If You Had to Choose One 'HR New Year's Resolution', What Would it Be?

​Heading into 2012 our website poll invited practitioners to nominate their preferred “HR New Year’s Resolution”. We were pleased to receive over 140 responses with 70% confirming their key priorities related to improved business insight and a sustainable work-life balance. Below are our poll results.

39% of our participants noted their desire to work harder to understand the true needs of their business, 31% are focused on achieving greater balance by working more sustainably, 18% hope to be better mentors to their team, and 12% wish to reach more consensus with their HR colleagues overseas.

These poll results present an opportune time to reflect back to a report published by The Society for HR Management (SHRM) exactly ten years ago titled “The Future of the HR Profession”. This article captured perspectives from eight leading consulting firms (including Accenture, Arthur Andersen, Hewitt, Mercer, PWC, Resources Connection, Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt) and discussed how they thought the HR profession would change over the next decade and whether it would indeed survive into the future.

Linking in with the majority of our participants, this survey highlighted the fact that in-house business partner roles require clear business insight and the ability to formulate and deploy HR strategies aligned with key business objectives. It was as clear back then as it is today, that as strategic business partners, HR professionals must be integrated within lines of business, working closely with executive teams to create people strategies that deliver tangible results.

A third of our sample confirmed that they are looking to achieve greater balance by working more sustainably. Work-life balance was highlighted as one of the top workplace challenges organisations would face over the following decade and there is no doubt that this has evolved into an on-going burning issue. It was highlighted that even within companies recognised as leaders in promoting balance and wellbeing, there was increasing skepticism whether it would ever actually exist, as the same technological innovations designed to increase efficiency, also enable work to pervade all aspects of an employees’ life. Questions were raised as to whether corporate programs aimed at promoting work-life balance were just public relations endeavors and whether Gen X&Y would demand more practical implementation of work-life proposals. It is great to see many organisations today increasingly focusing on developing tangible people policies aimed at fostering flexibility and employee wellbeing — ultimately supporting attraction, motivation and retention of talent in an ever competitive talent pool.

Over ten percent of our respondents highlighted their desire to work more closely with overseas colleagues. The SHRM article discussed Globalisation and how the growth of the world economy would create new competitors and labor markets, and require more sophisticated skills in managing and operating global businesses. It highlighted how HR was starting to become heavily involved in the globalisation of companies. Previously, organisations had focused on the operational aspects of setting up international businesses, but their focus began to shift towards talent development. Today we see organisations increasingly moving Talent across borders and developing people strategies that have the ability to add to the bottom line. They are able to leverage their ‘employee brand’ and culture on a global basis with their employee values and behavior creating a consistent customer experience throughout the world.

It remains clear that regardless of changes in technology, increasing outsourcing alternatives and the ongoing elusive demand for HR to find a way to quantify its true value and contribution in financial terms, there will always be a place for HR as there will always be a place for talented people who understand business, organisational dynamics and the levers to maximize employee performance.

Resource: The Future of the HR Profession Eight Leading Consulting Firms Share Their Visions for the Future of Human Resources (The Society for Human Resource Management-SHRM)
(http://www.shrm.org/about/pressroom/Documents/future_of_hr.pdf)