HR professionals face shifting priorities, challenges and opportunities

As HR professionals at small and medium-sized businesses continue to focus on employee productivity and make decisions based on performance metrics, the majority feel their department truly has the ear of the C-Suite in helping to drive overall strategy, according to the 2018 Paychex Pulse of HR Survey.

Asked to identify their primary role, the top choice cited by HR leaders was “strategic partner” — “I provide valuable insights to the leadership team that influences company decisions.” The percentage of leaders who felt their job was primarily administrative – “My job consists of mostly paperwork and data entry” — was just 12 percent, a slight decrease from 2017.

Commensurate with being viewed as a strategic partner within their organization, the top HR priorities for 2018 are evaluating workplace productivity and efficiency (90 percent); having staff training and development programs (88 percent); focusing on company culture to drive results (85 percent); trainings for discrimination and harassment (83 percent); and leveraging data to create optimal profiles to attract the right talent (71 percent).