The Tribune

PERHAPS the most resented, and often-hated, company department is the human resources (HR) division. HR is sometimes saddled with problems it alone cannot fix, such as improving a company's culture or supporting a leader with low emotional intelligence.

HR is often seen only as a compliance office, forcing the hamsters on the wheel to maintain order and keep the wheel spinning.

Worst of all, HR executives can be given the task of maintaining the façade of a benevolent company when the power rests with people who are focused on cutting costs and minimising head count to boost short-term results. If corporate social responsibility is not at the core of the senior management team, human resources usually comes out looking like the bad guy.

Sometimes there is so much pressure for that company to deliver profitability that a sense of being humane to one another, and building relationships with one another, gets tossed to the side.

Given these and many more circumstances, HR does not stand a chance.

Most people would argue that the real job of HR is down on the ground, and out on the street, with team members. The job requires them to listen and advise, talk and act, and to make companies amazing, vibrant and humane places to work.

With a renewed focus on how our working environment can affect our health, the time has come to rethink the workplace with humans at its heart. Just as customer service-focused environments are rethinking how they do business, and are reshaping the customer experience, HR professionals must also place greater emphasis on the employee experience.

A key to future success will be ensuring workers are 'engaged with the workplace', enabling them to collaborate in better ways and become more productive.

Gallup surveys reveal that we live in a world where 87 per cent of people are not engaged with their work.

That represents an awful lot of wasted hours of productivity - hours that could have been better spent making a difference in the world.

Human resources professionals have an incredible task ahead in addressing this real threat to the culture of the workplace.

The task, then, is to create and mobilise a workforce that will rise to a higher purpose and deliver change; a workforce that will work towards a better way of doing business for the well-being of employees, the wider community and the planet

• NB: Ian R. Ferguson is a talent management and organisational development consultant, having completed graduate studies with regional and international universities. He has served organsations, both locally and globally, providing relevant solutions to their business growth and development issues. He may be contacted at tcconsultants@coralwave.com