Corporate restructurings, cost pressures, regulations and reporting requirements are just a few drivers that elevate the criticality of attracting, retaining and motivating top talent. In response, most Human Resource leaders are striving to be recognized as a strategic business partner and visionary leader, seating them fully at the executive table on par with their corporate executive peers. Considering the history of HR, the fulfillment of this mission requires today’s HR leaders to continue to transform their own skills and roles as well as those of their HR organization. As an Human Capital Management (HCM) consultant, I’m interested in watching the ongoing evolution of HR. I sat down with Glenn Melrose, former Senior Vice President of Human Resources at NPS Pharmaceuticals and current Clarkston Executive Alliance consultant, to discuss his perspective on HR’s transformation.

How do you define the mission and value proposition of Human Resources today?
The clear message I’ve received from my CEOs is that the Human Resource mission is to enable the organization to attract, retain and motivate top talent to achieve the highest level of performance possible. HR is the function that delivers to management the strategies, processes, technology, systems and training necessary to achieve this, and all HR activities ultimately support the mission. Using this as the backdrop can help HR leaders to best organize, define, prioritize and communicate their value proposition to executive colleagues, middle management and all employees. Interestingly enough, we developed the basis for this model about 20 years ago as a means to explain how a new Human Resource Information System was to be utilized. Although that discussion started in the thicket of administrative tasks, I believe it became an increasingly strategic and ultimately visionary discussion
on why Human Resources exist in companies. This mission is as applicable, if not more so today; however, the degree to which HR organizations, and the companies they serve, have accepted and embraced it has varied significantly over time.

The focus has been on escalating Human Resources to a strategic business function with top HR leaders not only in the C-suite, but also active participants and contributors to the whole business strategy, not just HR.

To read more of this interview on Human Capital Management, click on the PDF link below.