For HR, eight is enough

The human resources (HR) operating-model archetypes that are emerging in response to dramatic changes in business and in the world have been facilitated by 8 innovation shifts:

Adopt agile principles to ensure strict prioritisation of HR's existing capacity and swift resource reallocation when needed.

Excel along the employee experience (EX) journey to win the race for talent in the time of the Great Attrition, enabling both employee health and resilience.


Re-empower frontline leaders in the business to create human- centric interactions, reduce complexity and put decision rights (back) where they belong.

Offer individualised HR services to address increasingly varied expectations of personalisation.

'Productise' HR services to build fit-for-purpose offerings with the needs of the business in mind, and to enable end-to-end responsibility for those services through cross-functional product owner teams in HR.

Integrate design and delivery with end-to-end accountability to effectively address strategic HR priorities, reduce back-and-forth and clarify ownership.

Move from process excellence to data excellence to tap into novel sources of decision-making using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

Automate HR solutions to drive efficiency and capitalise on the power of digitalisation in HR.

From 'HR's New Operating Model', McKinsey & Co