How HR has matured into an instrumental function for business continuity

The pattern we’ve seen with the evolution of the HR profession reflects the changes within societal ways of working.

For instance, when the role first emerged, the original objective for HR was built off the concept of “industrial betterment”. Responsibilities included completing employment administration tasks, addressing labour issues, improving working conditions, and ensuring compliance with labour laws. Subsequently, by the mid-20th century, an emphasis on professional development and equal opportunities in hiring practices led to an expansion in HR responsibilities.

The greatest shift to HR has come from the latest shift to workplace transformation brought on by the pandemic. This has led to the profession being responsible for creating employee experiences (EX), derivative of enabling a sense of belonging, preventing burnout, and building retention across physical and digital workplaces. As a result, HR leaders and the EX programs they lead have become critical components in the company’s strategic operations.

The strategic value of HR

The 2023 State of HR Report: The Rise of People Teams as a Business Growth Driver from Qualtrics reveals eight in 10 (78 per cent) of Australian HR and people leaders say their company’s senior executives now have a greater focus on EX than before the pandemic. Three-quarters say they are now more involved in the company’s strategic initiatives, and the same amount (75 per cent) say improving EX is seen to significantly improve business results.

EX management is emerging as a vital part of business frameworks across Australian organisations. As a result, the traditional ways of working and the focus areas for HR are changing as teams prioritise uncovering rich employee insights to guide their strategies and programs.

For example, prior to the pandemic, for many Australian businesses, their employee listening program was an annual employee engagement survey. However, this is no longer a sufficient insight if employers want to identify the needs of their teams and address employee turnover.

This sentiment is echoed by HR and people leaders, with 87 per cent saying it’s important for their organisation to increase the frequency of employee listening over the next three years. In further proof, over a third (36 per cent) of leaders review employee feedback at least quarterly.

Listening more frequently enables leaders to understand what’s most important to employees and where they’re meeting and missing expectations. As such, organisations can confidently take action to deliver on people’s expectations, which leads to engaged and highly productive teams and helps businesses keep and develop their best talent.

Driving revenue within business operations

As the maturity of EX programs continues to develop, there are four steps HR leaders should take.

1. Change management: HR leaders must communicate the value of improving employee experiences, and work with leaders across the business to realise this value by converting employee insights into actions that improve organisational performance.
2. Link EX to business outcomes: Employee insights reflect organisational performance, and the most impactful HR leaders must find ways to convey operational data (e.g., turnover or performance metrics) that encourage chief executives to look at people data in the same way they would other business data.
3. Leadership alignment: Making changes that improve leadership alignment doesn’t have to be onerous or be achieved in one fell swoop. Qualtrics research shows us that stepping up to align teams with HR to share a common vision or strategy would make a huge difference.
4. Technology and HR department integration: Technology and people operations teams are now both responsible for EX – and the level of collaboration and partnership will determine the ability to drive tangible business outcomes.

The role of HR no longer coincides with just “industrial betterment”. Its functions and responsibilities are instrumental to business continuity across all departments. The programs underway are a vital phase in the maturity of EX management in Australia and are critical in elevating the visibility of the deep strategic impact HR leaders and their teams deliver.

By Dr Cecelia Herbert, PsyD, principal catalyst at Qualtrics XM Institute