Imagine a company in which the human-resources department has great talent and technology and advises top executives on business strategy and organizational effectiveness. It has a say in big decisions and is a critical career stopping point for anyone who aspires to senior management.

Sound like a foreign concept?

That’s what an HR department should look like in a company that considers its work force to be its most important asset—a major source of competitive advantage.

While most companies say they value human capital, in reality, few are run that way. They may have systems in place for hiring talented people, but their organizational structures aren’t designed to develop, motivate and retain the best ones. And the group with the expertise to help the organization better manage and utilize people—the human-resources department—often is too mired in administrative tasks to tackle higher-value work.

In a company built to leverage human capital, the HR staff would spend less time processing benefits requests and more time being the expert resource on the state of the organization’s work force and its ability to perform.

That has been difficult in the past, because many of the administrative duties assigned to human resources involve a lot of detail and complexity that make them labor intensive.

But now, Web-based applications, many of which lend themselves to self-service, offer a solution. Employees can visit a Web site to sign up for benefits, change their addresses, enroll in training programs, search for jobs, assess their knowledge and set goals and objectives for the year. Managers can use them to give out bonuses and raises, appraise performance, transfer employees and find internal candidates to fill open positions.

What’s more, many companies offer HR outsourcing services, and a number of large companies have entered into long-term contracts to outsource multiple HR processes to a single vendor. I believe that for most companies, outsourcing is the right way to handle HR administration. Not only does it release HR professionals from a set of no-win activities, it frees them up for work that is of greater benefit to the organization.

Of course, getting out from under these administrative tasks solves only half the problem; HR departments have to use their newfound freedom to help get the most out of an organization’s talent. Here are three areas where HR professionals could play a key role to accomplish just this:

IMPROVING LEADERSHIP: The HR department can help managers at all levels become better leaders by teaching