Insights

There is a question that very few HR leaders in India are asking — not because it is new, but because the answer has finally changed in a way that makes avoiding it strategically expensive.The question is this: what in our HR function should be run by our own people, and what should not?

There is a particular irony in the data that Gartner published in its 2026 research cycle, and it is the kind of irony that has real consequences for organisations that do not reckon with it honestly.

Let us start with the data before we talk about solutions, because the data reframes the problem in a way that makes the traditional solutions look counterproductive.

Gartner surveyed 241 HRBPs and asked them to do something most professionals find genuinely uncomfortable: rate honestly how capable they feel in the activities that matter most to their organisations.

Every conversation about the future of HR begins, almost invariably, with addition. New capabilities to build. New skills to develop. New technology to adopt.

There was an implicit contract. No one signed it. No one even said it out loud. But every employee who joined your organisation believed it — felt it, really, in the texture of the onboarding, in the tone of the offer letter

There is a specific kind of organisational delusion that is harder to spot than failure. It looks like progress. It has dashboards. It has a vendor presentation. It even has a budget line.

There is a boardroom conversation happening right now in thousands of organisations across the world. The CEO is talking about AI — the opportunity, the disruption, the urgency.

Every founder and leadership team preparing for an IPO knows what the investment bankers and lawyers are focused on. The financials: audited, clean, growth-narrative-ready.