Human resources isn’t dead, even though everyone has been forecasting its demise for a good long time. But HR does have a complicated history—at different points in time, it’s viewed as either critical or peripheral to a company’s success, following trends in the labor market. Are workers more likely to change companies? Should companies invest in employee development?

Where are we now and what should your HR strategies center around moving forward?

The evolving role of HR

In the 1950s, HR held one of the most prestigious places in a corporation, managing promotions, pay, and complex workforce development. While this is still the case in many countries, in the United States these responsibilities shifted to directors and supervisors, leaving HR to take on different tasks.

Around the 1980s, “more and more tasks that had traditionally been performed by HR (from hiring to development to compensation decisions) were pushed onto line managers, on top of their other work. And that’s been the case ever since,” says Peter Cappelli, Professor of Management at Wharton. “HR is now in the position of trying to get those beleaguered managers to follow procedures and practices without having any direct power over them.”

More recently, questions around culture and employee engagement have become critical challenges for companies everywhere, making it time for HR to adopt a strategic position once again. As Cappelli illustrated, however, it isn’t always so simple.

How to modernize your HR strategies

If your HR feels stale and ineffective, your approach is out of date. Learn how and why it’s critical to bring your HR strategies into the 21st century below.

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