The human resources profession has never been under as much spotlight as now. HR professionals are being called upon to play an increasingly strategic role in enhancing organisational competitiveness. Thanks to globalisation and global mobility of talent, HR functions and professionals have become central to building a successful organisation.

The market value of companies reflected the increasing importance of ?intangibles? such as ability to execute strategy, shared mindset about customer-centricity, and ability to spinnovate (innovate with speed). This demanded paradigm changes in traditional HR practices.

HR is dead; long live new HR

While agencies such as CII and National HRD Network have been involved with defining a competency framework for the new HR professional of the future, the fact remains that in many organisations, HR professionals are still coming to terms with being viewed as business partners expected to facilitate execution of the business strategy.

Understanding business, management of change and culture, personal credibility, HR process expertise and measuring HR for value creation have become significant competencies for the success of HR professionals but are still inhibiting them.

Why is the HR profession and its professionals under microscope?

There is dew on the wind screen: HR has been a back office function for many decades and its measurements were based on ?efficiency paradigm? like cost of hiring, welfare and benefits costs and the like. The perceived value was in saving labour costs and keeping away labour troubles. In the new paradigm, HR is called upon to create value, and the measurements were based on ?effectiveness paradigm?. Measurements included creating intellectual capital for the organisation and building robust competencies. However, the business benefits of investing in HR have not been sufficiently demonstrated in many organisations as yet.

Keeping with Joneses: The HR profession has also accumulated over the last few decades what Prof Dave Ulrich has called as ?frou-frou? HR practices. When systems and processes are installed without understanding their relevance for the business, the result is frustration and not fruitful results. The excitement with so-called ?best practices?, discussed and debated in many HR conferences without driving home the importance of ?best-fit? as a critical criterion, has led to many superficial people practices.

The too supple membrane: The HR profession has not had any desirable entry barriers. Although many professional bodies exist and professional qualifications are prevalent for decades now, there has been quite a dilution of the quality of professionals entering this profession, leading to a general lack of credibility for the profession itself. HR today represents a melting pot of diverse professionals, but has no standards to measure and monitor the quality of these professionals.

The rule of the rule: Recognised professions have two key components, ?professional practice? comprising a set of well-established practices of the profession and ?decision science?, which helps professionals from outside HR to make informed people decisions.

For example, sales represent a professional practice for sales professionals while marketing represents a decision science for those outside the profession. Likewise accounting represents the professional practice of the accountants while finance represents the decision science for other professionals. HR professionals, for example, have borrowed principles of ?return on investment? from the decision science of finance and ?employer branding? from the decision science of marketing. In contrast, HR as a profession has well-established professional practices for HR professionals but there has not been a decision science yet for other professionals to follow.

Next, a look at why HR professionals lack credibility today.

Competencies are not current: HR professionals need to reflect on their competencies to evaluate if they are current and relevant. Having seen many HR professionals, I have this comment to make in a lighter vein, ever since Microsoft office was created and popularised, HR professionals tend to consider themselves great executives if they are good at MS-Word, great compensation & benefits professionals if they are good at MS-Excel and at the high end of it, consider themselves a great VP of HR, if they become proficient in MS-Power Point. So much for the currency of their HR competencies!

Attitude is not professional: HR as a profession requires delivering professional practices with a great attitude. This involves turning knowledge into action, being confident and credible, building healthy relationships at work and standing up for values HR professionals believe in. When HR professionals fall short of these, they come under scrutiny.

CEOs are from Mars, HR pros from Venus: CEOs speak the language of beating the competition, creating value, being aggressive, analysing the cost-benefit of every penny spent and the like. HR professionals still do not understand the business imperatives and as such keep measuring and monitoring irrelevant performance indicators and also fail to execute.

The forgoing factors have taken a toll on the credibility of the HR profession and the professionals.

Part II of this article will discuss the New Agenda for HR professionals to earn credibility and be a trusted partner of the CEO.

The author is executive vice-president & chief people officer, Symphony Services Corporation