Two thirds of HR directors believe that the last 12 months has seen a shift in the way the function is viewed, with most feeling that they now have the right level of senior management representation.
Video interviews with 18 senior HR professionals from large UK private and public sector organisations undertaken by HR consultancy, Penna, revealed that 83% felt that, over the last year, they had moved from providing the organisation with mainly transactional support to becoming a key business partner.
This meant that they were increasingly involved in helping to develop the company’s strategic direction and managing essential change management programmes.
Gary Browning, Penna’s chief executive, said: “It is evident that in these challenging times, the role of the HRD goes beyond delivering people strategies. Our study reveals that HRDs have a much higher profile, an increased level of influence and recognition of a future of further change.”
But key future challenges for the role also included finding ways to retain and develop talent, ensuring that the workforce had the right skills, dealing with restructuring and enabling career development, he added.
HR employment prospects
Studies elsewhere revealed a mixed picture of the HR employment market, however. The latest figures published in recruitment agency Addecco’s Job Watch report indicated that, although hiring across the board slowed significantly towards the end of last year, the number of advertised positions for HR and IT workers grew tentatively this month – the first positive signs it has seen in the job market for more than six months.
But the news was not so rosy from recruiters, Robert Half. It revealed that a mere 21% of HR directors expected to increase their team headcount during the first half of 2012, while 26% planned to cut it.
The figure compared with the 33% of senior executives across all functions who planned to take on permanent, professional-level staff in the first six months of the year and the 21% who intended to reduce employee numbers.
*** Lisa Winnard, director of HR and development at financial services company, Sesame Bankhall Group, was named ‘HR Director of the Year’ at the HR Directors’ Summit’s HR Distinction Awards 2102, held in Birmingham this week.
She was given the award on the basis of her work in leading the development and launch of a new apprenticeship programme, The Financial Adviser School. The initiative is intended to help attract and train new professional financial advisers into the company, some of whom have no previous industry experience.
