Are we there yet? What's next for HR?

Abstract

Over the last three decades, the practice of HR has experienced significant transformation. This has included HR moving from being a lower level, administrative and maintenance oriented function to operating in many organizations as a core business function and a strategic business partner. Because of dramatic changes that have occurred in HR, the question arises whether HR has arrived at its final destination or whether the journey will continue and if so, what is next for HR? In setting the stage to discuss the future of HR, we briefly describe the journey HR has traveled thus far since its emergence as a field. We characterize HR's journey as having a singular direction and that is to add value to the organization. To continue in this direction we propose that future HR will need to adopt an outside/inside approach where the external environment and stakeholders influence what HR does inside the organization. From this, we discuss other specific actions HR will need, in order to add value, with respect to targets for HR work (individual, organizational, and leadership) and areas for HR investments (HR function, HR practices, HR people, and HR analytics). We present a number of propositions on these that can be used by researchers and practitioners in guiding future research and practice.