HR Can't do much ??

My thought on this article came from a very useful post I saw on John Ingham's blog here.
It quotes a number of studies and reports to show how Talent Management has shifted from the priorities of CEO. Its not a good news if you are a fan of HR fraternity like I am. I would like to take a different perspective on things.

Human Resource traditionally has been a function which has found difficult to quantify the value it adds to the business, as it deals with People. However enroute this journey of transformation from an administrative to a strategic talent driven function, there have been many changes in the role of HR , what it has been perceived as. HR from it side also tried to bring in concepts which could quantify or atleast give a sense of measurement to the whole thing.

However, with times changing and focus again on bringing down costs, HR has a tough time on hand. HR needs to proactively support business in such times, in not just diffusing crisis but also handling issues like Employee morale and productivity. It would also need to play a stronger role to align with business needs, and to do this HR would need to find people who really fit the culture, are able to scale up to business requirements, and for this to happen HR needs to know where the right people are, now this can't happen without information, and for that you need to invest in a system. Now who is talking about investments in such times?

Its a Paradox that HR would have to live with !!!
So does it mean HR would remain what it is ?
Not really, organizations that are thinking innovative are also able to bring about differential value in HR, more about it in my next blogs, stay tuned !!!