In one of the studies conducted by the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and the Institute of Work Psychology it was reflected that there is a direct link between management of the people and the company performance. From mere administrative workers the job of the human resource practitioner saw transition in the recent years to strategists.

The change in the way the business operates brought with it many responsibilities to the human resource practitioner. The labour market became more aggressive over the passage of time. Increase in the size of business operations was followed by an acute shortage of skilled labour creating a situation favourable for the employees. With attrition eating up a huge chunk of the company profits, which has been hit by the economic slowdown, the human resource practitioner is forced to come up with innovative ideas to retain the talent within the entity without having much adverse impact on the company profitability.

The demographic composition poses a big challenge to the HR. The large scale of operations forced the companies to appoint young talents who lack the domain expertise. Providing quick training and making them efficient without much loss of time has become a great challenge to the HR. With the work force composition consisting of aging, but experienced work force and young talent who lack the expertise, maintaining a healthy environment is a test the HR has to win successfully.

The last year saw many Indian companies being a participant in mergers and acquisitions. The HR practitioner has the uphill task of eradicating the fear in the minds of the employees during mergers. Identifying the key employees, drafting the policies and procedures after taking into account the best of two worlds, conducting cross culture training to bring rapport amongst the employees, drawing up a remuneration system which is capable of retaining the talent, all falls within the circle of the HR practitioners’ functions.

Besides people management the HR practitioner has to be well versed with the changes in the market, industry, government regulations, competitive policies, and technological charges. He should have the skill to introduce the changes smoothly within the organisation. With the companies setting up its operations globally, the HR practitioner has to possess knowledge of various laws applicable in various countries and should be capable of bending his global knowledge to meet the local needs for easy acceptance.

Being a business partner, the HR practitioner is to assist the top management in taking strategy decisions. He has to identify the quality and quantity of employee requirements for meeting the future demands. He should possess acumen to scrutinise the financial reports and possess basic technical knowledge. The HR practitioner is left with the task of creating a brand image for the company as the best employer to work for. The goodwill so created helps to attract and retain talent within the entity. But creation of the brand image requires a conscious and continuous effort. He has to have analytical skill to evaluate the input fed by the employees through various surveys and questionnaires to guarantee an employee friendly environment.

Identifying the key players and defining the succession plan is another major challenge for the HR practitioner. With huge employee turnover rates in the market, deciding the successor is a complicated task. His actions should have the intention of providing the people with huge potential to grow and the policies should aim at retaining them within the organisation.

The challenges that the HR practitioner has to face are numerous. To quote Vivek Punekar, VP-HR, HCL Infosystems, “HR professionals work with the management to analyze and devise solutions for organizational problems. They are involved in strategic planning and aligning HR with the organization’s mission and strategic goals”.