Monday, October 6, 2008
What Current HR Issue Will Become Irrelevant in 5 Years?
There has been a lot of banter around HR sitting at the table as a strategic business partner and most recently was an asked question on Linkedin. A commonly shared belief around HR & corporate executives was that HR will no longer be asked whether it has a seat at the executive table. Why you ask, because HR will be and more commonly is today viewed as a valuable business partner who has demonstrated its value and ROI. As the business and world environment increases in competition and complexity, being strategic will become a must for those HR executives still vying for a seat. It is my feeling that the issue of the HR executive making it to the C-suite will become irrelevant in 5 years for those companies that want to remain competitive in today's world.
I think that another current HR issue that will become less relevant or irrelevant in the next 5 years will be the process changes HR makes. In the world of connectivity, outsourcing, and tools at hand, HR can hand those process issues off to operations partners and continue to outsource those administrative tasks. In the information technology world of today, there will be more self-service options, managers taking greater control over what has been an HR bastion. With these changes it will become increasingly important for HR professionals to have knowledge and understanding of the various business functions within their organizations, as they relate to the organization as a whole. To quote Dennis Roberts of Bush Industries, Inc. " transactional HR activities currently outsourced in many organizations will likely disappear off the radar screens of most HR executives in the next 5 years".
SHRM has listed 5 key issues that they feel, based on research, will become irrelevant:
I think that another current HR issue that will become less relevant or irrelevant in the next 5 years will be the process changes HR makes. In the world of connectivity, outsourcing, and tools at hand, HR can hand those process issues off to operations partners and continue to outsource those administrative tasks. In the information technology world of today, there will be more self-service options, managers taking greater control over what has been an HR bastion. With these changes it will become increasingly important for HR professionals to have knowledge and understanding of the various business functions within their organizations, as they relate to the organization as a whole. To quote Dennis Roberts of Bush Industries, Inc. " transactional HR activities currently outsourced in many organizations will likely disappear off the radar screens of most HR executives in the next 5 years".
SHRM has listed 5 key issues that they feel, based on research, will become irrelevant:
- perceptions about the value and role of HR
- changes in health care/cost management and employee benefits
- alternative work arrangements
- influence of technology on the workplace
- other human capital issues.
Well, all these are very key issues but if you were to pick 1 or 2. I would nominate the ones noted above. As for these, the election may take care of the health care issues, we should be addressing alternative work arrangements already (read my blog post dated 7/708), technology has already made its way from the PC to the web and we should all be there by now, and other human capital issues is a catch all for things HR should be doing now strategically for their organizations (i.e.: recruitment, retention, compensation, succession planning, workplace ergonomics, etc.)
You comments and thoughts on this subject are welcomed.
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