The Future of HR: Specialists, Generalists, and Human Capital

Introduction: Is HR at a Crossroads?

According to Stephen C. Schoonover's article "HR Competencies for the Year 2000: The Wake-Up Call!", human resource professionals — who are often placed in the position of dealing with the particularities of hiring and firing within an organization — must take the time to consider the future of their own area of organizational specialty. Tellingly, Schoonover subtitles his report: "Human Resources Will Not Go Away, But You Might." In short, Schoonover challenges HR experts to prove the relevance of HR in "adding value" and providing new competencies to organizations, or risk seeing HR departments become obsolete. "Human resources, as a whole, is significantly behind the change curve," he writes (Schoonover, 2002).

With an eye on the future, Schoonover suggests that HR departments will become increasingly segmented, as "the knowledge and competencies required for new human resource technologies" grows ever more sophisticated. Unfortunately, he believes that many HR departments have not kept abreast of such necessary changes. Schoonover envisions HR fragmenting into three critical areas.

Schoonover's Case for HR Specialization

The first is that of Product and Service Specialists, who will focus on product and service development, product delivery and support, selecting and managing outsourced vendors, and developing and applying key technologies — issues pertaining to supply-chain dynamics and costs. HR Generalists will focus on account development and management, installation and customization of human resource products and services, and interventions to maximize work team effectiveness. These generalists will work with technical data used to quantify the performance of critical organizational personnel and will address questions about where more or fewer employees may be needed in the future. Finally, HR Strategists will focus on business team partnership and consultation, human resource strategy development, and the alignment of HR consulting, products, and services with the organization's broader strategic intent (Schoonover, 2002). Perhaps, Schoonover implies, organizations will eventually dispense with traditional HR departments and simply deploy these specialized divisions to serve the other key areas of the organization.

Thus, rather than generalists, the new future of HR will necessitate a field of specialists with distinct core competencies and personal characteristics. However, Schoonover omits one core aspect of the HR professional's value: the "human" component of human resources. While becoming more fluent in the quantitative and technical tools used to measure employee performance may be necessary, the future of HR should not simply be to mimic what IT departments, supply-chain specialists, or marketing teams already do well. Since when did emulating other areas of the organization become a way to justify one's unique place within it?

HR professionals would be better served by heeding the perspective of Samuel Greengard, writing in Workforce journal, who stresses that true human resources best practices center on "developing human capital" — the specialty and purpose that defines HR's unique role in any organization (Greengard, 2003, p. 1). Through "avenues such as training, e-learning, succession planning, and knowledge and performance management," developing human capital must be the goal of all HR departments (Greengard, 2003, p. 1).

The Human Capital Counterargument

Human resource departments can play an advisory and supervisory role within their organizational context. They can advise employees on where the best places to recruit new talent might be, drawing on departmental research. When an employee wishes to develop his or her skills, the HR department should be the natural place to turn for guidance on improving credentials. What would be the best option, given the skills the employee wishes to develop — online learning to earn a certificate, or part-time study toward a master's degree? What are the current needs of a specific department, and how will those needs evolve in the future? These are exactly the kinds of holistic, people-centered questions that HR is uniquely positioned to answer.

Such answers demand not more technocratic specialism but greater generalism — a broad awareness of the dynamic nature of the organization as a whole. Making use of e-learning may require HR departments to develop better knowledge of current technical tools, but ultimately, "the entire organization [must] line up to the same set of common goals and ensure that everyone is rowing in the same direction" before an organization can "achieve a higher level of organizational performance" (Greengard, 2003, p. 1). Human resources must therefore provide a holistic vision of how organizations can realize their particular mission.

Of course, as Schoonover states, "human resource organizations will need to provide online access to products and services as well as face-to-face support in their application," and thus HR may need to serve as an ambassador for a more high-tech approach than before (Schoonover, 2002). But it is also the HR professional's duty to ensure that even the most technically sophisticated suggestion, innovation, or change meets the human needs of the organization — in terms of orienting employees, delivering training, and taking a realistic view of the current workforce's skill set.

Conclusion: Balance Over Fragmentation

The future of HR must remain focused on value-maximizing the human factor. However much HR avails itself of technical support and must conform to organizational budgetary needs, its point of view must not become so segmented that it cannot deploy the human elements of the organization to realize an organizational vision. By remaining sensitive to the training and diversity needs of every department, HR can continue to play a critical, value-maximizing role within any organization.