HR professionals' capacity to use their knowledge and insight to move businesses’ definition of their role away from solely a functional one, will be key to delivering the next generation HR function, according to CIPD CEO Jackie Orme (pictured).

Addressing PwC's summer academy for the firm's HR team on the future of HR Orme, said the HR function could step up to the challenge of being seen as a business discipline, and not just a technical one: "By the very nature of our roles as HR professionals, we are sitting on an enormous wealth of intelligence gathered in our work that can be realised, to help navigate organisations towards sustained performance.

"It is HR's role to keep organisational capability in line with the corporate ambition, looking not only at aspects of engagement and agility, but the strategy that ensures the sustainable performance of the organisation."

Orme said HR professionals had the capacity to use their knowledge and insight to move businesses' definition of their role away from solely a functional one, which would be key to delivering the next generation HR function.

The PwC HR summer academy is a series of eight nationwide one day learning and development programmes for the firm's internal HR team.

Over 350 people are attending sessions on supporting organisational change, the future of work, wellbeing, managing high performance teams, people assessment and personal skills. The programme is designed to provide new development and learning opportunities for the HR team outside of their day-to-day responsibilities, linking them to wider HR and business issues.

Gaenor Bagley, partner for people at PwC, added: "PwC's growth ambitions mean now is the time to build on the hard work we have completed in transforming our HR function. We want to maintain in-depth business input to all of our organisations' people decisions and the Academy is a timely reminder of the power of a commercially minded, confident and collaborative HR function in delivering that."