Dentists, doctors, accountants and attorneys consider themselves professionals, and we keep saying we want a seat at the table. Is human resource management a profession?

• Author: Fenwick, Dusty

Absolutely. There is specialized knowledge. Any company that has had to make a phone call to an attorney and say, "OK, we need some help here," because they didn't realize the path they were going down took them into some weeds. We are a profession, but sometimes we struggle getting those seats and also articulating that fairly well, because there's no immediate need or danger. Oftentimes it's not core to the company's business interests. We are not making the company money.

HERRING: It depends on how HR is being used within the organization. It can be very transactional--payroll, benefits. If you understand how value is added to the business, that's where you start getting professional services. I don't think the question of the seat at the table is anything you can demand. You've got to add the value in those professional services, and then the seat naturally comes with the table.

DYCHES: With most organizations, at least 80 percent of the entire expense for the organization is in human capital, and yet sometimes HR people are viewed more as cops than as developers. There has to be the transition of not being enforcers but being developers of human capital.

SCHENK: As we see business becoming more sophisticated, the role of the human resources leader becomes more sophisticated, and it's incumbent on HR leaders and HR practitioners to learn business. As we learn the sophistication of business and are willing to move our profession forward, then we will be viewed as a profession. It's like in the Old West--the barbers were the dentists. Dentistry was not a profession. It grew with the sophistication of society and that is happening with human resources.

OLSEN: There are enough talented HR practitioners out there who understand what strategic HR is, and they can show that value. If you are one of those people and you fall in that boat, then you can absolutely make your own career out of it and not have to ever switch, because you are going to find enough companies out there that believe in strategic HR.

SCHENK: That's really true. I service about 40 clients...