The role of the HR leader is now bigger and more influential

Be bold! This was the key theme of Gartner‘s Reimagine HR Conference 2023. I’m seeing this growth in courage in the HR leaders I’m working with too.

‘The role of the HR leader is now something bigger and more influential.’

As this was an HR conference, this kind of sentiment is to be expected. However, the way forward is becoming clearer now for HR. We can see how to evolve the function in order to create more pace and flexibility.

The two top themes I’m seeing are structure and capabilities.

Structurally, HR needs to reorganise in order to enable the business partners to operate more strategically. That means they have to be able to hand work over to skilled, flexible teams. This is the only way for HR to be business-led rather than expertise-led.

In terms of capabilities, HR needs to move from serving to partnering. True partnering is a mindset as well as a behavioural approach. Our 7 HR Enablers provide a structure for skill development and evaluation – self, 360 and team. They’re endorsed by Dave Ulrich whose work provides a rich resource of research to help HR leaders find their way.

Contact me to share our experiences and yours, and visit our website www.enable-hr.com to find out about what we do.