The Power of AI Language Models in Unstructured Data Human Resources

First, almost 60 percent of European CHROs are considering virtualizing CoCs and CoEs, while none of their US peers discussed this. Second, US CHROs seem more inclined to use employee journeys as a mechanism for determining HR’s functional responsibilities and priorities. And third, European CHROs are planning to have HR business partners work on dedicated functional HR topics, bundling competencies virtually through chapter or cluster logic to virtual CoEs and CoCs. The reason for this is the multinational setup of many large European organizations, in which HR expertise is distributed across multiple countries and regions, requiring sophisticated systems of collaboration and coordination.

Clearly, the democratic Way of Resourceful Humans has emerged as the most exciting alternative to structure a vanguard Human Resources strategy beyond the Predict & Control derived HR Business Partner concept. The basic goal of this HR governance logic was to provide both strategic insights and administrative efficiencies at the same time. Given the hr models emphasis SMEs put on ensuring the cultural and values fit of their people practices (and rightly so), having an in-house person to oversee this is essential. And someone who has the generalist knowledge to be able to select and guide the right specialists makes sense. But ultimately one person cannot be expected to be an expert in every area of HR.

CIPD survey research of HR professionals about their careers revealed that generalists tend to stay generalists and specialists stay specialists. But in an SME HR professionals need a combination of the two, having generalist skills and wide-reaching basic knowledge, but being able to tune up or down particular specialisms when required. Also, the reality of working in an SME is that the scope of any job role expands beyond the one you are contracted to do. Despite the increased workload, most people saw this as a positive thing as their role extended into other areas of the business, increasing their business savvy. There is also huge opportunity to get involved in all aspects of the business, the speed at which decisions are made and change can happen, and the ability to quickly see the impact of what you do.

Next to HR operating models illustrating how an HR team is organized, we also have HR models that articulate and clarify HR’s role within the business. Some of the best-known HR models are the Standard Causal Model of HRM, the HR Value Chain, and the Harvard Model of HRM. This example shows that Nike Inc. transformed from a decentralized operating model where local learning teams could set their own goals and use their own learning solutions to a global team. This team was able to set centralized goals, create one Nike experience, and build a reputation of Nike as a highly desirable place to work with great learning and training opportunities. As HR and its role continue to evolve, the models of HR will develop as well.

Once a company hits 400 employees, HR will want to start collecting basic HR metrics such as exit interview data, cost per hire, time to fill, turnover, and engagement. If it has hired an analytics professional at this point, the function will be in an excellent position to present credible data to the leadership team the way other functions do. As for the HR manager themselves, that role will be transitioning from one responsible for personally delivering many of the HR services to one responsible for managing an HR department with the professionals doing the hands-on work. The HR manager needs to recognize that the changing operating model may mean giving up some activities that they enjoyed doing.

It takes a capable workforce to meet the demands of an organization’s ambitions. An HR strategy centers HR efforts where they need to be to help the company thrive. For example, there may now be a manager of talent acquisition with the recruiters reporting to them. At this point, robust IT systems and efficient recruiting processes will be an important part of how talent acquisition delivers its services.

The Power of AI Language Models in Unstructured Data

This includes HR systems, HR budget, capable professionals, and other key elements. The thinking is that these enablers need to be present in order for the value chain to operate effectively. Although it takes time, creating and executing an HR strategy can produce a tremendous benefit by aligning HR’s activities with the goals of the organization. Applicants who don’t get hired are invited to join Canva’s talent community with opportunities to attend events and skills-based webinars. To show further appreciation for job seekers and keep them engaged with the company, candidates who make it to a certain stage of the recruitment process are granted a complimentary Canva Pro subscription.

They had some success; according to industry analysts, Everest Group, the multi-process HR outsourcing market is worth about US$3.3 billion globally. The reasons for this disaffection with centres of expertise become clearer under scrutiny. Only a third of organisations maintained dedicated talent specialists in each of the functional areas highlighted above. This suggests that critical skills in talent management are missing from the HR armouries of some of our largest organisations. In answering this question, the organisation design team should be thinking not just of structural options but about reshaping leadership, capabilities, processes and the other elements of its operating model.

For example, technology plays an increasingly important role in HR service delivery. Some of the best-known human resources models include HR Value Chain, the Harvard Model of HRM, and the Ulrich model. It was one of the first models to incorporate both the “hard” and “soft” perspectives of HRM. The model also positioned the impact of HRM on business performance and acknowledged the vital role that organizational behavior plays in achieving performance outcomes. This HR framework also shows that the relationships in the model are not always unidirectional. For example, good training can directly result in better performance without necessarily influencing HR outcomes.

We support the view that there is not one model for delivering HR that is suited to all organisations, that different organisations have different needs. How an organisation should structure its HR function depends on its organisational strategy, wider organisational structure and the requirements of its customers and the organisation it is supporting. These things can be influenced by other factors such as size of the organisation and maturity. Additionally, it can also help them create a work environment where employees feel empowered and engaged in the business. As such, understanding these different models is essential for organizations striving for long-term success. Human Resources Management Models (HRMs) are a vital part of any organization’s strategy, providing the foundation to effectively manage and coordinate all business activities related to people.

It transcends operational efficiency, delving into the realms of tactical effectiveness and strategic alignment with organizational goals. At the heart of the model lies the core process, commencing with configuration. This involves the interplay of company history, culture, and technology, all pivotal in influencing HR communication, objectives, and the effectiveness of HR policies. Human Resources Management (HRM) plays a pivotal role in shaping the dynamics of an organization, contributing to its success and growth. To effectively navigate this intricate field, HR professionals often turn to various HR models that serve as frameworks for articulating HR’s role and positioning within the business.

Digital transformation at Colgate

In summary, the Guest Model of HRM offers a comprehensive framework that considers strategic integration, flexibility, high commitment, and quality as essential components for effective HR management and organizational success. The subsequent HRM outcomes, comprising factors like heightened productivity, innovation, and overall quality, contribute to an ameliorated internal performance within the organization. These internal performance improvements, when aggregated, manifest as enhanced financial performance, encapsulated by metrics such as increased profits, financial turnover, improved margins, and augmented Return on Investment (ROI).

Too much oversight, slow response times, and a lack of business acumen in HR have led some companies to give line managers more autonomy in people decisions. Companies exploring this choice typically have a high share of white-collar workers, with a strong focus on research and development. These innovation shifts are driving the emergence of new HR operating models, albeit with different degrees of influence depending on the nature of individual organizations (Exhibit 1). The People Value Chain Model is a contemporary approach to HR, focusing on creating value through employees. It involves attracting, developing, and retaining talent to enhance an organization’s competitive advantage.

More specifically, it outlines the organizational structure of the HR department, what the main roles do, technology, key processes, and the most important metrics. It’s the same idea as what is sometimes called an HR delivery model or HR architecture. Dave Ulrich is the Rensis Likert Professor of Business at the Ross School, University of Michigan and a partner at the RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organisations and leaders deliver value. He studies how organisations build capabilities of leadership, speed, learning, accountability, and talent through leveraging human resources.

It was different in every country and there were different capabilities in the HR team. We were a regional operating model and we have moved to a centralised operating model. There can be no doubt either that the changes of the last 10 years were highly necessary. Any HR organisation that could not maintain basic standards could scarcely lay claim to a ‘seat at the table’ to participate in the strategic agenda. An effective HR operational/transactional model is therefore a minimum prerequisite to building a strategic HR function and we see little prospect of organisations making a major shift away from the standardised, shared model of HR operations.

As a result, many HR business partners have been unable to deliver what is required in the role or have dumbed down the role to a level they are comfortable with but which doesn’t deliver what is required by the business. Over the last 30 years HR organisations have gone through several transformations, moving from an operational role (the ‘personnel department’) to one of ‘HR as a service centre’ to one focused on ‘driving talent outcomes’. Overall, our research suggests that HR has developed a greater commercial awareness and has invested heavily in an incremental ‘professionalisation’ of the function as a direct consequence of the Ulrich model. He founded a successful change management consultancy called Regenesis and its business psychology offshoot Corporate Insights. The HR value chain addresses this challenge by providing a structured model that connects HR activities to organizational goals. It emphasizes the importance of aligning HR practices with business outcomes.

However, in general, this Human Resources model demonstrates how HR strategy is developed and the impact of HR on internal business processes and financial outcomes. More attention needs to be given to ensuring the quality of ‘operational HR’ – the translation of policy into practice at an operational level. This means more investment in up-skilling managers to effectively manage people.

HR models are used to map out the workings of human resource management departments because it would be difficult to think about HR functions from scratch when starting and establishing a new business or revitalizing an existing one. Jill’s current research initiatives focus on the role of people management in driving SME growth. She has conducted research with both UK and Singapore SMEs to propose a framework of how people management practices and approaches need to change as SMEs grow and transition.

HR professionals in SMEs often talk of the difficulty in splitting their time and resources between the more administrative tasks and the longer-term approaches they need to put in place for the sustainable health of the business. When asked about the future of the HR department, which I have been asked a few times recently, I say I passionately believe that HR is beginning to play a huge role in business. I think the function in the future might be larger but with lower operating costs. I think the centre of excellence model might change as the head of HR and HR manager roles supporting the business evolve and the basic operational activities are either automated, streamlined or aggregated. The HR roles supporting the business will take on more of what would have typically been done by the centre; they are thought leaders in their own right.

This model uses integrated people data to make targeted, automated HR decisions. The way in which organizations manage people used to be relatively straightforward. For more than two decades, multinational companies generally adopted a combination of HR business partners, centers of excellence, and shared service centers, adjusting these three elements to fit each organization’s unique nature and needs. Named after HR thought leader David Ulrich, this model emphasizes HR’s strategic role in achieving organizational goals.

Identify the employees who have talent beyond the scope of their current role and are ready to take on new challenges. HR can help with strong decision making by empowering employees to take risks in a culture that rewards them for doing so. McKinsey research revealed that employees who are empowered to make decisions and who receive sufficient coaching from leaders were three times more likely to say that their companies’ delegated decisions were both high quality and speedy.

For instance, the market’s skill availability dictates the approach to sourcing, recruiting, and hiring. An insufficient supply of specific skills necessitates unique strategies compared to situations where a surplus of qualified workers prevails. Simultaneously, the institutional context, shaped by legislation, trade unions, and work councils, imposes constraints and delineates the permissible scope of HR activities.

There wouldn’t be a need for a full-time talent acquisition specialist at all. In addition to reviewing the HR structure, organisations could also think about the maturity of their function and future ambitions of what HR could deliver. Assessing the HR capability of the people function can also provide a benchmark of the current capability and identify development areas. This is the first Model (from 1984), and it emphasizes only four functions and their interdependence. These four human resource management constituent components are expected to contribute to organizational effectiveness. The Fombrun Model is insufficient because it focuses on only four HRM functions while ignoring all environmental and contingency factors that influence HR functions.

Because many roles are becoming disaggregated and fluid, work will increasingly be defined in terms of skills. The accelerating pace of technological change is widening skill gaps, making them more common and more quick to develop. To survive and deliver on their strategic objectives, all organizations will need to reskill and upskill significant portions of their workforce over the next ten years. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Organizations in which HR facilitates a positive employee experience are 1.3 times more likely to report organizational outperformance, McKinsey research has shown. This has become even more important throughout the pandemic, as organizations work to build team morale and positive mindsets. Getting the best people into the most important roles requires a disciplined look at where the organization really creates value and how top talent contributes.

The Warwick Model of Human Resource Management (HRM) is a conceptual framework developed by Hendry and Pettigrew in 1990 at the University of Warwick. This model aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of HRM within various organizational contexts, emphasizing the integration of HR functions into overall business strategy. The HR value chain stands as a pivotal tool in elucidating and showcasing the inherent value that https://chat.openai.com/ Human Resources (HR) contributes to organizational goals. In essence, this model elucidates the intricate relationship between HR activities aligned with organizational strategy and consequential improvements in business performance. According to this model, the effectiveness of HR is contingent upon the alignment of its strategy with that of the overall business, aligning with the principles of the best-fit theory.

Yet, the extent to which HR organisations use all three elements is consistently and stubbornly low. The correlations cannot prove that greater rotation causes a stronger strategic role or vice versa. Still, it is likely that the strength of HR’s strategic role is enhanced by efforts to create career movement within the HR organisation, and even more significantly across the boundary between HR and the organisation. Looking at the correlations with HR’s role in strategy, it appears that most HR functions are doing some of the things that lead to their having a strategic role while failing to do others.

They were good at what they were good at, but the role required them to be good at a different level. We need to help people be the best they can be, not try to get everyone to be something they can’t be. Good design, robust governance, communications, training and support are always needed irrespective of the next technological breakthrough. Cloud will force HR to become more standardised, requiring less centralised HR teams to maintain it and breathing life into the HR outsourcing market.

• With a centralized model in place, departments can align their efforts more closely with the organization’s overarching mission and vision.
• Human resources, which in many organizations now sits awkwardly between its history as a support function and its future as a strategic partner.
• Many entrepreneurial small companies already have this broader mindset, which is in stark contrast to the more traditional large organisation mindset and HR operating model.

This centralized approach enables YRCI to manage data more effectively, providing valuable decision-making and strategic planning insights. Moreover, the flexibility and scalability of the shared service model allow YRCI to quickly adapt to the evolving needs of its clients, ensuring that it remains responsive and competitive in the market. Ultimately, YRCI’s shared services model empowers its HR teams and customers to focus on strategic initiatives, driving higher value and supporting the long-term success of its clients. Rotation of non-HR leaders into and out of the HR function can enhance the HR sophistication of those non-HR leaders as they return to their original or previous business roles.

Functioning like a third-party vendor, this entity operates autonomously and treats each department as a customer, providing tailored services to meet their specific needs. Organizations can focus more on their core activities and strategic goals by streamlining these functions. This concept is known as a Shared Services Organization (SSO) or Shared Services Center (SSC), and large enterprises commonly adopt it to enhance operational effectiveness. Information technology (IT) shared services focus on delivering a robust and scalable technology infrastructure that supports the organization’s entire spectrum of operations. These services include network management, cybersecurity, application development and maintenance, user support, and IT procurement.

However, what we have seen amongst these organisations and others is a marked shift in focus towards the ‘centres of expertise’ in HR and investing in the systems, common processes and team capabilities to drive these improvements systematically. HR directors and their leadership teams have to be courageous and bold in anticipating their organisations’ needs in this way, taking ownership of their own change agenda rather than responding time and again to external pressures to change. By continually making itself redundant and reinventing itself in this way, HR can maintain its relevance to the business and its centrality in organisational performance. Our podcast and first thought leadership article provide insights gained from pioneers who are leading the way in HR operating model transformation, reflecting on current practice, the key drivers of change and emerging models.

It’s based in Los Angeles and was started by a group of friends from the film industry. As they get off the ground with just a few employees, there won’t be anyone specializing in HR. The team will hire from the pool of people they know personally or are referred by a trusted friend. HR decisions are ad hoc, and the culture will flow organically from the CEO and the top team’s personality. If we dare call it that, the HR operating model is just the team figuring things out as they go. It is established on the belief that human resources can give any organisation a significant competitive advantage, so, therefore, the employees should be treated as assets rather than the costs.

HR will move towards a model that is less reliant on functional skills but instead focuses on multi-disciplinary skill sets. Traditional HR skills will be supplemented with direct input from the business, process automation skills, and data expertise. In this structure, the head of HR may take on most of the business partnering responsibilities in the organization, while much of the administration and specialization is happening in the different departments. This means that the business partner and shared service roles are not as clearly separated as in the business partnering model. The chain starts with the company’s overall business strategy, which influences the HR strategy and processes.

There are also more opportunities to support the longer-term health of the organisation. For example, a larger workforce makes it possible to offer development and career progression. As the global economy grows and technology has made organisations highly interconnected and transparent, what HR does has to change. The results of this first wave of HR outsourcing Chat GPT were mixed for both client and vendor. As someone who was involved in one of the very first outsourcing projects, I found it exciting, but it caused many sleepless nights! I witnessed at first hand the trauma of moving the organisation to standardised services, HR service centres for clients and also restructuring HR with new roles such as business partners.

By considering the outer, inner, and business strategy contexts, alongside the HRM context and HRM content, organizations can develop comprehensive HR policies aligned with their overarching business strategy. The 8-Box Model, conceived by Paul Boselie, stands as an alternative and widely utilized Human Resource (HR) framework, adept at modeling the intricacies of HR functions. This model serves to elucidate the myriad external and internal factors that exert influence on the efficacy of HR practices.

To keep up with the company’s rising recruiting needs, they’ve developed a skills-first mindset and fostered a talent community. Many organizations will translate their HR strategy and how it ties to business goals into a mission statement. Condensing a strategic plan into a short phrase clarifies HR’s purpose for all stakeholders. It also gives HR staff a guiding principle to keep in mind as they carry out the department’s responsibilities and initiatives. If recruiting is necessary, focus on skills-based hiring to find people who are equipped with the right capabilities, even if they lack direct experience in a similar role. HR leaders need to know where the HR skills gaps are and plan how to bridge them.

What are HRM Models?

A fluid approach helps to feed innovation, with this mindset making it easier to trial different people approaches, either shaping and improving on beta versions or removing what doesn’t work. But it also requires an HR professional to be comfortable with change, uncertainty and operating in largely unknown territory. Josh spent 25 years in product development,product management, marketing and sales of e-learning and other enterprise technologies at companies including DigitalThink (now Convergys), Arista Knowledge Systems, Sybase and IBM.

These responsibilities are becoming too complex to be managed solely through contracts and formal governance arrangements. Informal mechanisms that ensure good quality and trusting relationships are vital to the success of the network. Yet customers expect and need the relevant organisations to be brought together and to collaborate effectively, by operating in a coherent and an integrated way. This is leading to an expansion of responsibility, and heightened exposure to the risks of poor co-ordination and control across partnered arrangements. It also might be that you don’t develop all these skills in every business partner or even within HR.

Her most recent work takes an in-depth look at how SMEs can keep their culture and values at the heart of the business and how SMEs can best recruit and develop talented people. Some small businesses that were keen to embed people management and development into the very core of how they operate adopted what could be termed integrated HR. A distinct split of transactional and strategic HR duties was facilitated through more devolution to line managers and greater employee empowerment over their own development and the way they manage their work. Developing someone whose background is not in HR means they need to get up to speed quickly as a generalist, but they already have a sound appreciation of the business, people’s roles and growth ambitions. As a company moves through the stages, the people challenges change, with implications for the nature and demands on the people role. As we’ll see, it is likely that as the company grows, so does the need for more specialist people management capabilities.

In practice, it is merely a description of how we organize HR to get things done. How you organize should always start with an understanding of what the business needs HR to deliver. From there, it’s a matter of an HR department structure, clarity about what each role does. You continue with a look at IT systems, processes, and metrics to track how well you are doing. In the 1990s, the HR field was working to support competitive advantage through something called ‘strategic HR’. At a simple level, strategic HR meant that different business strategies (winning through cost, product innovation, customer service or geographic expansion) would be better implemented by aligned HR practices.

This model allows organizations to leverage economies of scale, enabling them to do more with less. In addition to cost savings, shared services strive to improve service delivery by implementing best practices, utilizing advanced technologies, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Ultimately, the goal is to provide high-quality, reliable support services that allow the organization to concentrate on its core business activities and strategic objectives. By adopting a shared service model, organizations enable their departments to focus on strategic objectives rather than administrative tasks.

Ulrich emphasised that remodelling HR doesn’t rely primarily on HR automation functions, however. He stressed that CEO, together with senior management, also has a significant part to play in the process. Shortly put, according to the 5P’s HRM Model, organisational performance directly depends on the performance of people engaged in processes and guided by organisation purposes and principles. The goal of creating HRM models is to help companies manage their workforce in the most efficient and effective manner possible, in order to achieve the established objectives. As we have culled their answers, not one essay has referred to how the HR department is organised.

They started by conducting a study to find out which new capabilities its workforce needed to digitally transform the company. Then, Colgate designed and implemented a learning and development program to upskill its 16,000 office employees located in 100 different countries. This will be an ongoing process, so determine a timeline for assessing the KPIs and key milestones to achieve your goals.

Teams emerge and day-to-day people responsibility is largely devolved to line managers or team leaders, often promoted on their technical capability with little or no management training. How does an organisation entering into a partnering arrangement decide on the most appropriate HR structure to support the network? This must, however, be done with an appreciation of their wider business structure. This is not an isolated issue within HR, but is true of many roles in many functions. HR just sees it more frequently because I would argue that the ratio of role complexity increase to individual development has been higher than other functions in recent years. My view is that cloud will have a significant impact on HR and will help HR to deliver the original goal of freeing up time to focus on strategic imperatives.

• The Fombrun Model is insufficient because it focuses on only four HRM functions while ignoring all environmental and contingency factors that influence HR functions.
• In early 2014 we surveyed business and HR users in 40 organisations, each with more than 10,000 employees – complex beasts by anyone’s standards.
• As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, clients and businesses increasingly seek flexibility, efficiency, and compliance.

The critical decision for senior people leaders is to consciously select the most relevant of these innovation shifts to transition gradually toward their desired operating-model archetype. For example, the leader-led model puts business leaders, rather than HR, in the driver’s seat, allowing line managers to choose the right HR offerings for their individual teams. And for companies that decide to deploy machine-powered HR, the key is building and relying on deep analytics skills.

HR and managers can do everything they can, but if their activities are perceived differently than they were intended and carried out, the perception will not reflect the actual HR practices. The 8-box Model by Paul Boselie is a different HR model that is frequently used to model what we do in HR. The 8-box Model depicts various external and internal factors that influence the effectiveness of HR work.

But according to the vast majority of CHROs we interviewed, organizations may not have a choice. The outcomes of HR are not just administrative efficiency or strategic execution. The outcomes of HR have become the capabilities that an organisation requires to win in its marketplace. The capabilities represent what an organisation is known for and good at doing and vary depending on an organisation’s strategy. Capabilities represent the outcomes of HR that enable strategy to happen, ensure customer share over time, and increase investor confidence as intangibles.

Where success in resourcing, performance management or learning had been achieved, this was as likely to be the result of a single capable individual working in isolation rather than a coherent talent strategy. What emerges then is not a porting-over of someone else’s best practice nor an implementation of a ‘standard’ model nor one sold in by advisers who ‘know better’ than the business. As a result, the emergent operating model is anchored in the business, the design is coherent and systemic, the business case is made, key stakeholders have contributed to the shaping of the model and they become key to its implementation. This methodical approach results in diversity of HR operating models, alignment and innovation in design – characteristics too often missing in HR operating models. The disciplines and toolkits for organisation design were developed and pioneered in the early 1970s by internal change agents at IBM and GE and soon after adopted by strategy consulting firms. Billions have been spent on outsourcers, consultants, advisers and technology platforms that have apparently ‘transformed’ HR.

He has helped generate award-winning databases that assess alignment between strategies, organisation capabilities, HR practices, HR competencies, and customer and investor results. Alongside this they are able to provide a coaching and support role to line managers in the business. One of the primary benefits of using a shared service model is cost efficiency. Organizations can reduce redundancy and leverage economies of scale by consolidating various functions into a centralized unit. This results in significant cost savings, as the centralized operations eliminate the need for multiple departments to perform the same tasks independently. Operational expenses such as staffing, infrastructure, and technology resources are minimized, enabling the organization to allocate financial resources more effectively toward strategic initiatives.

When HR practitioners understand how HR models work and are familiar with the philosophies of some widely-used frameworks, they can set up their HR organization for success. A SWOT analysis is a method for mapping out an organization’s or department’s internal strengths and weaknesses and its external threats and opportunities. These are, for example, its production capacity, existing brand, marketing channels, sales capabilities, R&D expertise, and other human capital factors. An HR strategy is a plan for aligning human capital investments with business needs. It shapes the character and direction of HR management activities to focus on supporting what the company is trying to accomplish. The HR strategy sets the direction for all the key areas of HR, including hiring, performance appraisal, development, and compensation.

The Harvard Model nurtures cooperation and motivational practices and empowers general managers to get involved in the HR aspect of the business. HRM models often combine principles of soft and hard HRM, but with more emphasis put on one of these two approaches. Here are the five most significant HRM models every HR practitioner should know of. In the early 1990s, researchers Chris Hendry and Andrew M. Pettigrew at the University of Warwick developed the Warwick HRM Model.

The consolidation phase is characterised by reflection and improvement and typically taking a step back, ensuring that people practices support the longer-term ambitions of the business. On the whole, in the emerging enterprise stage HR tends to be transactional and reactional. Payroll is usually the charge of the finance manager and in many cases the office manager takes on some workforce-related activities, such as establishing absence records and holiday scheduling, and addressing people issues as they emerge.

Many pointed out that their HR business partner roles are still ‘too transactional’ in nature and that they struggle to shed the administrative elements of their roles. There seems to be no HR function that is not embarking on, is not part-way through, or has not recently completed major change in the way it organises itself and how it delivers its services to the organisations it supports. For all three items, the correlation with HR’s role in strategy is significantly positive, and this has been true in every survey we have conducted since 1995.