organisations have now recognised this new icon on the corporate horizon which promises a more effective way to relate with manpower and business gone are the days when the role of the personnel man was likened to that of an animal tamer cracking his whip to make the animal perform a set of stunts and tricks today the role has taken on the mantle of a mentor and the profession has grown now to be aptly called human resource development hrdtoday with the foreign investment and sourcing coming to indian shores not to mention the further opening up of the economy and recruitment on the upswing the corporate czars have realised the importance of harnessing and strengthening one of the most important industry resources mainly people power this is where the human resource manager steps in to orchestrate an entire gamut of related functions we are a relationship based company and this is one of our core corporate values says tb patel who heads the hr portfolio at jacobs hg our focus is on our people and we believe that they are our most treasured resource people play an important role in the success of an organisation and they have to be groomed nurtured and respected yes mission statements have now begun to reflect the industries awakening to its people as important resource other than machines and moneyhr picked up in the last decade or so informs sanghamitra bhattacharyya who teaches at the loyola institute of business administration liba chennai she attributes the reasons for this to increasing job insecurity in the business world and uncertainty following largescale downsizing and restructuring exercises in organisations the hr consultant with assessment india pune shekhar manelkar points out that there is a focus on competencies for traditional hr functions of recognising recruiting retaining and developing talent managers are more aware of their responsibility to people working with them than they were beforethe senior general manager with glaxo smithklein pharma keith pinto believes that today hr is more integrated in business the tools have developed to a great extent and global practices have reached india much because of the progress in the telecom sector due to which one is able to share best practices across the globe management institutes now widely offer human resource development courses both at degree and diploma levels many institutes conduct online courses in hrd as well admission to the degree courses is through a common entrance test followed by an interview a masters or phd in psychology especial industrial psychology moreover qualifies one for a senior post in human resource managementhr professional may work in an organisation management consultancy and academics as well there is tremendous scope for consultants as change agents for corporate trainers career counsellors recruiters and headhuntersengineering companies prefer their senior staff to handle the hr portfolio technical executives who have worked at site have a greater understanding