Where next for HR? - IRS asked a panel of 103 personnel practitioners for their views on the key issues facing the profession. Their detailed replies provide a unique insight into the forces that are reshaping people management. Questions cover current and future challenges, the roles that HR and personnel departments are playing in organisations, how successful the Government's legislative programme has been, and the state of the employment relationship. Findings include: the most important current issue is recruitment and retention, closely followed by employee motivation, training and development, and culture change; over the next few years, flexible working, technological and organisational change and quality of working life will become more prominent; and HR and personnel departments already have a strategic and business role in the majority of respondents' organisations, and this is expected to grow in the future, with HR devolving operational management to the line and increasingly acting as internal consultant.