HR function has moved from ‘acquiring and maintaining satisfied and satisfactory workforce’ to ‘acquiring, growing and retaining workforce that would provide a competitive advantage to the organization’. Enabling an organization to obtain competitive advantage through its workforce would allow the people function of any corporation to add value to the company.

For corporations to succeed, all the sub-entities must work together. Understanding and accepting the value each provides, and assisting each other in this endeavor, produces synergy that propels the organization to success. The HR would want to be treated as a ‘valued partner’. When HR operates as a valued partner in an organization it can:
-work with all the stakeholders to ensure that only the best talent is acquired
-team up with the leadership to define and implement talent management doctrine that would enable world-class talent to be engaged, delivering best in class products or services
-partner with everyone to ensure that the technical, managerial and leadership competencies are nurtured and developed to reach higher levels of performance

Partnerships and practices within the organization can accomplish many of the above-mentioned points. Examples such as a flourishing People Managers’ Forum, where people management challenges are discussed, solutions derived and learning shared. Cross Functional teams where people partner with HR to enable the organization derive appropriate solutions.

A unique initiative at TI is PragaTI–the TI India Technical University. It is a partnership between technical leaders and HR to work towards competency development of the people.