Higgs talked to the human resources team to ask them about business strategy and what they believed drove the business forward. There was a deathly silence. They just couldnt answer, he says. So human resources has a chicken-and-egg problem. Companies expect their HR departments to make an input into their wider strategy but they do not necessarily realise they need to invest in time and training to enable them to do so. There is no point in calling your staff strategic business partners if they dont know anything about strategy or the business and are not in fact partners, says Higgs. Companies are taking people trained in the traditional handmaiden or policing role of human resources and telling them to advise on company strategy. It is a huge struggle for them. As well as not being provided with the necessary training, such as an MBA or a business development course, staff who are labelled strategic business partners are often still busy dealing with employees grievances and disciplinary procedures, when they should be fully focusing on what is driving the business, according to Higgs. His view is backed up by a recent report for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which said: Outsourcing does not absolve human resources leadership from the responsibility for delivery of HR practices and performance in the company . . . outsourcing does not automatically mean that line managers will stop using local human resources people as the first line of support for queries and emergencies. In any major outsourcing arrangement, line managers will need to understand, accept and be trained to use the outsourced services. Higgs says: It is a big challenge for businesses, but they have to understand the people implication. It is all about change.

The projection of future trends in HR in India is as real as it in other countries. The business is changing at a faster rate as it is in the entire world. To cope with the present scenarios the HR needs to change and maintain pace with the current scenario. In terms of the future trends in HR there will be no divide between manufacturing sector, service sector and IT driven sectors. The underlying principles of all the sectors remain the same, i.e. customer focus, so HR has to change itself. The firms across all sectors are looking carefully to manage their workforce and working on measures of employee retention. Firms across all sectors are looking to carefully manage their labour programs through training and career development programmes. Firms across all sectors are looking to carefully manage their labour programs through training and career development programmes. Most of the regions are re-arranging corporate priorities, including a shift from manufacturing to the fast-growing services sector. In 2011, the area of growth will be in services as we move from being product-driven to servicedriven economy.

HRD Departments role in CSR

When companies are global, an important challenge in garnering success is to respect other cultures and workforce environments and start forming a global profile or social consciousness. Recognize these differences with a sound Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan that can simultaneously increase shareholder value, boost employee engagement and increase employer brand recognition.

Human Resource Departments play a critical role in ensuring that the company adopts Corporate Social Responsibility programs. Furthermore, HR can manage the CSR plan implementation and monitor its adoption proactively, while documenting (and celebrating) its success throughout the company. Human Resources technology can help with a Corporate Social Responsibility program, including reducing the companys carbon footprint to benefit the planet. Start with these areas:
y y y y y

Implement and encourage green practices. Foster a culture of social responsibility. Celebrate successes. Share and communicate the value of corporate social responsibility to employees and the community.

Creating a culture of change and responsibility starts with HR. Getting the younger employees, who are already environmentally conscious; excited about fresh Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives is a great way to begin. A committed set of employees who infuse enthusiasm for such programs would enable friendly competition and recognition programs. Employer brands are being eroded and the once sacred trust that employees had with stable pensions, defined benefits and lifelong jobs, are being replaced with pay for

performance and adjustment to new learning goals. In this environment, Corporate Social Responsibility can go a long way in rehabilitating the employer brand with potential new hires and society at large. It can help defeat the image that corporate objectives are rooted in single minded profit at the expense of society and the environment. Challenges in HR involvement with CSR y y y HR has to understand how CSR strategy is aligned to business and HR practices HR needs to be an active partner working with other functions. HR has to look ways to leverage social responsibility initiatives internally. Communicate the contributions company is making in the community and get employees involved. HRD dept should effectively measure and evaluate CSR activities. The value added by CSR in the form of direct results, such as, economic savings and indirect results shall increase business performance.