Imagine a company in which the human-resources department has great talent and technology and advises top executives on business strategy and organizational effectiveness. It has a say in big decisions and is a critical career stopping point for anyone who aspires to senior management.
Sound like a foreign concept?

    That's what an HR department should look like in a company that considers its work force to be its most important asset -- a major source of competitive advantage.

    While most companies say they value human capital, in reality, few are run that way. They may have systems in place for hiring talented people, but their organizational structures aren't designed to develop, motivate and retain the best ones. And the group with the expertise to help the organization better manage and utilize people -- the human-resources department -- often is too mired in administrative tasks to tackle higher-value work.

    In a company built to leverage human capital, the HR staff would spend less time processing benefits requests and more time being the expert resource on the state of the organization's work force and its ability to perform.

    That has been difficult in the past, because many of the administrative duties assigned to human resources involve a lot of detail and complexity that make them labor intensive.

    But now, Web-based applications, many of which lend themselves to self-service, offer a solution. Employees can visit a Web site to sign up for benefits, change their addresses, enroll in training programs, search for jobs, assess their knowledge and set goals and objectives for the year. Managers can use them to give out bonuses and raises, appraise performance, transfer employees and find internal candidates to fill open positions.

    What's more, many companies offer HR outsourcing services, and a number of large companies have entered into long-term contracts to outsource multiple HR processes to a single vendor. I believe that for most companies, outsourcing is the right way to handle HR administration. 

    Not only does it release HR professionals from a set of no-win activities, it frees them up for work that is of greater benefit to the organization.

    Of course, getting out from under these administrative tasks solves only half the problem; HR departments have to use their newfound freedom to help get the most out of an organization's talent. Here are three areas where HR professionals could play a key role to accomplish just this:
-- IMPROVING LEADERSHIP: The HR department can help managers at all levels become better leaders by teaching them how to improve their communications skills, set expectations for their staffs and motivate people.

    Managers uncomfortable with some of the interpersonal aspects of the employee-evaluation process, for example, may benefit from HR's in-depth knowledge about how to give feedback and explain how goal achievement relates to rewards. Other managers may need help becoming more approachable and open to feedback so as to minimize the distance between themselves and the people they lead.

    -- INFORMING THE BOARD: A second important role for the HR group is to become the corporate board's expert resource on the condition and utilization of the work force. Directors can use this type of knowledge to evaluate senior managers and do succession planning, assess organizational design and effectiveness, and make strategy decisions such as whether the organization has the people with the right skills to start a new line of business.

    HR executives, however, are rarely on boards and don't consistently attend board meetings like their counterparts in finance and accounting. 

    Instead of using HR, board members often say they rely upon their chief executive officers for HR expertise. While there is no doubt that many CEOs have some understanding of the human-capital issues that corporations face, they rarely have the kind of in-depth knowledge HR professionals bring to the table. Therefore, I believe companies focused on human capital should have at least two HR experts on their boards.

    -- ASSESSING THE WORK FORCE: A third potential role for human resources is to spearhead efforts to develop a human-capital information system to measure things like the skills and competencies of the work force, its performance in critical areas and its cost to the organization. The starting point for any human-capital information system should be information about individual employees: What skills do they have, and how well are they being used in their current assignments?

    HR professionals are the best positioned within the organization to determine what things need to be measured -- to what degree individuals are motivated to perform their jobs, for instance -- and who in the company needs the data.

    When it comes to what the HR department should do, some companies are close, but none has it exactly right. One thing is for sure: In an organization that wants talent to be its source of competitive advantage, the HR department simply can't be the stepchild it usually is.

    中國有句古話，叫做天時不如地利，地利不如人和。優秀人才對現代企業的價值不言而喻。微軟大價錢收購雅虎，最看重的就是雅虎優秀的工程師團隊；硅谷新寵Facebook上周高薪將Google的銷售總監挖到手，相當于獲得了Google公司99%的客戶資源；百度CFO王湛生在海南休假時意外去世，更是令百度的股價跌去4.7%。

    雖然多數企業都說自己珍惜人力資本，但在現實中能真正做到這點的公司卻寥寥無幾。它們或許具備招募優秀人才的人事體系，但其組織架構卻并不適于培養、激勵和留住最優秀的人才。作為這些公司內最有能力幫助企業改善人員管理和使用的部門──人力資源部，它們往往在日常行政工作中陷得太深，以致于沒有余力去做更有價值的工作。

    設想有這樣一家公司，它的人力資源部有著優秀的人才和技術手段，并在企業戰略和組織效力等方面向公司高層提供建議。該部門在公司進行重大決策時擁有發言權，并且是公司管理人士晉身企業決策層之前的必經一站。

    是不是聽上去有些匪夷所思？
    
    但對一家認為員工是自己最重要資產及競爭優勢主要源泉的公司而言，其人力資源部就應該是這個樣子。

    在一家致力于充分利用自身人力資本的公司，其人力資源部的員工應減少在處理員工福利等方面花費的時間，而拿出更多精力就公司員工的狀況及工作能力向管理層提供具有專業水平的建議咨詢。

    以往要做到這點是不容易的，因為安排給人力資源部的許多行政工作繁瑣而復雜，非常耗費人力。

    然而互聯網的出現卻解決了這一困局，以往許多需要人力資源部辦理的工作現在員工自己上網就能解決。員工登錄公司內部網就能選定自己要參加的福利計劃、更改自己的通訊地址、報名參加培訓項目、尋找轉職機會、評估自身知識水平以及確定自己的年度工作目標等。企業管理人員也可以通過內部網發布獎金和加薪信息、對員工的優秀表現提出表揚、調動人員的工作并在企業內部尋找合適人選來填補空缺職位。

    廣告此外，目前還有許多公司提供人力資源外包服務，很多大企業都通過簽訂長期合同將自己的眾多人力資源工作外包給一家機構去做。我認為對大多數公司來說，外包是打理日常人力資源工作的正確途徑。這能將人力資源工作者從重復、繁瑣的日常工作中解放出來，使之有時間去做對公司更有益處的工作。

    當然，使人力資源工作者從日常行政工作中脫身只解決了問題的一半，人力資源部必須用騰出來的時間去幫助企業最大限度地發揮人才的作用。以下是人力資源工作者在實現這一目標方面最有用武之地的三個領域：

    提高管理人員領導能力：人力資源部可以幫助所有層級的管理人員提高其領導水平，具體做法是教授他們如何提高自己的溝通技巧、為下屬確定發展目標以及鼓舞手下人的干勁。

    例如，對于那些不擅長通過面對面溝通來評估下屬表現的經理人，人力資源部可以向他們傳授有關給予下屬反饋意見以及向他們解釋工作目標完成情況如何與獎懲掛鉤的專門知識。人力資源部或許還需要幫助一些經理人放下架子、以開誠布公的態度接受反饋意見，以最大限度縮小他們與下屬之間的心理距離。

    向董事會通報企業員工狀況：人力資源部扮演的另一個重要角色是企業董事會在員工狀況及使用情況方面的咨詢專家。董事們可以運用人力資源部在這方面提供的知識評估高層管理人士的表現、制定管理層接班計劃、對公司的機構設計及其有效性進行評估，并在企業是否有合適的人選去開場某項新業務等方面作出戰略決策。

    但企業人力資源部門的領導很少能夠躋身董事會，也無法像企業財會部門的負責人那樣能夠經常參加董事會會議。企業的董事們經常向首席執行長請教人力資源方面的專門知識，卻沒想到向人力資源部門求教。誠然，許多首席執行長都對企業面臨的人力資源問題有所了解，但他們卻很少具備人力資源工作者所掌握的精深知識。因此我認為，重視人力資本的企業應該讓董事會內至少有兩名人力資源專家。

    員工隊伍評估：人力資源部有能力扮演的第三個重要角色是為企業牽頭創建一個人力資本信息系統，以評估員工隊伍的技能和勝任度、其在一些重要領域的表現以及企業的員工成本等。企業人力資本信息系統的基礎是企業員工的個人信息：他們的技能情況，以及他們在目前工作崗位上的勝任情況等。

    在確定考核指標（如員工獎懲指標）以及確定誰需獲得人力資源信息方面，人力資源工作者是企業內最有發言權的人。

    雖然有些企業對人力資源部應做哪些工作有比較透徹的了解，但沒有一家企業在使用人力資源部門方面堪稱無懈可擊。有一點是確定無疑的：如果哪家企業希望人才成為自己競爭優勢的源泉，那它就不能讓自己的人力資源部缺乏關愛。