Looking back on the role of HR professionals over the last 25 years

“Why are you the way that you are?”

Had Michael Scott given Toby Flenderson a chance to respond to his question before digressing into a diatribe about the office employee’s buzzkill bents, we’d wager his response would have given Dunder Mifflin staffers—not to mention millions of viewers who regularly tuned into The Office each week—a glimpse into the realities of the people profession in the early 2000s.

At the turn of the century, the HR role was largely seen as one made up of paper pushers and disciplinarians with whom employees only engaged when they were coming or going or erring. This perception, however, would not persist. The 2000s proved to be a time of significant change—technologically, socially, economically, and demographically—from which HR departments would not be immune.

Recruiters saw their once indispensable Rolodexes replaced by an emerging professional social network by the name of LinkedIn. Many HR professionals tasked with investigating and handling claims of workplace sexual misconduct saw failures exposed and their compliance policies and DEI practices upended by a movement called #MeToo. CHROs saw themselves with not just a seat at the table, but the seat at the table right next to the CEO as Covid-19 spurred a historic pandemic, and the realization that HR leaders were, in fact, a strategic business asset. And now, HR teams struggling to solve a worsening skills gap have found themselves contending with a new challenge: a shrinking workforce from which to find that perfect recruit.

But why just read about the disruptions of the past quarter century when you can see them, too? For more on these and other events that have, and will continue to, shape the people profession, check out the below interactive timeline.