Recently I was on spring break at Disney with my family. I happened to be in line for a ride and noticed this sign on the outside of a door – Inhuman Resources.  It got me thinking about Human Resources professionals in the world today and what is expected of them.  When you look at most companies, HR professionals are the ones responsible for recruiting, hiring, onboarding, retention, and all employee related concerns such as compensation, benefits, etc.  These responsibilities roll up to a Chief HR Officer of some sort.  It is an old model that is far outdated and it can be a bit “inhuman.”  If people are your most important asset in a company, then it’s time for change in this area.

I propose that companies look hard and fast at splitting up what we traditionally know as human resources in to two distinct areas:

HR Services – this is the area traditionally related to HR and serves as the foundation upon which HR professionals are trained in the University.  They oversee benefits, compensation, and all HR administrative activities.  These people tend to be process oriented, highly analytical, and ensure the back office is taken care of to the nth degree.

Talent – this is the area where HR professionals are responsible for the entire talent life cycle.  Starting with the overall strategy and employment brand of the company, to recruiting, attracting, hiring, onboarding, and career management.  This role would be managed by atypical people.  People that do well in this role are the company’s biggest fans, live and breathe the company DNA, communicate and interact with relational intelligence, and are the highest potential leader in the entire company, short of the CEO.  Typically this is not an experienced HR professional, but rather someone who knows how to sell your company and oh, by the way, they most likely don’t want to do this job because they may also see it as an HR function.  Your job as the leader is to convince them to do it.

The reality is that until companies recognize that these are two fundamentally different roles that need two fundamentally different leaders they will struggle with building the talented organization able to compete on a global scale.  Great people want to work with great companies and if they are dealing with inhuman resources, your company will never have a chance to recruit and retain these people.  If you are in charge the question you must ask yourself is what are you going to do, continue to do the same things as always and expect different results, or step up to the plate and make the changes necessary to obtain and retain the talent you require?

It’s time to Reinvent Recruiting.

This post originally appeared on www.reinventingrecruiting.com