What are Practical, Meaningful, and Actionable Ways for HR Professionals to Gain Business Experience and Acumen so that they can Truly Make an Impact as Business Partners?

Abstract

CEOs overwhelmingly report that human capital is one of the leading growth enablers in the modern business world. Thus, in order to meet business goals, senior executives are increasingly holding HR departments accountable for delivering human capital results that are aligned to business strategy. However, as of 2014, 42% of non-HR business leaders believed that their HR teams were “underperforming” or “just getting by.” In agreement, less than 8% of HR leaders believed that their teams had the necessary skills to deliver the results that their counterparts were seeking. The perceived “unreadiness” of HR among business leaders is not only a U.S. phenomenon, but a global one as well. Executives in Japan, Germany, the UK, and China all recognize the problem, but doubt their company’s ability to respond (Appendix 1).11 For companies to effectively address this skills gap they must understand the causes behind the issue. They can then tackle the problem through two general avenues: 1. Adapting organizational design arrangements to better enable HR to work more closely with the business, and 2. Implementing traditional and nontraditional education/training initiatives.