• what are normally called shared service centre (SSCs), groups that deliver the traditional HR services (and do jobs that can often be easily outsourced);

• something described as centre of expertise (COEs), which house the designers of remuneration packages that ensure an organization can attract the people that it needs;

• business partners, HR people whose job it is to do high falutin’ strategic thinking.

The role of business partners has been subject to a wide range of interpretations. Some companies have chosen to appoint hundreds of them; others have appointed just a few. HR transformation has undoubtedly been popular. The consequences of HR transformation have been dramatic, and in some cases painful. On average, it has been reckoned that around 25–30% of HR staff have lost their jobs in the transformation process, with another 20% or so following them over the next few years. These transformations eliminated up to 70% or more of the workload of the traditional HR generalist. The great expectations that HR transformation aroused, however, were largely frustrated. After a decade, fewer than 5% of executives said they thought that their organization’s management of people was not in need of improvement. Part of the problem lay in making traditional HR people think strategically. People who have never been strategic are suddenly going to become so. For some companies the answer was to look outside their own organization. The troubling gulf between the needs of the business and the ability of HR to respond will force many companies to rethink their approach to the recruitment, training and development of HR employees.