“Our employees are our asset or capital” is a common phrase. Companies use it in company strategy presentations or employer brand promotion. The question which arises is, to which extent this is understandable to primary, high school, or retired populations. Who is dealing with this topic in companies and how?

The right answer is the HR function, no matter how it is named depending on the company: HR (Human Resources), People Management, HR & OD (Human Resources & Organizational Development). The title can be changed depending on focus, trend, and similar, but the goal is the same – reaching additional competitive advantage through employees. Employees as the right people in the right positions, employees as partners whose value is upgraded and multiplied through years of experience and knowledge acquisition.

More and more often, we can hear about the strategic role of HR, but what does it actually mean? Companies set ambitious goals and create business strategies. The HR function's role is to create and deploy processes that will result in competency, productivity, innovativeness, and employee (current and future) behavior for company strategy execution. The HR strategy, developed based on the company strategy cascade, is a plan to determine the organizational structure for goal achievement, attraction and retention policies, development, rewarding, and other equally important components.

To make a long story short in this introductory article, we present you with an illustrative overview of key HR functions. Of course, depending on company structure, strategy, and focus, the HR function may vary from more complex to much simpler.