As an HR Professional, I have frequently experienced how managers or 'the business' perceive HR as 'The Obstacle'. This creates a big barrier for 1) the business as they do not see the add value of HR input, and 2) HR as they feel they have to prove their value to the business and therefore go out of their way to make things happen; obviously this does not always result in the optimal service HR can provide.
And it is this stigma that needs to be broken down. As long as HR is being perceived as the police state within organizations, HR can never fully take its role as the ideal Business Partner. HR professionals usually do lack the business acumen or commercial savviness, but more than make up for it through its outside-in perspective as well as compliant, ethical and political input. In the end HR is being rated by how we contribute to obtaining the organization's goals. Rather than focusing how HR counteracts with the business, HR should be rated by how its services impacts the business.
And that's where the greatest challenge lies for HR Professionals. Many a time I have experienced how HR employees are prone to thinking in straight lines, black and white. It is so easy to get caught up in falling back upon what we know - policies, law, impossibilities - that HR employees easily forget what our penultimate goal in the organization is: to foster a high performing and diverse workforce that maximizes individual and organizational potential. Rather than strictly acting upon the processes and tools we have in place, let's start focusing on how we can best offer our services: in a collaborative and interactive manner that focuses on creating possibilities.
We need you to look at HR as a partner, but this starts with HR by acting like one.