CHANGES TO the structure and responsibilities of the HR function in many large organisations have created issues regarding career paths and staff development, according to a recent report from the UK
CHANGES TO the structure and responsibilities of the HR function in many large organisations have created issues regarding career paths and staff development, according to a recent report from the UK.
Paradoxically, the creation of higher level, more strategic and demonstrably value adding roles in the function has increased the challenges in developing staff to fill them.
The report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found HR is increasingly characterised by a division between: shared service centres (in-house or outsourced), handling many of the day to day administrative functions of HR; centres of expertise, made up of technical HR specialists; and HR business partners, working at a strategic level with managers in different parts of the business.
But the report found that while structures have been changed in line with Dave Ulrich’s three-legged model of HR, sufficient thought has not always been given to the consequences for HR career paths.
The report argues that shared services and outsourcing have led to dispersed HR units, dealing with their client base in a more remote and transactional way, while high level business partners seek to get closer to the organisation and are making a strategic contribution.
“Fragmented careers are arising as a result of the separation of service centres, centres of expertise and business partner roles,” said Duncan Brown, CIPD assistant director general.
“The majority of HR staff in our research already have experience outside of the function and are positive about its increasing business impact. But we need to think through how the different parts of the function work together effectively and how we enable staff to develop a broad enough perspective of all that the function does.
“New models of HR are helping to clarify the role and demonstrate the contribution of the function. But we need to ask whether we are clear where the HR business partners, senior managers and highly specialised technical experts of the future are coming from.”
Organisations have sometimes changed structures before fully considering the implications for the skills development and career paths of their staff, he said.
As such, HR people are making more “zigzag” moves to gain a mix of operational experience and real know-how in specialist areas. And there still appears to be a valuable role for the HR generalist to play.
The report also highlights the conundrum of HR executives worried about the shortage of talent coming into the function, yet graduates and those new to it perceiving a lack of opportunity to develop the high levels of experience and expertise necessary to perform more senior strategic and specialist roles.
“We have to think more about how we provide the progressive development roles and experiences for those at all levels in the function, rather than just assuming we can buy in the talent from outside into senior roles, in what is already a very tight labour market, with growing demand,” Brown said.
