Diversity is on the agenda of every conference and leadership meeting. Leaders ask, “How do we improve diversity? How do we find diverse candidates? How do we increase inclusionary behaviors?” The list of questions is endless, and everyone is looking for answers. To solve this riddle, leaders group people into categories in an attempt to understand their experiences. So, we group people together by race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, disability, and so on. Everyone ‘fits’ neatly into one of these categories. Still, notice that we start by trying to simplify identity into a series of checkboxes.

Goodbye Personnel Department! Hello Strategic Business Partner! Gone are the days when HR professionals were only seen as the individuals responsible for hiring, training, terminating, writing and enforcing policies and procedures, and maintaining paper personnel files. Instead, HR professionals are relied upon to think critically and align the HR Department’s goals with the organization’s overall strategy. To begin to transition to the role of strategic business partner, HR professionals must seek to understand how the department’s short and long term goals contribute to the bottom line success of an organization.