The role of a human resources (HR) executive is more complex today than ever before. Various issues and initiatives, along with increasing workplace demands, advancing technologies and numerous other factors, impact every aspect of modern HR management.
HR departments once focused primarily on recruiting, retaining and, when necessary, firing employees. However, HR’s duties evolved to include training, increasing productivity, managing health and safety, integrating hybrid work models, improving the employee experience, and fostering a positive workplace environment and culture. Further, HR executives may now function as change agents for corporations, helping them adapt to the social and economic challenges of a dynamic marketplace as well as large-scale disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is vital to fully understand these emerging facets of human resources if you are considering a career in the field. Specialized degree options like the online Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a Concentration in Human Resources program from Southeastern Oklahoma State University provide students with advanced studies that explore evolving HR issues, challenges and change.
Human Resources Management Responsibilities
Senior management has high expectations of HR administrators who carry out numerous fundamental duties of the role. These responsibilities may include:
- Find and retain the best talent
- Facilitate onboarding processes
- Manage benefits and workplace safety
- Oversee training
- Resolve conflicts
- Implement employment policy
- Supervise subordinates
While essential HR functions are important, the modern HR leader delves further into a critical component of the role: strategic planning, implementation and execution. This often involves transforming corporate culture and processes, or, in other words, leading change.
What Are Change Agents?
As a change agent, you’ll help the workforce prepare for, and better adapt to, any potential changes your organization may experience. You may even initiate changes to build a more cohesive and positive company culture, improving productivity and enhancing the employee experience.
HR managers and specialists make excellent change agents because they oversee and communicate directly with a company’s most important resource — its people. As they often have a better sense of societal shifts and cultural politics, these professionals can better predict the need for change — be it in company culture, employee motivation or workplace productivity — and propose ways to implement it.
How You Can Be an Organization’s Agent for Change
As an HR professional, your responsibilities and position may overlap with change management roles and functions. When a company understands the importance of organizational change, it might also employ a skilled professional who can act as a formal change catalyst, managing and driving change processes while inspiring employees to join in the effort.
Yet the role of the change champion is often informal. Regardless of your specific HR position, taking the following initiatives can help you become an impactful and highly valued agent for change:
Understand your company’s short- and long-term goals
Having this understanding will help you hire the right people, foster employee development and create a positive work environment. Knowing what drives the company can help you support its vision and its strategies for success.
Make hiring decisions with an eye to the future
Be sure to look beyond a job outline’s strict parameters when you select employees. The goal is to develop a cohesive workforce that can help a company meet not only its present needs but also reach its potential. Know your company’s growth plans to better understand the training and staff development you’ll need to provide.
Take a proactive role in directing change
Because the HR department is in touch with all levels of staff, it may have a more nuanced sense of productivity issues, including possible workplace discontent. Leverage your communication and interpersonal skills to succinctly communicate staff ideas and issues to management, as well as management’s goals to the workforce. Change is much easier to accept and navigate when employees trust and respect you.
What Education Can Best Prepare You to Be a Change Agent?
The emerging responsibilities of HR executives are not lost on institutions of higher learning. For instance, Southeastern’s online MBA in human resources program provides a foundation of core courses that all MBA students take, covering essential aspects of business and management such as accounting, economics, research methods, data analysis and strategic management. The human resources concentration includes additional, specialized courses, such as:
- Human Resources Management: This course acquaints students with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regulations, employee development, performance reviews and personnel problems.
- Employment Law: This course familiarizes students with myriad legal aspects involved in HR management policy and practice.
Through both specialized and core MBA courses, you can gain the HR skills you’ll need to be an effective change agent for any organization. Keep in mind that Southeastern’s MBA is flexible. The program’s online format means you can continue to work, volunteer and gain real-world experience while completing your degree.
It takes talent and commitment to succeed in human resources. It also takes preparation. Advancing your education can help you develop the expertise to help companies succeed.
Learn more about Southeastern Oklahoma State University’s online MBA in HR program.