A New Mandate for Human Resources

Human Resources have never been more necessary. The competitive forces that we face today and will continue to face in the future demand organizational excellence. To achieve this excellence by focusing on learning, quality, teamwork, and reengineering are driven by the way organizations get things done and how employees are treated. To achieve this excellence we look at the work of Human Resources. By designing an entirely new role and agenda that results in enriching the organization’s value to customers, investors and employees, HR can help deliver organizational excellence by helping line managers and seniors move planning from the conference room to the market place, by becoming an expert in the way work is organized and executed, they should be a representative for the employees and finally by helping the organization improve their capacity for change. The responsibility for transforming the role of HR belongs to the CEO and to every line manager. HR will help organizations meet competitive challenges such as globalization, profitability through growth, technology, intellectual capital, and the greatest competitive challenge companies face, adjusting to nonstop change. HR’s new role would be able to quickly turn strategy into action; to manage processes intelligently and efficiently; to maximize employee contribution and commitment; and to create the conditions for seamless change.

HR should also become a partner in strategy executions by impelling and guiding serious discussions of how the company should be organized to carry out its strategy. Creating the conditions for this discussion involves four steps. First HR would define an organizational architecture by identifying the company’s way of doing business. Next HR must be accountable for conducting an organizational audit. The third role for HR as a strategic partner is to identify methods for renovating the parts of the organizational architecture that need it. Fourth and finally, HR must take stock...