HR: Growing momentum towards a new mandate

HR’s role in an organisation spans far beyond the traditional focus on talent management, process, and transactions as it faces increasing pressure from business leaders to drive innovative talent solutions, improve alignment with business imperatives, and turn data into actionable insights. Deloitte’s research shows that HR professionals are tackling their new roles with vigour, with readiness in the area of HR skills rated 14 percent higher by our respondents since 2014, and the number of HR teams rated “good or excellent” has risen 6.2 percent.

The fundamental factors driving this positive change within HR include the alignment of HR to the business, the innovative nature of HR teams and the reskilling of HR professionals. Alongside this, high impact HR organisations are moving away from “a service provider” mentality to becoming valued talent, design, and employee-experience consultants. HR are now more deeply embedded in the business so that the HR agenda can be supported and driven from the top down, while simultaneously ensuring HR initiatives are aligned with the overall business strategy.

HR is turning a corner; now is not the time for complacency as its future lies in its ability to evolve. HR organisations and their leaders should invest further to build new capabilities, upgrade their core HR technology and rethink their structure. HR teams need to be proficient and innovate in areas such as design thinking, analytics, statistics, and digital HR solutions in order to become effective stewards and champions of the total employee experience.