Read the EXCLUSIVE online version of HR magazine August 2010

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There’s a theme to this issue and that is looking to the future. In our cover story Alec Reed, founder of recruitment giant Reed, and his son James see the future in the past as they celebrate their 50th year (p10). Recruitment, says Reed senior, is the business of restoring human dignity – and that hasn’t changed in half a century. What has, of course, is the interference of procurement. People are the future of business and if talent is viewed as a mere commodity, then the future for UK plc looks bleak – let alone the future of HR.

Then again, HR is going to drastically change in the future. Google and the Future Foundation believe HR and IT will come closer together by 2020 as the workplace is transformed by the sharing and development of ideas. And this will mean new ways of rewarding and incentivising employees (p7).

One issue twe are all agreed on is the need to remove our troops from Afghanistan in the not too distant future. But as they come back to the homeland they face an unsettling time. Ex-military personnel already make up a large percentage of homeless people in the UK – a shocking fact given what they have done for our country. In a typical year some 20,000 people leave the Armed Forces, looking for work in civvy street. With the upcoming defence review putting pressure on budgets, the British Forces Resettlement Services think it will be nearer to 45,000 this year – a time of fragility in the UK economy.

As part of our See the Best campaign, designed to encourage HR directors to recognise the talents of ex military personnel, deputy editor Peter Crush gives a personal account of four days spent in Afghanistan and sees first-hand the skills military staff could bring to the workplace (p18).