For many years, organisations have treated employee well-being and business performance as though they are competing priorities. But according to Elizabeth Onifade, HR Business Partner for Commercial and Supply Chain at Crown Flour Mill Limited (Olam Agri), that thinking is outdated and no longer reflects the realities of today’s workplace.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The HR Anchor, Onifade said the role of Human Resources has evolved beyond recruitment, payroll and employee administration into a strategic business function that helps organisations achieve their goals through people. She said as businesses adapt to artificial intelligence (AI), hybrid work, automation and changing workforce expectations, HR professionals must combine business understanding with empathy, data-driven decision-making and strong leadership to remain relevant.
“The health of the business is a reflection of the health of the people,” she said.
According to Onifade, one of the biggest misconceptions about HR is that its primary responsibility is hiring employees, processing salaries and resolving workplace disputes.
“Those things are real, but they’re the plumbing, not the purpose,” she said. “The real work of HR is to make sure an organization can actually deliver its strategy through its people — and that people can grow through the work they do.”
She explained that modern HR is responsible for building organisational capability by ensuring companies have the right people, with the right skills, working in an environment where they can succeed. Recruitment and payroll, she said, are only part of a much broader responsibility that includes leadership development, workforce planning, organisational design and supporting business growth.
Onifade also challenged the idea that HR must constantly choose between supporting employees and meeting business goals.
“I would gently push back on the idea that it’s a balancing act, because framing it that way assumes the two are in tension,” she said.
She argued that businesses cannot achieve sustainable success with disengaged employees, while employee advocacy that ignores commercial realities is equally ineffective.
“When I sit with my Business leaders, I come with an understanding of their targets, their pressures, their numbers — and then the people’s conversation lands very differently,” she said, adding that HR professionals must understand how businesses operate if they want to influence strategic decisions.
As organisations increasingly embrace AI and automation, Onifade believes technology should support HR rather than replace its human purpose.
“Technology keeps changing the how. It should never touch the why,” she said.
While AI can improve efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, screening applications and analysing workforce data, she said it cannot replace empathy, judgement or the ability to make difficult people decisions.
Recalling one recruitment experience, she said her organisation hired a salesperson whose CV appeared unimpressive but whose experience made him one of the company’s highest-performing employees.
“We have once hired a Sales man whose CV didn’t look good but he has the right experience. That guy happens to be one of our best salesmen,” she said.
According to her, HR professionals should use technology to reduce administrative work so they can spend more time supporting people.
“Use the technology to remove the drudgery so we have more time for the human parts, not less,” she added.
Onifade also called on organisations to rethink their people practices as workplaces become increasingly multigenerational.
“The starting point is to stop designing for an ‘average’ employee who doesn’t exist,” she said.
Rather than relying on generational stereotypes, she encouraged organisations to build flexible workplaces, reward employees based on skills and impact, and involve employees in designing workplace policies.
She also highlighted reverse mentoring as an effective way for senior leaders and younger employees to learn from one another.
“I am also learning so much from the Gen Zs in my office and they are learning from me,” she said.
Speaking on employee engagement and retention, Onifade said many organisations mistakenly believe technology or workplace perks alone can create high-performing cultures.
“Technology amplifies the culture you already have; it doesn’t fix a broken one,” she said.
She also pointed to ineffective people management as a major reason employees leave organisations.
“People don’t leave companies — they leave managers,” she said, stressing that organisations must invest in developing leaders who can coach, support and engage their teams.
Looking ahead, Onifade said HR itself must continue evolving to meet the demands of the future workplace.
She said the profession should retain its ethical foundation while becoming more data-driven, commercially aware and technologically capable.
“I would keep the human core without apology — the ethics, the advocacy, the coaching instinct, the willingness to be the conscience of the organisation when needed,” she said.
She also called for a shift away from annual HR processes towards continuous people management, where managers take greater ownership of their teams while HR focuses on coaching and enabling them.
“Less administration, more architecture,” she said.
To remain relevant, Onifade identified data fluency, digital and AI literacy, business acumen and change leadership as the capabilities every HR team will need over the next decade.
As organisations continue to navigate rapid workplace change, she believes HR’s greatest responsibility is no longer simply managing people, but helping organisations build stronger businesses through their people.
