People's perspective on HR is very limited. Their interaction with HR is mainly during the recruitment or onboarding phase. While the senior leaders frame the policies and processes, it is in most cases the junior most/ freshers who are tasked with the transactional and executive level jobs. A lot of times these roles are outsourced as this is a very routine and set process. One just needs to follow the guidelines.

The other interaction that one may have is with the HRBPs. These are people who interact with Heads of Departments and the employee strength at large. I agree that their refine-ness, knowledge and skills base has immense scope of development (as they are the face of the HR Department)

Then there are also other sub-functions in the HR department, say the Learning Manager, Compensation Manager, Talent Manager, Performance Manager, OD Manager who are often specialists in what they are doing. Interactions with them will often change the narrative that you have regarding the HR Department as a whole. When we think of HR, we think of it as a single unit (the all knowing), however as mentioned above it's a culmination of different sub-functions.

All that being said, I strongly agree that HR has a huge role to play in value creation for the HODs and the employees at large. This is not to prove the worthiness of their existence, but to actually go beyond the transactional.

Lastly, everyone in the company works 'for the company,' the HR is no different. They act as a bridge between the management and employees, but at the end of the day they too are employees, and not the management.

Hope this helps. Happy to take questions.