IS HR A COST CENTRE OR PROFIT CENTRE

HELLO,
i need views from HR professionals regarding whether HR is cost centre or profit centre. what do you mean by these terms? and why do you think your department is one so?
please participate ..
thank you

Hi,
I agree with SIL. HR is neither a cost centre nor a profit centre. It is the centre of all centres as HR (the employee) is at the centre of the business as pivot.
So, stop debating whether HR is a profit centre or cost centre.
Govardhan

HR is a RESOURCE center forming BRIDGES.
As it is primarily based on the Recruitment,Maintenance,PR,IR, etc I guess it cant be labelled as either an cost or an profit center.
HR is responsible for creating profit as well as minimizing loss which can otherwise called as profit.
In broader view HR is the RESOURCE center and may its function be expanded and profit and loss(cost) is obtained from the resource.If the resorce is insufficiant,less productive,less quality in thought and action I wonder from where does profit comes.
So for me HR is a vast pool of RESOURCES and forms BRIDGES with
Employees
Departments
Vendors
Supliers
Government Bodies
and so on.
Training is the only way where by an employee can gain knowledge and updation of information has to be provided to the RESOURCES to be in the first place.
Shihan Dr.C.J.Jeyachander.

it is not a debate.. but to understand the view points of different people..
there's been an immense transformation in the HR lately.. and HR is striving to be seen as a strategic business partner.. in that context HR does become a profit centre..

HR is now called HC, the human capital. So, HR dept. as the dept. responsible for this capital acquisition, and effective deployment of this capital, is not a profit centre/ cost centre. It is indeed the Life Centre of the company.

Dear All,
This is a very interesting topic for discussion. Infosys in its last year budget started to report on Manpower Capital.
HR should be considered as a profit canter as it is the HRD which contributes to the human capital which in todays knowledge based industry the most important asset to any organisation especially IT and ITES industries.
I think there are various tools to measure the Human Capital. We can easily arrive at a consensus that HR is a profit center.
Your comments to this are welcome.
Regards
Praveen

Hi,
Terms like Cost Centre / Profit Centre; Direct Labour/Indirect Labour have no place in Modern Business Language. Any Employee in an Organisation or any Department in an Organisation is there, because Business demands/needs such existence.
Regards
Ravi.B.S.

Hi,
From what limited information i have, All the departments which work to support the operations department are laibilities to the organization according to the manpower balancesheet. The only department which falls on the assets side of the balance sheet is the Operations department. Even the CEO and other heads of the departments fall as liabilities in the manpower balance sheet.
Correct me if i am wrong.
Regards,
Arun.

Hi,
From what limited information i have, All the departments which work to support the operations department are laibilities to the organization according to the manpower balancesheet. The only department which falls on the assets side of the balance sheet is the Operations department. Even the CEO and other heads of the departments fall as liabilities in the manpower balance sheet.
Correct me if i am wrong.
Regards,
Avi.

Any cost incurred by HR is actually an investment. So, you can call HR as investment centre.