HRs draft company policies, design the employee rules & regulations, and recruit the staff needed for the company. Of late, many HRs have been asked to take an active interest in the way the business is run so that they can understand the exact nature of work and what workforce is needed for that.
Gone are those days when the HRs just changed the letterheads and the names of the companies from their predefined set of policies and regulations. Now HRs are expected to draft a fresh set of policies depending on the working style of the company, and sometimes even individual departments.
There have been instances of HRs drafting a completely different set of policies for specific employees with different working preferences. With the Equal Opportunity Provider movement being widely adopted, there is a need to be proactive and design specific sets of rules and working processes for talented employees who are also differently-abled.
When the HRs learn Business Acumen, they will start thinking of the way their recruitments will impact the performances of the company as a whole. It will expose them to concepts like cash management, fraud minimization, strategic decisions, and understanding potential competition.
Unlike those at Southwest Airlines, many HRs working with other organizations haven't been educated on seeing the big picture. That's the reason they don't understand what their job demands. They don't see the link between their actions and the long-term effects of these actions. These differences in actions and their end-results when multiplied by thousands of employees, can prove to be a real setback for the company.