While certain functions will remain, the major differences will be the shift of emphasis on responsibility. The simple illustration is the traditional turn to Human Resource (HR) for questions and actions involving company motivation. HR is not responsible for company morale. Motivation is an ingrained function of all management and all employees. In the future, HR will be placed in a monitoring role and in less of a police role as the center of control shifts to empowerment and self-responsibility. The operation or role of the HR function in the hiring process may be revised as follows:
1. Instead of waiting for HR to fill a position, the work team tells HR what type of individual with what skills it (HR) needs to recruit.
2. The work team hires its own members and simply reports to HR for record keeping. There is a transfer of traditional HR functions to the work team.
3. The work team can fire its peer members who are not producing their fair share of performance. The work team reports such personnel action to HR for recordkeeping purposes.
4. The work team enters all personnel data into a computer database and eliminates the staff record-keeping function of HR.
5. Work teams determine their own compensation and rewards systems based on internal budgets and guidelines.
6. Promotions may not follow a traditional career path but may require workers being assigned to or accepted on a variety of more highly evolving or specialized teams.
7. Individuals are able to select education, knowledge, and training from a menu of options that HR prepares for the organization.