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year plans are definitely gone. Today, short-term means tomorrow, the mediumterm is the end of the given year and long-term is not even in sight. Since it isnot possible to control all the parameters that condition such development,companies find themselves in an era where it is necessary to permanentlyupdate and adapt immediately. Their entire organisation, production, business,and logistics, must be based on the principle of flexibility, which is at the serviceof the customer with the aim of optimising profitability. The flow of informationin real time, through the internet, websites, intranets, email, and social networksfurther enhances this essential evolution. The recipient cannot sufficiently%u201cdigest%u201d new information that arrives quickly before it has already aged andreceded into the background to be replaced by more new information. Havingtime to analyse it, to distinguish the essential from the minor, has become aluxury, especially for managers. It is necessary to make decisions quickly,almost as soon as the problem has been raised.Despite this accelerating context, HR management must ensure themanagement of increasingly long careers, because in most developedcountries, although the young workforce is entering the labour market later thanbefore, deficit social security systems mean that the number of years workedto receive an old-age pension is increasing. But managing the professionalcareers of employees according to development plans, as was the case in theindustrial economy, and even at the end of the 20th century, is no longerpossible in today%u2019s context. The principle of permanent flexibility andadaptability must also be applied in the management of human capital.The managerial function of HR management is therefore undergoing a deeprenewal in order to anticipate and accompany these changes so that companiesare transformed into agile organisations. It is becoming increasingly clear thatthis function is no longer possible to be applied as recommended by the authorsof textbooks, according to which one specific procedure is suitable for eachHR process, and companies only need to apply it in order to master the givenprocess. This was a universalistic approach based on the fact that HRmanagers had the obligation to improve their techniques so that best practicesand the most suitable tools are used in the company. In such a context, HRmanagement was an autonomous object independent of other facts in thecompany.In contrast, however, there is a contingent approach to HR management,according to which it should be applied in direct dependence on the specificcharacteristics of the company and its environment. The best HR practices fora company should be considered those that are coherent with its otherdimensions, especially with its strategic direction. In this context, Peretti (2018)says that in today%u2019s changing and uncertain environment, there are no universalgood practices in HR management: those that flexibly adapt to the context and1012.3 Managing People in Europe