Role of HR in Business Value Creation

Dr.S.Sundararajan, Professor, SIMS

The state of the man’s evolution can be judged by the degree of value creation/addition in any man-made systems like manufacturing, education, marketing, governance, etc,. Man is the prime sources who create inanimate or animate resources. HR has been passing through different  forms with the introduction of factory system in the 18th Century like  Time Office, Personnel Management,  Manpower Planning and Development, HRD,  HR, Talent Management, etc., which helps to create all the secondary resources  in general and human in particular. This underlines the significance of HR in all man’s activities. Hence value creation in HR business is more wanting than in other business function. Value addition by all to accommodate and handle change which is inevitable is the most urgent requirement of today’s business. The role of HR’s today are:

1. Value Creation by HR is a hot topic these days. Voices in the board room are loud and clear. Expectation is that, like marketing, sales or research and development, etc., HR has to start creating value in business and if it cannot create value than its best suited to sit outside the organisation with an outsourced service provider of transactional activities.
2. HR Must Lead Change – It’s no longer debatable. To become better business partners, human resource leaders must shed their tactical skins and transform into value-creating change agents.
3.  “Grow people + Grow business = Creating value” is the order of the day. HR should focus on this.
4. Non-stop unforeseen turbulence, straining organisational objectives, risk management, situational problems and technology are disrupting the organization fast. The HR managers have to be agile and sharp to make appropriate decisions to handle all eventualities.
5. New challenges, new capabilities, new qualities, people from different cultures with different expectations make the HR role more critical and strategic to the organization.
6. HR managers have to integrate the Business Strategy in to the minds of the people through the HR activities and programmes to have a focused organization.

7 HR managers have the responsibility of training and guiding all the human resources(freshers too) of the organization to give their best. In case of difficulties, HR managers should take necessary steps to motivate the human resources to live up to the expectation of the organization.

8. HR analytics plays an important role in the recruitment and analysis phase of the HR activities. Every HR manager is expected to be conversant with the new tools available to excel. 9. The HR managers have to get revolutionized to meet the challenges of the VUCA world. Their roles are going to be very important in shaping the future organization.
9. People are the asset for any organization. The role of HR is to build the team and develop the new breed of leaders who are adoptable, flexible, people leader who own the organization and take responsibilities.