Becoming Strategic is critical for Human Resources Development

With the altering dynamics in business, the quest of organizations is to keep up with changes that are constantly taking place in the world of business. In this article, we are going to discuss the changing roles of HR professionals and the increasing involvement of HR in an organization’s strategic business leadership.

In big as well as small organizations, C-suite leaders and the CEO’s have begun to perceive HR as a critical part of the strategic leadership in the company rather than treating it as a separate thing. And skills gap is one of the top reasons for this development as talent issues have become a major concern for CEOs along with the C-suite members.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit/Lloyds Risk Index survey of the board members belonging to the biggest global organizations, the top two risks that worry these business leaders are ‘loss of customers’ on the first place while the second place was held by 'the scarcity of talent and skills'.

This has led to a change of perception of business leaders around the world who have started positioning lack of talent as an important element of a company’s strategic leadership. Basically, everyone has started to realize that strategic HR forms the foundation for the success of any organization, no matter how large or small it is. This means in organizational leadership, problems related to people and talent are considered huge.

Why is HR not taking on the role of a strategic leader in businesses?

When HR was introduced for the very first time in the 40’s or 50’s, it was more related to controlling tasks along with keeping track of time. So basically, it was more of an administrative function. Almost all human resources professionals, especially who hold global HR certifications , aspire to become more strategic and make themselves a bigger and a stronger part of the business.

Though now HR professionals do feel the need to contribute to a company’s strategic leadership, this transformation of HR activities is taking a bit too long especially because of the low HR budgets since the recession period of 2008 & 2009.

What can human resources do to become strategic?
The first thing that should be done by HR professionals is knowing their business. They have to increase their knowledge beyond their own field. It is essential for an HR professional to understand each and every aspect of their business.

Secondly, after an HR professional is done gaining knowledge about the overall business, they have to start talking like a business person and not just like a professional working in the HR department.

And the third thing that should make HR more strategic is by becoming more solution oriented. Rather than always following policies, HR professionals have to focus on finding effective solutions to problems. And that’s how they will develop the trait of speaking the language of business.
With the introduction of the best HR certifications in the market including international HR certifications, many HR professionals have already started to inherit the above-mentioned characteristics.