IS HR AS WE KNOW IT DEAD AND DONE?

IN THE WORDS OF THE INDIAN HR (human resources) guru Prof. T.V. Rao, "HRD is a process by which the employees of an organisation are helped in a continuous and planned way to (i) acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions associated with their present or expected future roles; (ii) develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their own inner potential for their own and/or organisational development purposes; (iii) develop an organisational culture in which superior-subordinate relationship, team work and collaboration among sub-units are strong and contribute to the professional well-being, motivation and pride of employees."

- Srinath Sridharan and Steve Correa

The origin of Indian HR arose from the need to manage skilling, training, motivation and industrial relations with the workforce. Today the HR function's role is to 'Attract, Retain, Develop and Engage the best of talent'.

Without much ado, HR and IR are simply 'orientations' of the labour/talent market. When labour demand exceeds supply, the issues are appropriately referred to as HR and when supply exceeds demand, the issues are Industrial Relations. Irrespective of what we call it, both HR and IR require a sound leadership to manage Human Resources. Work classes' form unions, once their individual bargaining powers get diminished, and relapse back to 'individual' bargaining / negotiations, when demand for their services are high (an example of pilots in India). More recently, there has been a growing concern about moonlighting, as clearly there is evidence of demand growing, particularly in the IT industry as we see a growing demand for skilled digital services.

The ABC of Leadership needs to be learnt and adapted to context. Leadership is an Art and a Craft, and in between this is Business. The HR function has evolved over the decades, to reflect the focus on the emergent needs of business, to take on more interesting titles to remain contemporary within the needs of the enterprise. From HR Director to Chief HR Officer, to Chief People Officer, there has been an existential crisis to remain relevant. Of particular interest has been the continuous clamour for having a seat at the table' a.k.a the coveted board position. Well, that's the scenario the world of HR is in. A state of crisis mode.