When the business which HR/P&C teams support grows, then so do our own teams, albeit often at a reduced rate compared with the business itself.
How the business grows
The Business we support can grow in many different ways such as overall employee size, different skill sets, geographical spread, entering new market places and the HR/P&C team needs to be designed in a way to meet these changing needs.
Specialists and Business Partners
The team also needs to meet the growing specialised HR/P&C needs of the business. This means adding specialist roles in areas such as Compensation & Benefits, Talent Acquisition, Organisational Development, Diversity and Inclusion, Employee Relations, Workforce Management Systems, and Workforce Planning & Data.
Update (November 2026): The specialist mix keeps shifting. Gartner’s 2026 HR Priorities Survey of 426 chief HR officers put AI transformation of HR operations at the top of the agenda, alongside a talent strategy for human–machine work and leaders who make change routine (Gartner, cited in HC Magazine, 2026). Flexibility across specialities is therefore more valuable, not less.
Then there are the HR/P&C Business Partners who hold the internal direct customer facing responsibility for delivering the HR strategy and operations directly across their assigned groups.
How to build a flexible HR/P&C team
The answer can depend on the background experience of new hires bought into the HR/P&C team or the active career rotation of the team between specialities or HR/P&C Business Partner roles.
HR/P&C team members who have experience across at least two specialities are valuable not only because of their potential flexibility but also their reach of knowledge. Those who have rotated between being a HR/P&C Business Partner and a speciality such as TA or OD can bring tremendous value in identifying, designing and rolling out key initiatives across the organisation. Different industry backgrounds can also be valuable.
Buying in flexibility through the hiring of broad HR/P&C experience can build capability and flexibility quicker than the longer and slower approach of team rotations. However it comes with a higher upfront cost but depending on your industry and rate of business growth can have significant payback for the business being supported.
Keeping the flexibility you have built
Once that flexibility has been achieved, remember retention of your team becomes paramount, so clearly communicated individual career and development plans are essential. Career-related reasons, including a lack of development, have been the leading category of employee turnover for 14 consecutive years in Work Institute’s US exit-interview data (Work Institute, 2025).
