What can human resources (HR) do to ensure employees are competitive in the 21st century business world? How has HR’s role change over the past few years? Nowadays the direction of human resources goes beyond the staff direction; the human factor has a great weight in the formulation and implementation of strategies, given its capacity to help to strengthen the competitiveness and development of enterprises in a turbulent environment. The human factor is considered a decisive factor in the development of the companies, employee motivation, efficiency and productivity. To ensure the employees competitiveness, the human resources management must understand and adapt to the changing workplace of the 21st century companies. The construction of alliances between companies and the use of technology are also the key to progress. The vision of human resources should be directed towards network style hierarchies instead of the traditional pyramid. The integration of customers, suppliers, collaborators and employees provides companies the advantage of working direct and quickly with what consumers really wants and need. Not only human resources must attract and retain the right and talented people. It is necessary to create and maintain the best working culture that delivers quality, safety and motivation to employees to remain faithful and productive. It is necessary for organizations to create organizational cultures with reward systems that keep the best people committed. How does a company keep those committed people? How have the human resource role changed through time? Human resources functions are not limited to human resources management. Managers of different departments in the organization are able to get involved in decision making, staff training and development and also in hiring the correct people. It is necessary for all managers to get