Above and Beyond the Yearly Wheel: Anticipating and Realizing the Ever-Evolving Contribution of HR

Abstract

Today’s global pandemic, social tensions (racial strife, refuge challenges), political toxicity, economic adversity, and personal emotional malaise challenges will undoubtedly be remembered as a time of unprecedented shock, change, and volatility. The speed, reach, and severity of these crises have accelerated changes about where and how people work, what new organizational systems are required to do work, and how leaders need to act to be effective; all of which are areas of importance to the future of the HR function. While it is critical for HR to respond to the day-to-day administrative requirements caused by these external changes, it is perhaps even more crucial for HR to improve its ability to grasp the consequences of these changes, to anticipate future challenges and their effects. In order to stay relevant and value-adding as a function, HR will need to keep reinventing itself to turn current and future contextual challenges into opportunities. This essay argues that HR will need to keep coming up with new answers to the question: Given these radical, contextual changes, how can HR rise to the opportunity and further improve the function’s unique contributions that create value for all stakeholders inside and outside the organization? To answer this question, this essay discusses how definitions of value and business success has changed recently, then goes on to suggest the implications for HR’s unique contribution to value creation, -delivery, and -capture, and concludes with offering a perspective on the implications for the function responsible for human capability (talent, organization, and leadership). In sum, this article offers business leaders and HR professionals insights on how to anticipate and realize the ever-evolving contribution of HR.