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.

    中国有句古话，叫做天时不如地利，地利不如人和。优秀人才对现代企业的价值不言而喻。微软大价钱收购雅虎，最看重的就是雅虎优秀的工程师团队；硅谷新宠Facebook上周高薪将Google的销售总监挖到手，相当于获得了Google公司99%的客户资源；百度CFO王湛生在海南休假时意外去世，更是令百度的股价跌去4.7%。

    虽然多数企业都说自己珍惜人力资本，但在现实中能真正做到这点的公司却寥寥无几。它们或许具备招募优秀人才的人事体系，但其组织架构却并不适于培养、激励和留住最优秀的人才。作为这些公司内最有能力帮助企业改善人员管理和使用的部门──人力资源部，它们往往在日常行政工作中陷得太深，以致于没有余力去做更有价值的工作。

    设想有这样一家公司，它的人力资源部有着优秀的人才和技术手段，并在企业战略和组织效力等方面向公司高层提供建议。该部门在公司进行重大决策时拥有发言权，并且是公司管理人士晋身企业决策层之前的必经一站。

    是不是听上去有些匪夷所思？
    
    但对一家认为员工是自己最重要资产及竞争优势主要源泉的公司而言，其人力资源部就应该是这个样子。

    在一家致力于充分利用自身人力资本的公司，其人力资源部的员工应减少在处理员工福利等方面花费的时间，而拿出更多精力就公司员工的状况及工作能力向管理层提供具有专业水平的建议咨询。

    以往要做到这点是不容易的，因为安排给人力资源部的许多行政工作繁琐而复杂，非常耗费人力。

    然而互联网的出现却解决了这一困局，以往许多需要人力资源部办理的工作现在员工自己上网就能解决。员工登录公司内部网就能选定自己要参加的福利计划、更改自己的通讯地址、报名参加培训项目、寻找转职机会、评估自身知识水平以及确定自己的年度工作目标等。企业管理人员也可以通过内部网发布奖金和加薪信息、对员工的优秀表现提出表扬、调动人员的工作并在企业内部寻找合适人选来填补空缺职位。

    广告此外，目前还有许多公司提供人力资源外包服务，很多大企业都通过签订长期合同将自己的众多人力资源工作外包给一家机构去做。我认为对大多数公司来说，外包是打理日常人力资源工作的正确途径。这能将人力资源工作者从重复、繁琐的日常工作中解放出来，使之有时间去做对公司更有益处的工作。

    当然，使人力资源工作者从日常行政工作中脱身只解决了问题的一半，人力资源部必须用腾出来的时间去帮助企业最大限度地发挥人才的作用。以下是人力资源工作者在实现这一目标方面最有用武之地的三个领域：

    提高管理人员领导能力：人力资源部可以帮助所有层级的管理人员提高其领导水平，具体做法是教授他们如何提高自己的沟通技巧、为下属确定发展目标以及鼓舞手下人的干劲。

    例如，对于那些不擅长通过面对面沟通来评估下属表现的经理人，人力资源部可以向他们传授有关给予下属反馈意见以及向他们解释工作目标完成情况如何与奖惩挂钩的专门知识。人力资源部或许还需要帮助一些经理人放下架子、以开诚布公的态度接受反馈意见，以最大限度缩小他们与下属之间的心理距离。

    向董事会通报企业员工状况：人力资源部扮演的另一个重要角色是企业董事会在员工状况及使用情况方面的咨询专家。董事们可以运用人力资源部在这方面提供的知识评估高层管理人士的表现、制定管理层接班计划、对公司的机构设计及其有效性进行评估，并在企业是否有合适的人选去开场某项新业务等方面作出战略决策。

    但企业人力资源部门的领导很少能够跻身董事会，也无法像企业财会部门的负责人那样能够经常参加董事会会议。企业的董事们经常向首席执行长请教人力资源方面的专门知识，却没想到向人力资源部门求教。诚然，许多首席执行长都对企业面临的人力资源问题有所了解，但他们却很少具备人力资源工作者所掌握的精深知识。因此我认为，重视人力资本的企业应该让董事会内至少有两名人力资源专家。

    员工队伍评估：人力资源部有能力扮演的第三个重要角色是为企业牵头创建一个人力资本信息系统，以评估员工队伍的技能和胜任度、其在一些重要领域的表现以及企业的员工成本等。企业人力资本信息系统的基础是企业员工的个人信息：他们的技能情况，以及他们在目前工作岗位上的胜任情况等。

    在确定考核指标（如员工奖惩指标）以及确定谁需获得人力资源信息方面，人力资源工作者是企业内最有发言权的人。

    虽然有些企业对人力资源部应做哪些工作有比较透彻的了解，但没有一家企业在使用人力资源部门方面堪称无懈可击。有一点是确定无疑的：如果哪家企业希望人才成为自己竞争优势的源泉，那它就不能让自己的人力资源部缺乏关爱。