In order to answer this question, you need to understand what the difference between traditional human resources and strategic human resources is. In a nutshell, traditional human resources is reactive, whereas strategic human resources is proactive.

In other words, a traditional human resources department will listen to the grievance of an employee and attempt to find a solution. Similarly, they will start looking for an appropriate candidate for a position when the position becomes available if someone is quitting or the company growing.

A strategic human resources department, on the other hand, has a tougher job, because they are required to anticipate problems before they come up. Similarly, they will have screened a number of possible candidates for all possible positions, so that when somebody quits or a new position becomes available, they already have a list of possible new staff members in mind.

In order to evaluate whether the human resources department of a particular company operates traditionally or strategically, one therefore has to evaluate the procedures they have in place and simply look at how they are doing things. I would consider issues such as whether the HR department has regular meetings with staff members or whether the only time a staff member goes to HR is to lay a grievance or face a disciplinary hearing. I would look at their hiring protocols, their disciplinary structures, and their day-to-day operations and ask myself at every step whether the department was working in a proactive or a reactive way.