Roles of HR directors get boost.

A personnel manager, business guru Peter Drucker once said, is part file clerk, part social worker and part firefighter heading off union troubles.

Drucker made his statement in 1975. And for Woodbury University instructor Bob Bjorkland, the field of human resources--as personnel management is now called--has come full circle.

"Senior human resource positions are becoming fully connected with the strategic goals of a company," said Bjorkland, chairman of the Burbank school's business program and instructor of a human resources-management class.

No longer mere paper shufflers handling payroll and benefits, human resources managers and directors have transitioned into roles where business savvy is as valuable as coordinating paperwork.

"We're seeing whether it's a mom-and-pop business or Fortune 500 companies the human resources person is right there at the table and is often the right hand man of the CEO," said Jen Jorgensen, spokeswoman with the Society for Human Resources Management.

As globalization creates an equal playing field in terms of technology used and products created the difference between a good company and a better company becomes its employees, Jorgensen said.

In the San Fernando Valley, the Phillips Graduate Institute recognizes the changing role of HR professionals with a new master's program combining technical skills with those of working with people so that they become more effective employees.

The program, which begins in May and will enroll no more than a dozen students, was the result of discussions between institute President Lisa Porche-Burke and area business leaders.

"Companies, rather than having two people, asked if it would be possible to have one person with both skills," said Steven Weir, director of Student Services and Enrollment Management. "We think we can do that."

Meeting once a week on Saturday, Porche-Burke described the program as geared toward working professionals and those wanting to move up the career ladder.

Porche-Burke called "critical" knowing how to deal with a diverse workplace and how to develop and coach employees to be more effective.

"If you don't understand how to get the best from your workforce, your business is going to suffer," Porche-Burke said.

With the changing role of human resources professionals, productivity and profitability of a company is not just reserved for senior executives.

Nor is making the big decisions affecting staffing, recruiting and successor planning, Bjorkland said.

"Everything has gotten so expensive and gotten tighter in a company's strategy," Bjorkland added. "You can't do it without the human resources function being considered. It's a big pan of profitability."

To better concentrate on strategic functions, companies can turn to outsourcing the traditional human resource functions such as payroll and benefits.

Jorgensen called it a "nice marriage" for HR professionals to have the option of working for a firm specializing in the traditional functions or sticking with supporting strategic functions at another company.

"It allows those in the field to do what they are best at," Jorgensen said. "What that does is free up human resources to spend time on other functions that will impact on the return on investment."

Both Jorgensen and Bjorkland said that changes in legislation and regulations add a complexity to HR administrators' jobs that hadn't existed before.

The growing complexity of legal compliance was among the top 10 overall trends identified by human resources professionals in a 2004 study by SHRM. Other trends listed in the study were a rise in health care costs, domestic safety and security, use of technology to communicate with employees, and use and development of e-learning.

They also deal with more sophisticated training and professional development that impact upon employee engagement, which in turn affects loyalty and productivity, Jorgensen said.

In addition, employee issues such as harassment and discrimination claims are now handled differently than in the past.

"When something like that bites you the person who has proprietary interest over it is human resources," Bjorkland said. "You can't go to the production manager or the marketing manager. They are all part of the team but somebody has to head up the team on issues that are far more important than they used to be."