In the conditions of necessity of transition to Industry 4.0 the human resource potential is considered as an important source of competitive advantage.  Only qualified personnel can make an organization competitive on the basis of market loyalty, product and service quality, differentiated products and technological innovation. Two directions for increasing the competitiveness of industrial enterprises have been identified. The first is the assessment of the system of indicators of human resource level during the transition to Industry 4.0. The second is to identify the most significant factors in assessing the level of human resources that affect the increase in the level of competitiveness of industrial organizations. The paper provides a detailed analysis of a number of economic indicators that characterize the integral indicator of the effectiveness of the human resources development and competitiveness of an industrial organization. The integral indicator has formed the basis of a model for assessing the competitiveness of industrial organizations through human resource development. The model consists of two parts: human resource development and the increase in the level of competitiveness of industrial organizations. The model is based on the following factors: the quality of human resources (staff composition of an industrial organization, the number of employees, their income level, education level, projects related to human resource development) and its development (total corporate income, share employee remuneration in the total organization income, R&D costs, the share of investment in R&D in the total organization income, sales and production). The developed model will allow organizations to adjust their human resource development strategies (recruitment and further development of human resources), and will also contribute to the transformation of corporate talent.