ABSTRACT
HR teams may be at different points on their journey towards offering a higher-value-added contribution. Designing policies which demonstrably fit the business need will also engender respect from senior management. Increasingly, CEOs are akin to football managers and HR directors to one of the team of coaches. E-HR should facilitate line actions in the people management field, be it through manager self-service, the organizational intranet or through improved management information. Line managers should feel less that tasks are being dumped on them. Shell has made a 'systemic intervention' to raise the quality of leadership and develop managers' people skills in coaching, motivation and development. HR sets the policy framework within which line managers operate. The fact that he holds those reporting to him accountable for their people management performance cascades through the organization with lower-level managers equally accountable for their area of responsibility. HR should neither be the master on people management practice nor the servant.
