There is a growing realization that people are the most important asset that an organization possesses. Human talent has become the differentiating factor among competitors across all industries. The competitive advantage that arises from the talent has a greater impact than from the other resources which are getting largely commoditized, as in they are easily replicable.

Change has allowed HR’s value proposition to move from being an administrative function to being a business partner. The function is now moving focus from just do-ables to deliverables.

With due respect to the challenges faced by other functions, I would like to draw a comparison with a few of them, in order to negate the impression of HR as a cost function.

Like in marketing they sell products to the external customers of the brand, in HR today we sell the company to both the external (the talent/employee pool) and internal customers i.e the employees through employer branding phenomenon.

In the world of finance, we have equity leading to asset productivity which in turn leads to profit, similarly in HR, we have investments in Talent management leading to talent development which in turn leads to an organization’s strategic success.

As in Supply Chain Management, in HR too you make and buy to manage risk, adapt to uncertainty in demand, aim at an improved ROI in developing employees, preserve the investment by balancing
employee-employer relationships as talent development is a perishable commodity.

Selection today is the most important purchase decision that a company makes. Investment in talent development is the most strategic investment of any organization.

Hence, this strategic function, namely HR, now provides us with the opportunity to face one of the toughest challenges in the economy, increasingly being recognized as The Talentship Challenge. This is not about developing people and creating succession plans. It is about meeting the objectives of the company which in business terms amounts to making money for the company, a common goal we all strive towards.