No offense meant to the wonderful HR people who are no doubt out there, but from my experience HR people are good with:

* Processes, procedures and forms

* 401K, health insurance and other benefit programs

* Buying salary surveys

* Finding template bonus programs, performance evaluation programs and hire-a-friend programs. Adjusting them a bit to fit current organization.

* Employment and immigration laws

I've never found them to particularly understand people and relationships. I've worked for 4 years for a corporation where I never once managed to talk to an HR person. Everything was done through support tickets. But even in smaller companies, I found that HR folks are more of systems-people than people-people.