The HR Role Has Changed. Has Your Hiring Approach?

Job descriptions don’t always keep up with the jobs themselves. In recruitment, that gap often becomes clear when we talk about what an employer actually needs from their next hire.

I’m seeing this more often in HR. A search might begin with familiar requirements: employee relations, recruitment, policies and procedures, HRIS experience and performance management. But while the conversation develops, expectations broaden.

“We need someone who understands the business.”

“They need to be able to influence our leaders.”

“We want someone who can come in, assess what’s happening and figure out what to do next.”

Technical HR experience still matters. The question is whether our hiring process gives enough attention to the other capabilities we’re asking someone to bring.

Start with the business need

“Strategic” is a common requirement in HR job descriptions, but its meaning depends on the organization. An employer preparing for growth may need workforce planning expertise. A business experiencing turnover may need someone who can identify the fundamental problems and work with managers to address them. Another may need an HR professional who can bring consistency to policies and practices across several locations.

Before writing the job description, consider:

• What challenges will this person help the organization address?
• Which decisions will they be expected to make or influence?
• What should be working better after their first year?

The answers help turn a broad expectation into a clearer role. They also give candidates a better understanding of the opportunity and help the hiring team agree on what success looks like.

Ask for examples that reveal judgment

Business acumen, adaptability, and communication are easy to list in a posting. Assessing them takes a more deliberate conversation. Rather than asking candidates whether they consider themselves strategic, ask them to walk through situations that show how they think and work:

• Business understanding: Tell me about an HR recommendation you made to address an operational challenge. What informed your approach?
• Influence: Describe a time a leader disagreed with your advice. How did you handle the conversation?
• Problem-solving: Tell me about an employee issue where policy didn’t provide a clear answer. What did you consider before acting?
• Adaptability: Walk me through a significant change you supported. What did you adjust along the way?

Follow-up questions can help uncover the substance behind an answer. What did the candidate personally contribute? What trade-offs did they consider? What happened, and what would they do differently?

These details can reveal capabilities that a job title or list of responsibilities will not.

Define what technology skills mean for the role

Being “comfortable with AI and technology” can mean anything from using a tool occasionally to leading a system implementation. Employers need to be specific about what the work requires.

Will this person improve reporting, streamline administrative processes, evaluate new tools or help managers use them effectively? Ask candidates for an example of a process they improved, including the tools they used and how they checked the results. If AI was involved, explore how they assessed accuracy and handled confidential information.

In HR, judgment around sensitive employee information matters as much as familiarity with a platform. A useful hiring conversation should explore both.

Separate essential experience from what can be learned

Some HR requirements are necessary for someone to perform the role effectively. Others may reflect how the organization has always hired. It is worth examining that distinction before screening begins. Does a candidate need experience with your exact HRIS, or can they show they have learned similar systems successfully? Is experience in your industry essential, or could someone from another sector bring relevant knowledge of comparable workforce challenges?

Being flexible does not mean overlooking important qualifications. It means understanding why each requirement matters and considering other evidence of a candidate’s ability to do the work. That can broaden the search without losing sight of what the organization needs.

Support the contribution you expect

Hiring someone with strategic-level capability is only part of the equation. They also need the opportunity to use it. An HR professional expected to influence business decisions needs access to leadership, relevant information and time to understand the organization. If critical administrative work consumes every day, those broader expectations may be hard to meet.

Before you hire, consider whether the role’s authority, workload, compensation and resources reflect the contribution you are asking for. Discussing these realities openly helps candidates understand the position and gives the successful hire a stronger foundation. HR fundamentals continue to be essential. As the role expands, employers can make their hiring approach more precise: define the business need, look for evidence of the capabilities that matter, and give the person the support to deliver.

I’m looking forward to continuing this conversation at the CPHR Manitoba HR Conference in Winnipeg this October. The theme, Forward Thinking: Leading What’s Next, connects closely with what I’m hearing from employers, and I’ll be attending! Hope to see you there.