Human Resources: A Dying Breed

HUMAN RESOURCES

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Human Resources: A dying breed

According to the Creativehrm.com, “the history of Human Resources began as the simple, crucial future-securing requirement of the emperor to organize tasks, jobs and the delivery of requested results. This was the first challenge to be addressed by the ancient predecessors of managers and Human Resources specialists”(“Key Milestones”, n.d.). A hundred years later, a lot of organizations are still running HR that same way; focusing on risk, focusing on compliance, focusing on the transactional side of it, but there’s this whole new era, and things like unions and pensions and transparency of the workplace have changed,” says Jason Averbook, CEO of the Marcus Buckingham Company, a Beverly Hills-based management training and consulting firm” (as cited in Lindzon, 2015). 

Technology Replacements

According to Averbook, HR is at a crossroads, as technology can now accomplish many of those traditional responsibilities faster, cheaper, and better than before (Lindzon, 2015). Darren Bounds, CEO of Breezy HR, an application-tracking platform for small businesses adds that Breezy HR and applications like it can now replace one or two dedicated HR staff members within organizations under 50 employees (Lindzon, 2015). Jared Lindzon states “recruiting software has become more advanced and cost-effective, big data has become a centerpiece of talent management, and 2015 marks the first year that millennials represent a majority of the American workforce” ( Lindzon, 2015). As additional emphasis on obtaining and retaining the best talent, becomes more viable and numerous business professionals believe that HR specialists of the future will become part of the core management team in their organization.

However, the Business industry has remained slow to respond to these needed changes. In a recent survey by Deloitte, “only 22% of respondents said that HR is adapting to the changing needs of their workforce, and only 20% feel that HR can adequately plan for the company’s future talent needs” ( as cited in Lindzon,2015).  The survey also projected 60% of initiative recruitment technology would be substituted in the subsequent 18 months. “The study also found that 80% of survey respondents believe that their company’s HR skills are a significant issue, a gap that will need to be accounted for quickly in order to meet the demands of this new era in HR” (Lindzon, 2015).  

Changes

The role of HR has been developing for a while beginning with "personnel" to "human resources". This was part of the effort to recognize the importance of employees as a structural resource, and was a challenge to eliminate the stigmas that remained associated with leisurely, bureaucratic personnel divisions. This lead HR to becoming a strategic partner with the top influential executives of the industry-to chime in on important company decisions, give advice on changes, and improve the worth/return of the workers.