Report: Redefining the HR Operating Model

The Tensions Shaping How HR Functions Need to Work

Conversations about HR operating models often begin with structure: centralised or decentralised, Centres of Expertise or business-aligned teams, fixed roles or agile deployment. CRF’s new report argues that this is increasingly the wrong place to start.

Drawing on conversations with CPOs and senior HR leaders, this report explores how rising business expectations, AI, changing work and continued uncertainty are reshaping what organisations need from HR. Rather than offering a universal blueprint, it examines the tensions that HR leaders must continually rebalance as their context evolves, including:

• Specialist depth and integrated delivery
• Enterprise consistency and local responsiveness
• Efficiency and human interaction
• Governance and distributed innovation
• Fixed structures and flexible deployment of capability

Download the HR Operating Model paper here