Human Resources has often been one of the most misused and underutilized departments in an organization. Traditionally seen as nothing more than the guys who recruit and train people, HR executives are often subject to envy and ridicule. Envy, because they dont usually have the same revenue and profitability targets that sales, marketing, finance and operations guys have which keeps them up at night. Ridicule, because of pretty much the same reason. They dont have much of a role in company’s profitability. Hence they are often treated as second class citizen.

To change all of this, globally there has been a realignment and repositioning of HR roles. All top organizations have redefined the roles of HR from a support function to a business partnership function. The redefining is to ensure greater involvement and accountability of HR managers with business targets. Some of the traditional functions of HR has been outsourced to make HR managers focus on creating a culture that fosters delivery of brand promise and superior customer experience through superior organizational practices. Titles of HR Directors have become Chief People Officer and HR managers have become Business Partners.

In short, HR has been repositioned inside organizations as another growth gene in the corporate DNA. We just have to wait and see how this repositioning benefits organizations.