One of those defining moments of my life came from a debate I had with a classmate on the school bus going home one afternoon when I was 14. He said that he could not understand the point of learning history. I was shocked by his challenge, but could not find at the time the rationale to defend my favourite school subject. Ever since then I have frequently returned to this question only to realize that my own experience of the past has both defined me and the world around me. I have also realized that history is not a foreign country – but a never-ending tale of changing constancy.
It is strange how for most people all that matters is the passing moment. Ask most people about the Internet and they will seldom refer to its development out of former technologies like Prestel, the Mercury packet switching system or even our once faithful fax and telex machines.
I suppose the problem with history is that it is not immediately obvious what to do with it once you have learnt about it. The complexity of modern life means that any potential wisdom that it gives us will be out of context in the world we now have to confront. Sure, the germs of the future are always in the present – but what good will it do the majority of us to predict alternative futures when natural or man made disasters can frustrate the evolution of our societies and technological advances?
Such is the case with the management of people in an enterprise. The terminology says it all – once called welfare officers or industrial relations managers, then personnel administrators, human resource professionals or “people managers” and now increasingly “strategic business partners” or “talent managers” the past is now seen as a time of diminished status and therefore willfully ignored. Yet what I see in the evolution of the HR function is not the onward growth of a cohesive profession – but an endlessly repainted ramshackle bus tearing along without a driver. The two most significant areas where HR can make a difference – legal compliance and remuneration policy (especially in a global context) – are somewhere down at the rear end of the bus as the mystery trip rolls on.
Amongst the many essential things civilisations pass on across generations is the practical framework for dealing with each other we call “law” and also what holds together a cohesive and motivated workforce in an enterprise seeking profit – which is ultimately a fair and economical system of reward. These are the gifts we get from the past and what constantly justifies HR no matter what fate, unexpected transformations or metaphorical bus journeys from hell are thrown at the corporate domain.