HR: letters in hurt but what about heart?
MANAGEMENT fads are fun, and one that keeps resurfacing is hating human resources (HR). We can all think of times when HR has caused us a special kind of pain and suffering — payroll screw-ups, pointless performance reviews, unintelligible procedures, anyone?
It makes sense that you can’t spell “hurt” without “H” and “R”, and when we see the anti-HR mobs baying for blood, it’s easy to pick up a placard and/or a blunt object and join in the fun.
There’s a swag of anecdotal “evidence” claiming that human resources is no good — despite legitimate research that says otherwise — so let’s get rid of it!
The problem with all this human resources-hating is that “HR” is not just a department or group of numbskulls sitting on the ninth floor with the fancy offices.
Human resources involves a range of activities including hiring, pay, performance management and employee relations, all essential to running organisations that rely on people to do work.
So, we might say we should get rid of the HR people, but somebody will still have to fill their function. Who’s going to do this?
The first obvious candidate to replace them is line managers. They know the people (they are the people), so who’d be better at doing “people” stuff? Human resources is, after all, the easy job — something anyone can pick up, right? Developing policy and practice around industrial relations, occupational health and safety, and diversity management, among other things, will easily fit into their newly expanded job description.
But hang on: that sounds a little complicated. What’s more, a poll conducted early last year by the Centre for Workplace Leadership found 75% of employees surveyed felt they needed better leaders. So, maybe our line managers aren’t the ones we’d choose to do HR. Maybe we should just get rid of them, too.
Second possible candidate: conventional wisdom has it that human resources is supposed to be a “strategic partner”, so let’s just get senior managers to do it.
We know that senior managers aren’t usually representative of “the people” in terms of gender, race, or even job experience. So, maybe we shouldn’t trust the “old boys” in the C-suite to represent our interests when they do HR.
three: If you want something done right, do it yourself — in self-managed teams!
So, with the surplus of time in your day, log in to your favourite HR information system (Oracle? Workday? You’re such a hipster), and get cracking on your new HR responsibilities. Conduct peer