Evolution Of HR And Its Increasing Contribution To The Business Goals Of An Organisation

An organisation is only as good as the people who work in it, goes a famous saying and this cannot be farther from the truth. Employees are the heart of an organisation, its intangible asset whose skills, expertise and commitment cannot always be measured in monetary values. The biggest responsibility of bringing in and maintaining such a robust workforce lies with the organisation’s human resource department. In the last 100 years of global growth Human Resources as a function has evolved virtually at the same pace as marketing, technology and financial management if not faster. From personnel operations to talent management, HR has stepped up from being a cost centre to a profit centre, helping organisations achieve their business objectives.
Most forward-thinking companies today are empowering their human resource function to partake in business planning. Involving HR in strategy building helps improve business performance in more ways than one. Business decisions often necessitate knowledge of its key asset – the people and who better than the HR to lend valuable insights. A better understanding of its talent pool, shortcomings and gaps makes decision making easy and realistic. Additionally, inside access to the company’s future goals helps HR know exactly what talent is needed, when it is needed and at what cost. Developing and implementing such people strategy can help avoid reactive hiring, something which will fill seats in the short term but can prove costly later.
An explosion in people analytics and advanced intelligence is effectively helping HR predict and improve business performance in real time. From leveraging digital tools to map a potential candidate’s fitment and expected longevity, tracking existing employees’ performance curve and attrition threats to succession planning and internal restructuring, HR is increasingly using Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence to drive business decisions that are faster, accurate and less expensive as compared to external researchers.
Building an organisation as well as cultivating its image as a great place to work or associate with requires continuous efforts. Tech savvy companies today are widening and deepening their presence on social media for both brand building and engagement. While internally, social media or other instant messaging tools like Facebook for Work are increasingly becoming a primary communication vehicle, externally, using parameters like Operational Risk Management (ORM), Net Promoter Score (NPS) is helping HR evaluate and promote brand loyalty and recognition.
Moreover, with consolidation, mergers and acquisitions becoming the new business trend, they play a critical role in ensuring seamless transition and integration of employees and culture.
Besides being a people management function, HR also contributes to other business aspects like market entry research for expansion, piloting on-ground sales initiatives, policy advocacy etc. Even when doing all this, it has people focus at the core of it especially in terms of how processes or laws will affect the workplace dynamics.
Human Resource as the name suggests is all about people. Managing resources correctly reflects richly in the organisation’s financial outcomes as well its brand value, even though its impact may not be directly measurable. The HR function today has become an important strategic partner and companies are benefitting greatly by giving them a seat at the management table.