HR Magazine has a cover story on the uphill climb involved in changing HR.

We’re often brought into a situation to help HR bring visibility to
their workforces and align goals as part of a larger effort to change
the company. From where we sit, the uphill climb is slowly evening out. The
smart companies know that to stay competitive, they have to make HR a
strategic business partner. Without the right people in the right places at the right times, the rest of it doesn’t matter.

A Quote:

John Sullivan, a professor in the management department of the College
of Business at San Francisco State University, learned just that when
he took a year’s leave in 1999 to be chief talent officer for Agilent
Technologies, based in Palo Alto, Calif. The first day, he heard the
common refrain, “Oh, we love you; we’re really looking forward to
changing.”

Two days later he was told, “John, I’ve been here 20 years, and this is how we do things.”

“I ran into resistance with people saying, ‘Who are you as an outsider
to tell me what to do?’ ” Sullivan recalls. “I had been told
specifically by senior leadership that they wanted HR shaken up because
the war for talent was on and the old model wasn’t working. But, even
if you get that message from the CEO, the people at the director level
often haven’t heard that message or they don’t really believe that’s
what you were told because their premise is ‘We have been doing fine.’
”

Lesson learned? “Don’t assume they believe your mission,” says
Sullivan, “and don’t start making changes until they buy into the fact
that HR must change and that it’s not you causing that change, but that
you’re just the weapon that senior executives are using.”