The Changing HR Function: The Key Questions

The CIPD commissioned a major two-year research study, the main objective of which was to explore how HR functions and professionals could best be organised to make the most of high performance within organisations.

The project aimed to profile the existing state of the HR function and to provide practical guidance to organisations and their HR professionals on how to structure and staff the function to achieve future success.

The whole project comprised three phases. This first stage (reported here) aimed to review present knowledge and identify research themes for the subsequent phases.

The second and third phases involved original research through case studies and a survey to examine how HR functions across the spectrum of size and sector were meeting the challenges of structure, roles, skills and relationships.