The article discusses innovative trends and significant aspects of human resource management practices in the context of high-performance human resource management regarding the challenges of sustainable development and the needs of innovations deployment to management practice. The authors carried out a theoretical analysis of various significant functional areas of human resource management practices and a comparative expert evaluation of the situation in Lithuanian and Latvian organisations under the conditions of European integration. A theoretical analysis shows that innovative trends in human resource management are related to the integration of sustainable development ideas and principles of social responsibility and flexicurity in human resource management practices. The results of expert evaluation of human resource management practical areas in the organisations of Latvia and Lithuania convey the trends of human resource management development in terms of a set of performance enhancing human resource management practices. The directions for future research of the innovative trend in effective human resource management practices are proposed.