Reinvigorating the Spirit of Strategic Human Resource Management

This is an invited editorial on current state of and future of strategic human resource management (SHRM) in government. It argues that true SHRM requires redesigned HR departments with staff armed with both the transactional knowledge to implement good (and legal) HR policies and practices and the transformational competencies to help HR lead in public organizations. HR staff needs to be both compliance and strategically oriented. It requires building cultures of learning and adaptation and it requires investments in truly managing the performance of public employees. SHRM requires engaging with new and perhaps radical approaches to staffing and managing public organizations. Finally, it requires resources-truly managing people strategically and well requires an investment in both management capacity and employees.