From Personnel to Strategic HRM

How did HR go from managing pay slips to shaping business strategy?

This section explores the full evolution of Human Resource Management — beginning with industrial welfare programs and union negotiations, through the era of personnel administration, into the rise of HRM, and ultimately toward a future where HR operates as a strategic intelligence system.

Each page in this section focuses on a key phase in that journey:

• The origins of HR in welfare, control, and early labor law
• The personnel era of forms, files, and compliance
• The rise of HRM as people became central to competitive advantage
• Strategic HR and the business partner model
• Milestones and inflection points that redefined the profession
• The drivers of transformation, from tech to generational change
• A look ahead at where HR is going — and how to prepare for it

Together, these chapters offer a comprehensive and practical lens on how HR became what it is — and what it must become next.