Microsoft’s $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn puts human resource management at the center of its mission to enable people and businesses to realize their full potential.

The deal is more evidence that HR leaders are, indeed, in the middle of a major workforce transformation. And no function is in better position to become key players in this transformation ― not only getting, or maximizing a seat at the C-suite table, but being counted on to drive sustainable business value.

HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®) has been involved in many discussions with HR leaders who speak passionately about this transformation. We recently even studied it, looking at how HR best practices can impact business. (More about that later.) But what’s significant about the Microsoft-LinkedIn announcement is that a world-leading company is now willing to bet its future on the need to optimize workforce performance to lead business outcomes.

Betting on a New Future of Work and HR

Microsoft, with LinkedIn, is positioning itself to help businesses evolve the future of work: “Just as we have changed the way the world connects to opportunity, this relationship with Microsoft, and the combination of their cloud and LinkedIn’s network, now gives us a chance to change the way the world works,” LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner states in the Microsoft release about the deal.

It is also clear that the two companies believe HR will play an integral role in helping businesses gain competitive advantages through people. As we have heard from so many HRCI-certified leaders, HR is now on the front lines of the battle to withstand rapid changes in technology, business and industry disruption, and changing workplace behaviors driven by a new generation of empowered workers.

The combination of Microsoft and LinkedIn, experts say, will allow the two companies to offer complete HR and people management solutions, including matching people to jobs, providing office applications, offering training tools, and helping professionals showcase their achievements ― including certifications. Indeed, this seems to put the LinkedIn channel in a unique space that all HR professionals need to take note of.

“Ed-tech speculation is aggregating toward the idea that between LinkedIn’s workspace clout and Microsoft’s computational power, the two ed-tech giants have a formula for superior synergy and that synergy most-likely revolves around online career competencies and workplace matching,” posts eCampusNews. “In other words,” the outlet adds, “Microsoft could soon become a professional must-have, especially in HR.”

Transforming Organizations and HR

HRCI recently celebrated its 40^th anniversary where we met more than 1,500 HR leaders at our Portraits of Success celebration held at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. We heard numerous stories about HRCI certification as a springboard to career advancement and just as many about changing expectations for the HR function. [link to photos of event]

Even more telling, HR leaders say, is there is now C-suite-backed recognition that human resource leaders must play a central role in the development of business value, not just HR value. The traditional C-suite is finally taking notice of HR’s ability to create external value, not just internal value.

For example, in new research commissioned by HRCI and Top Employers institute, Emerging Evidence: Business Performance and the Validation of HR Best Practices, companies that value HRCI-certified professionals have been shown to have:

• Stronger stock performance.
• Higher revenue growth.
• Better employer branding ratings on Glassdoor.

“High-performing companies around the world seek out and adopt best practices across disciplines to positively impact bottom line business metrics; it’s not a surprise that the discipline of human resources is a beneficiary,” according to the report. “However, while companies have long recognized the importance of HR, executives in all functional areas struggle to find the right data point to illustrate the impact of HR on the performance of business.”

HRCI will continue to explore this topic in more detail, so we can expand the metrics we review and move from suggestive to specific factors that link HR initiatives to the bottom line. It’s a space that continues to need new data and analysis. It’s exciting to have a data and analysis giant in Microsoft to help us press forward to explore the financial impact of HR initiatives and best practices.

The Road to Better Insights

In its presentation about the deal, Microsoft says it will help HR and C-suite leaders gain more insights about the organizational transformation that is taking place:

“Today, organizations have limited ability to understand their own team’s capability or productivity. In the future, we can give leaders the insight they need to understand their talent (like who they are, where they come from, where they go next) as well as their employees’ effectiveness (like where they spend time and who they collaborate with). This combination will help organizations to transform.”

Indeed, more remains to be done as we turn to transform the business environment, and to raise the bar on how HR leads people and businesses in a swiftly changing world. HRCI, of course, has long been a champion of the HR function, certifying professionals for more than 40 years.

It’s truly an exciting time to be in the HR field and playing such a central role to help organizations change and adapt to 21^st century challenges. HRCI is honored to be part of the family of HR practitioners and business leaders who are working together to transform the world of work. Rock on Microsoft + LinkedIn!