The Future of HR: Shifting from Administrative to Strategic Roles

The HR department has long been responsible for technical and administrative work. They’ve been the driving force behind recruitment, payroll, and compliance while also being the first point of contact for employee relations and wellbeing. HR has historically been more of a reactive department, dealing with the organization’s needs as they come up. But that role is changing as HR leaders become a strategic partner within the business. 

HR leaders deserve a seat at the executive table. Their role extends far beyond administrative tasks and policy enforcement. They’re uniquely positioned to drive organizational success through strategic people initiatives. When HR shifts from paperwork to partnership, it transforms from a support function into a key business driver that executives can’t ignore.

Key Takeaways:

• HR will shift from primarily administrative duties to strategic ones.
• HR will play a key role in organizational leadership.
• HR’s key roles and functions will evolve.
• HR will become a key partner in data-driven decision-making.

What does the future of HR hold?

Let’s break down some of the trends causing this shift towards strategic HR.

Emerging trends

In its HR Trends 2025 Report, McLean & Company identified emerging HR trends that will have the most impact on organizations in the coming years:

• Redefining expectations for manager roles: Managers will be expected to do more to upskill their direct reports rather than purely overseeing their work.
• Skills-based hiring practices: An increasing focus on skills over job descriptions means HR teams will have to rethink hiring, but this may ultimately lead to a better talent pool.
• Breaking jobs down into tasks to better match people with projects: With skill-based hiring being more prevalent, organizations will need to go from assigning work based on job descriptions to doing so based on skills.
• Measuring HR’s ROI: Data is king, and HR will see more pressure to show how each initiative benefits the organization as a whole.
• Increasing pay transparency: Hierarchies are growing flatter and employees expect greater transparency around pay and benefits.
• Implementing AI for workforce upskilling: Strategic HR teams are embracing AI thoughtfully for automation and to surface insights that guide managers and elevate the employee experience, without replacing the human touch.

HR’s evolving role

The reality is that executives need strategic HR insight now more than ever. As companies navigate talent shortages, shifting workplace dynamics, and intense market pressures, HR’s ability to align workforce capabilities with business goals becomes invaluable. 

Strategic HR creates an impact by first diagnosing workforce challenges, then measuring what matters, like engagement, performance, and retention, and finally acting with targeted programs that drive measurable outcomes across the business

When HR leads with data-backed strategies instead of administrative checklists, leadership doesn’t just see human resources as necessary—they recognize it as indispensable to the organization’s success.

According to the McLean report, organizations with a formal HR strategy are more likely to be high performers in recruiting, controlling labor costs, and developing leaders. As this direct link between strategy and performance becomes more apparent, HR will become a more strategic partner.

The impact of technology

As strategy becomes more important in HR, so will using the right technology. While spreadsheets and similar tools might have cut it in the past, a proliferation of dedicated HR platforms means HR experts can expect more from their tool stack. Better data and better connectivity—through HRIS connectors and similar integrations—creates a web of information HR can pull from to better lead strategic efforts throughout their organization.

Why will human resources continue to exist?

As long as organizations are made up of humans, there will be human resources.

Your HR team is your organization’s go-to resource for employees, and they’re the experts in everything that has to do with your people. With fewer than one in two executives and fewer than one in three high-level managers being highly proficient in human-centric competencies, HR will always serve a role as the organization’s face and the vanguard of every people-first initiative. They’ll continue to own and drive efforts to foster employee engagement, reinforce company culture, and align your workforce with broader business objectives.

As employees become more involved in their own career development, more dedicated to building a better work-life balance, and more interested in what happens throughout the organization, they’ll look to HR as their first resource. HR professionals will need to be part coach, part information resource, and part mentor for the organization’s workforce. This will make them a key strategic partner for leaders who want to help their people achieve more.

Where will HR add strategic value?

Because HR has the pulse on everything going on through the organization’s workforce, they bring a valuable perspective on an organization’s capabilities.

One key area of value is manager enablement. Equipping people leaders with the skills they need to drive engagement, performance, and retention at scale has a massive impact on the company’s bottom line.

Driving strategic acquisition, rather than just filling roles as they open up, will be one of HR’s key contributions to the organization’s strategy. Additionally, employee development and retention will save the organization precious budget while aligning individual employee goals with the organization’s overall objectives.

Another element to HR’s strategic value? As champions of company culture, they can tailor it to find the perfect balance between employee priorities and the organization’s goals, building a culture that’s both performance-driven and inclusive. This aligns the entire workforce around a common goal while maintaining a positive employee experience.

This strategic approach ensures HR efforts are always correlated with the organization’s most valuable outcomes, from increasing productivity to driving growth and profitability.

HR and data-driven decision making

Data drives more decisions throughout your organization’s functions, and nowhere will that be truer than for HR. HR teams have access to a massive amount of data, from performance reviews to retention rates, employee feedback, and salaries. 

Dedicated resources for analyzing and using all this data allow HR to know exactly what an organization needs to improve retention, upskill their workforce, and drive alignment around organizational goals. Additionally, data is essential for HR to demonstrate the effectiveness of its initiatives and be a partner in strategic decisions. HR teams that effectively demonstrate the ROI of their programs are 1.9x more likely to be a strategic partner than those who don’t.

With the right data, HR can identify:

• Skill gaps: What does your workforce need to meet the organization’s goals? How can you best find these skills?
• Talent needs: Filling skill gaps doesn’t cover all your organization’s talent needs. With data, HR teams have a better view of their overall workforce, allowing them to know if their headcount is correct for their needs, if some departments need a few additional contributors, or if more leaders are required.
• Strategic priorities: Data is HR’s single most important resource when deciding what they should focus on. With data, you can link your initiatives to the metrics leaders care about, like employee engagement and retention. You’ll know where your efforts are most needed, where you can have the most impact, and how to demonstrate the value of each initiative.

Collecting and analyzing this data might seem like a daunting task, but more and more HR departments are learning to rely on data analytics tools and platforms like 15Five’s Performance Management Software. With these tools, automated data collection means you’ll never have to crawl through spreadsheets for the information you need. 

Additionally, AI-powered analytics and similar features deliver insights, allowing you to do more with that data. You don’t need a massive tool stack to build data-driven decision making into your HR processes, just a dedicated performance management platform.

What is strategic human resources management?

Strategic human resources management (SHRM) is a dedicated framework for proactively managing HR needs, tasks, and processes at scale rather than just reacting to HR needs as they come up. SHRM goes beyond traditional HR management because it requires that HR teams align their efforts with broader organizational goals and track outcomes across performance, engagement, and retention.

Some of the key components of strategic human resources management include:

• Performance management: Strategic HR teams have a direct hand in analyzing the performance of an organization’s workforce and building plans to improve performance globally. Data is essential here, and regular performance reviews are a common way to gather it.
• Employee engagement: How dedicated are your employees when they come into work? Do they believe in your mission? Do they feel like your company culture has a place for them? Strategic HR teams drive employee engagement efforts to increase alignment between a workforce and its leaders.
• Workforce planning: Just like organizations have to deal with supply and demand in sales, HR teams have to match their labor supply with the needs of the organization. SHRM involves continuously collecting and reviewing data that gives HR teams a view of their organization’s workforce needs to allow for initiatives that ensure those needs are met.
• Employee development: Where talent development refers to a broader, organization-wide strategy, employee development refers to efforts made to help individual employees reach important career goals. By matching individual goals with broader objectives, HR teams are a key partner in helping every employee reach their full potential in ways that align with the organization’s goals.

SHRM intertwines all HR efforts with the organization’s priorities, solidifying the HR team’s position as a strategic partner. With a seat at the leadership table, HR executives can ensure the organization’s workforce grows in ways that match up with the organization’s other priorities, helping save costs on labor, unlock new opportunities without recruiting, and guide recruitment efforts as the organization grows.

As organizations look to hire for skills rather than specific job descriptions, they’ll need the data and vision that SHRM brings. Additionally, as upskilling becomes essential for the redefinition of the “manager” role, strategic HR management will be essential to identifying and developing talent throughout the organization.

HR: Be the strategic partner your organization needs

Key takeaways

• The future of HR is about matching skills to projects as well as being a champion of AI and similar technology within their organization.
• HR teams are evolving from an administrative function to a strategic one, helping drive business success.
• Data will be king across all HR functions, allowing for both more effective HR initiatives and better demonstration of ROI to other business leaders.
• HR teams deploying strategic human resources management (SHRM) will keep organizations competitive on the broader marketplace.
• HR technology will allow HR teams to do more with less, from automatically gathering and centralizing essential data to delivering AI-powered insights to leadership.

The strategic future of HR

As skills and technology become crucial for an organization’s success, HR teams will become key strategic partners in helping organizations stay ahead of the curve.

Being strategic means asking, “How does this initiative fit into broader business goals?” It means using data to identify problems, find solutions, and demonstrate the effectiveness of your efforts. Using the right technology is essential to this.
Performance management software like 15Five gives you everything you need to begin your transition from an administrative department to a strategic partner.

Want to see what 15Five can do for you? Book a demo here.