I am not a fan of people who’ve never worked in Human Resources and bag on my profession like they know what they’re talking about.
Let’s review a few of the reasons why HR exists in the first place.
- North America and Western Europe experienced a rapid expansion of the workforce and companies needed to create infrastructure to manage that growth.
- Executives & leaders were disinterested in managing the shenanigans and affairs of their employees.
- Shareholders demanded that companies fight aggressive union organization efforts, reduce labor costs, and increase productivity.
Your friendly neighborhood payroll department became personnel; that monster became a behemoth known as Human Resources; and now there are Human Capital departments that include recruiting/staffing, onboarding, training, leadership development, compensation, benefits, branding, communications, HRIT, knowledge management, offboarding, emergency preparedness, safety, and pedicures.
This didn’t happen in a vacuum. The best and the brightest business minds let this happen over time. It was a choice.
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Also, please note something very important:
- Where’s there is inefficiency, there is profit.
HR’s most vocal critics have no experience working with senior leaders, no meaningful background in Human Capital, and no idea how to navigate a hyper-political structure in a global corporate landscapes. These are men and women who bemoan the modern state of Human Capital management and make money off the backs of broken HR departments.
The next time someone tells you that HR sucks, ask them to name a single thing they’ve done to fix it. Has this person offered a concrete solution that ameliorates a problem in a Human Resources department?
I don’t think so. What you’ll hear is a lot of blah blah blah, HR sucks, they’re a bunch of admins who don’t know how to recruit, and health insurance costs too much, they don’t know how to use technology, and those biddies remind me of my shrewy mother-in-law.
It’s true. I’ve heard this stuff from the mouths of far too many critics. Especially the mother-in-law part.
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I’m not saying that HR doesn’t suck, but most critics are no better informed on HR issues than the minions who work in the department. They might be worse.
I think it’s time for these critics to shut up and get off the (social media) stage so we can hear from real people with real ideas.
[Maybe I should leave the stage. Maybe.]
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nice. I question people all the time when they criticize HR and other things they know nothing about like: “their company culture is so great!” (you don’t work there), “the president ain’t doing his job” (how many people who had that job could get even 15% of it done), and “ahh your kid is so well-bahved?” (try watching him for 48 hours and then see how you feel).
lol
Maybe most people just need to STFU. That might be right.
It’s envy Laurie, just envy. Like when people slam beautiful women, picking them apart to find any little imaginary imperfection, always putting them under a microscope. The rest of the employed are lucky that HP Pros are more discreet and models of workplace conduct. Could you imagine if we started complaining about other departments?
BTW – My experience has been more like “hyper-political structure in a global corporate landslide”.
LOL, Karla. Just LOL.
Dude, did you just drop “ameliorates” in your post? I feel smarter for just having read that word.
Criticism is part of our culture as much as baseball, apple pie, and LeBron James ripping the hearts out of every Cavs fan. I think that sometimes it can be frustrating to hear it, but the way we react to it is important.
I’ll use comedy as an example. When a joke bombs you receive criticism. Generally in the form of silence (silence that seems so long, and some how makes you feel naked btw). Depending on how much experience and skill you have, there can be a lot of criticism, even during a 3 or 5 minute set. The vast majority of the audience has never written a joke, let alone a set, nor ever jumped up on a stage to perfrom.
This doesn’t mean they can’t criticize, and no matter how awesome I think my material is, I have to accept the customers criticism. Sure I can take my act elsewhere, maybe the fans at one club are more in tune with my material than another, but if I get silence again, I have to realize where there is smoke, there is fire, and I’ve got to change something. I keep working on the material, until the customer/fan no longer criticizes me (well the majority at least). I can’t stand on stage and say, “Look if you have a better joke, let’s hear it”, just like HR can’t say “If your so smart, fix it”. Sure it feels good to say, but it’s impractical.
Sometimes we have to nut up, and dig deep and find the spark that is producing the smoke and deal with it.
Sorry for the long missive, I’m hopped up on caffiene and ring dings.
I’m all for fair and honest criticism, but what if you were being criticized by a comedian who had a profit motive when your jokes bomb? That criticism would suck — and you should rightfully ignore it. Or find a way to throw him off his game. I dunno. How do comedians roll? They’re fucked up, right? Angry? Bitter? Yeah, that’s kind of like HR. Give me some tips on how to ‘get back’ at people.
HRPufnstuf, Are you at Schwan’s? I heard that they were looking someone with sales compensation/commissions experience. I was wondering if it was true. Thanks
My very French Mother-In-Law could teach a master class on the nuances of labor disputes & disruption. It’s fun to watch her go off on how we (Americans) don’t know how to strike with passion.
She’s right. The french will truck their cows to the Eiffel Tower just to make a point.
Is HR a target because they interact with employees at critical times in the employee’s life (i.e. recruitment, hire, benefits utilization, and termination)? Bad HR people are certainly out there, so mistakes made at these times are more traumatic. Training and marketing do not get hit as hard, but maybe because those departments don’t have the same perceived impact on the employee’s life.
I agree with you that some criticism is from people making money throwing HR under the bus, but I also think too many companies tolerate bad HR people, which perpetuates the stereotype.
Can I still make fun of bad HR people? If not, I’ll have a bunch more free time.
Too many companies tolerate bad HR. – yes
Some criticism is from people making money by throwing HR under the bus. – yes, and also power is gained in that process
Can I still make fun of bad HR people? – yes, I do
Hmmm…. this got me thinking. I always thought I wasn’t allowed to criticize HR because my client liaisons—who often run HR—would stop hiring me if I wrote/said/did anything resembling critique.
Which in at least one case turned out to be true.
That said, I think I do owe HR some ideas for solutions after the ripping I gave it last week. New post tomorrow!
You ripped HR last week? Are you a douchebag who thrives on money and power? If not, it’s okay.
Uh oh.
Love your passion for this subject Laurie.
A part of me has to also apologise. Before I arrived in recruitment via marketing and sales in various FMCG business’ I was from time to time one of those people who unknowingly and ignorantly criticised HR for any number of things that may or may not have been working in my respective organisations.
Well, I was wrong wasn’t I? Why? Well firstly I have grown a little more grey and a little (I like to think so anyway!) wiser. I don’t actually know it all whatsoever (shock horror!) and when it comes to understanding business’ and organisations, what makes them tick, how to keep them glued together then professional HR people who truly care about what they do have so much value to offer others.
In fact, in my role as a recruiter (a career that I love by the way), the best HR people that I deal with tend to be super all round professionals and exceptional at what they specialise in. Whilst there are not many more demoralising things than a demotivated HR professional, the good ones tend to be the type of people I admire and encourage others to look up to, particularly where you see them playing important and strategic roles in the boardroom.
Back to your coffee and thanks for the post. Enjoyed it!
Andy
Andy, thank you for commenting and thanks for your insight.
Criticism without knowledge is a sport America thrives on. HR needs to listen to (most of) it and use it to change or educate those critics. The profession is changing just not fast enough for many of us.
In the mean time, can I still pick on (oops, I mean criticize) lawyers and accountants?
Yes, lawyers and accountants are fair game.
I’mLuvinIt! (Especially your own in-your-face rants! Keep ‘em comin’.
Laurie, it was while earning my Masters in HR/OD that I learned to trash-talk HR. Specifically, while doing research for my thesis on why work was so hard and complicated (which became the first of my books).
I discovered that business and leaders and process and structures and strategies and cost-cutting and all the rest had an advocate in HR, but I could find very little employee advocacy in HR. I don’t mean the touchy-feely advocacy. I mean the “Leaders, I’m in your face cuz these people need the tools and support and training and development to do the job you hired them to do…And I’m not getting out of your face ’til they get it” kind of advocacy. (Or some gentler version — as long as it produces results.)
I have lots of friends in HR. But I find very few in the field who are true workforce advocates. Most are workforce advocate wimps, wussies, and lots worse. So whenever I trash-talk HR, this is where it’s coming from. The good news is that employees are now hacking around the need for HR’s advocacy. Stay tuned…www.hackingwork.com
Dude, the hilarious thing is that OD is part of HR. Same thing with staffing/recruiting.
It’s like two poor people fighting over a nickel. Bruised, bloody, angry. After the fight, they’re both still poor — and they’re both still distracted because their anger is turned towards one another instead of the system that made ‘em poor in the first place.
That’s my HR metaphor of the day.
Agreed!
FYI: HR’s Tombstone (at least in its current state) is being written by peeps like Matt, a 24 yr old we interviewed for Hacking Work, which’ll be out in Sept….
From Chapter 1: One new hire, Matt, so disagreed with his employer’s assessment process that he Googled “performance assessment” and created a seventeen-question mash-up that matched his career goals — not just the company’s goals for him. His manager and the HR department were shocked and pissed off, but he had spent months refining his performance tool. He’d done his homework, seeking advice from one of the gurus in the assessment field whom he’d contacted through LinkedIn. With the support of his co-workers, Matt stood his ground, and management ended up using his assessment in conjunction with their own.
Bill works in OD and Matt works in some unnamed department. Both work for improvements in HR. Bill – You and Matt are HR. Matt created a new assessment. I’m sure it was great. I’m also sure that there was a percentage of that same workplace griping about the additional paperwork he just created. After all, isn’t that one of the stereotypes of HR?
Every profession has it’s share of incompetent slackers, drones and losers. Doctors, bank tellers, teachers, plumbers, mechanics, accountants – the professions are neither inherently good nor bad.
It’s the talent, passion,knowledge and progressiveness (or lack thereof) of those in a particular role that make that individual determination.
In my experience most of the people who criticize HR are employees who don’t understand HR’s role. HR does not work for the employees, HR works for “the man” and their role is to pay you as little as possible, keep benefits as low as possible and of course retain the best talent.
Toss in printing out forms that are available to everyone with a computer, resolving petty arguments, and hearing me complain that my 10% deductible and 6 figure income is just not fair.
But I am a cynic..
What if HR just worked for the right reasons? Ah, so refreshing.
Okay, so does 35 years in HR and management qualify me to criticize HR? Good, ’cause I do all the time. And, I provide real world solutions that confound most HR people because they have little or no knowledge or experience with business or with effective results, and very little interest in either. Does most management deserve the criticism? Absolutely, but your comments regarding management reflect the opinion most people in HR take, the holier than thou kind that is at the root of most of the negative relationships between HR and line management. I’ve been a CEO and a senior HR executive in a global engineering services company and I know there is a lot wrong with how companies design and implement their HR practices, starting mostly with an unquestioning and uncritical mindset regarding those practices. I provide my clients with a complete set of innovative and very different approaches to achieving success through effective people environments, everything from ditching ineffective recruitment and selection practices like behavioural descriptive interviews to changing their compensation practices. Thin skinned HR professionals who refuse to look critically at the ineffective practices they promote within their organizations do no credit to this so-called profession.
Kim, it’s interesting to see how people respond and why they choose to comment.
I walked away from a seriously cushy, comfortable, lazy HR job to write a blog called Punk Rock HR — for no money (initially). I have spent the last three years providing constructive solutions (& snarky comments) meant to re-engineer the profession. There’s no holier-than-thou intention here. My skin is pretty thick, too.
The fact is that executives make a choice to employ and *fund* these horrible HR departments. When I asked one CEO of a Fortune 100 company why he kept on his CHRO but wanted to hire me as a consultant, he said, “No one respects her but she’s the best we have… and who else is on the market, right now?”
Where’s the leadership? Where are the balls?
(To be fair, I’ve heard that twice — but one company wasn’t on the Fortune list. They were a smaller manufacturing company just looking to survive and HR wasn’t cutting the mustard.)
Anyway, part II:
There are “thought leaders” in the HR industry who feel they have earned the right to criticize HR — & they haven’t. It’s as simple as that. Integrity is a funny thing, too. These “thought leaders” criticize internal recruiting processes but accept money as consultants from staffing firms & agencies that make money from broken internal recruiting processes. It’s an incestuous cycle and it really needs to end.
Most amazing post of the morning (so far, but it is only 9:35am here)…
Every silo in a business has issues, but when the “right people” are an organization’s greatest assets, HR should expect closer scrutiny than say, PR. As one of those “Personnel” directors of the past, I am entitled to criticize. However, as you suggest, I also have offered solutions. In fact, my book, “Purple Curve Effect” includes a scenario set in HR. Complete with the solution; a real and proven methodology for fixing organizations (based on the issues that humans create and therefore, can solve) known as Constraints Management.
So bravo Laurie for asking for feedback. Let the healing begin!
Thanks! I’ll take a look at your book @ the library. I’ve suggested blowing HR up and piecing it back together in a more thoughtful way — it’s so boring and I don’t even want to look for the link on my site, but I’m with you on solutions.
Bless her soul but when Libby Sartain decided to call herself a CPO – Chief People Officer – the gloves came off. Then everyone wanted to be closer to the people they love by having it in their job titles!
From there, HR seemed to “blossom” into strategic business partner, then thought leader…who knows what’s next? The problem is that the problems of work – “bad” bosses, declining wages, work/life stresses (balance my ass), etc. – haven’t been “addressed” by whatever you want to call it to the “satisfaction” of employees.
I’m figuring that HR has a Napoleon complex and despite its short stature, it’s still short on overall results. I can say this with certainty because (a) I’ve been a client of whatever-you-want-to-call-it, (b) I’ve been part of whatever-you-want-to-call-it, (c) I’m involved in SHRM initiatives (e.g., workforce planning standardization) that hope to ameliorate problems with whatever-you-want-to-call-it, and (d) I have many friends who run whatever-you-want-to-call-it and even they’re growing weary of not being able to make others see the value in whatever-you-want-to-call-it.
Finally, when was the last time any Wall Street analyst praised a company’s head of HR???
People praised the turn around of Xerox, headed by a (former) CEO who was a (former) HR professional.
Anyway, your point about people & soft stuff is right — and it’s a shame that we can’t treat employees like humans, teach our employees new skills, meet revenue projections, and act like adults without dumping those responsibilities on a personnel department.
There are very few examples of people from HR taking the reins – certainly not enough to be significant in a business sense.
Ahhhh, now you want to talk about a statistically valid sample size??? Hm, that’s math.
Without HR, operations would have ground to a halt. It would look like one of the horrific scenes from the sci-fi movie Event Horizon. Leadership would continue down the Employee Assessment profile rat hole with the mistaken idea that no one (in leadership) is to blame for a “bad hire”. They fit the profile, it’s the program’s fault.
HR’s true character is on display every day, taking responsibility to do the right thing when no one else will or can’t. Allowing organizations to be successful in spite of themselves.
I’ve never seen Event Horizon. Hm. Should put that on my Netflix!
“Event Horizon” is a great movie. It took me two or three viewings to fully appreciate the broader ramifications (and not simply be “entertained” by the movie). Steven, if I follow your logic for mentioning this movie, HR serves a similar function to “the decision” made at the end? I would suggest Schrödinger’s cat is a more likely allegory.
25 years working in HR in some capacity or another with a detour into Operations and Marketing and past 10 years developing HR software has lead me to the conclusion that typically HR managers spends way to much time whining about not having a “seat at the table”, “we are just glorified admins” et al…get over it already. HR in many organizations is a transaction heavy, paper excessive, poorly run customer service (yes that is right your employees are your customers) department which can’t produce any meaningful metrics on success or failure of the program they du jour. Manage HR in the same way you would manage Operations or a Customer Service area- streamline, innovate, measure and report. Once HR has to step up to the same standards as other departments- then it will get some respect.
I’m fine with blaming HR for being ineffective. It is.
But it’s not just HR that’s ineffective. An entire organization let’s this happen.
What would you say about a manager that refused to tolerate criticism from others? How about an employee? The fact is that criticism, really dissatisfaction of others with our performance, is one of the ways we learn we need to do a better job.
You’re right– HR does have a tough job, but no tougher than the technologists that create breakthrough product, managers reading the tea leaves of business conditions, sales force finding and satisfying customers, or manufacturing building quality product for the best possible price. Yet HR itself often stands in (moral, if not actual) judgment of all these departments, telling them what they can’t do rather than providing positive avenues of action aligned with the departmental business charter.
The reality is that dissatisfaction and criticism identifies the locus of a problem. Problem solving begins with recognition of the problem, before a solution exists. Denial leads to dysfunctional behavior– surely you’re not suggesting that this is a winning HR strategy?
An old maxim comes to mind: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!”
Let’s be adults and agree that not all criticism is valid. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be heard, but if you make money from bagging on a system and you never work to fix it, you are an asshole.
That’s all.
No wait, there’s more.
I never said HR has a tough job. In fact, I just said it has a cushy job.
Also, I’m not saying it doesn’t deserve criticism. The title of my blog is Punk Rock HR and I have a body of work that bags on the old ways of operating in HR departments.
You’re deflecting– didn’t you make a blanket statement that you aren’t qualified to criticize if you aren’t offering a solution? Being adult or not has nothing to do with recognizing the validity of criticism. Your initial claim that being outside the system invalidates any critique of the system that someone might offer is contrary to experience. We know that people inside any system become blind to its failings. If that were not so, why would any company need HR to tell management how to comply with labor law?
Perhaps this is satire and I have completely missed the point. If so, I apologize. I would like to understand.
Laurie:
First question, do you need to leave the stage, absolutely not. You have done the work as an HR professional so you get it and your criticism of HR comes from experience.
I have spent three decades in and around “HR”. There are a lot of people in HR who stopped evolving about that time.
We do a pretty shitty job of managing people across industries. Not human assets or human capital, people!
Much of the stuff we take shit for are management competencies. Basic blocking and tackling like giving feedback, making decisions about who is on the team, teaching people about the connection between their work and the goals of the organization are management competencies, they don’t “belong” to HR.
HR should not be a compliance organization. Leave that for the mouth breathers in Accounting.
When I look at the fact that job satisfaction, real productivity, and other KPIs are at an all time low and you can fix these things through good people management practices I see huge opportunity for HR. That’s why I wrote my book “Managing Whole People”.
Many executives don’t know what a good HR team looks like and can accomplish. I make a living showing them!
Show me a highly effective organization and I will show you an organization that does a good job managing their people. It isn’t consigned to a department it is a management initiative and competency and somewhere in that organization there are very bright people who figured that out and are keeping it going and trust me they didn’t come out of Finance or Engineering.
I wonder if people really, really, really need to be managed. I mean, really, c’mon.
Love this post. 16 years ago, when I dropped my marketing/communications business to focus on HR communications only, an artist I work with told me it was a waste of my talent. Are you kidding me????? It takes a helluva lot more talent to make benefits interesting and engaging than trying to convince kids to go to a stupid waterpark. Wouldn’t trade this whacky, ever-changing world of HR for anything. And the smart, creative HR folks I’ve met put many marketing managers to shame. (ok, gettin’ a nose bleed on this soapbox…guess I’ll step down for now)
HR communications can be a lucrative business because we’re all bad at communicating. Let your nose bleed. It’s okay.
And there I was, about to get a Masters in I/O Psych until Laurie Ruettimann told me it’s naught more than a Bum Fight… Except Bum Fights can get more hits on YouTube.
Go work at Starbucks. The market is better for baristas.
With an undergraduate degree in Labor Studies, a Masters in HR/IR and 25+ years of corporate HR experience I feel qualified to comment.
HR has been more highly impacted than any other function within an organization (with the exception of Finance) by the intrusion of the Government into the employment relationship. Look at the proliferation of new ‘people’ laws created since the 1960′s; Title 7, ADA, FMLA just to name three.
The result has been to drive the majority of HR practitioners in one of two directions; the ‘feel good folks’ and the ‘transaction folks’, neither of which are esteemed by the organization. To a greater or lesser extent, the majority of HR people have acquiesced to this prodding. They have done so because it naturally falls within their staff province.
In my experience, the determining factor as to HR excellence rests with the President or CEO of the organization. When HR is challenged to rise to the challenge of creating workable and worthwhile sales compensation programs; it happens. When HR is asked to change the caliber of people being brought into the organization; it happens.
The point is this; HR is a staff function, not a line function. The line function must determine the scope within which HR is to operate. If HR Sucks . . . . look at the CEO.
If HR Sucks . . . . look at the CEO. Thank you.
As a recovering HR person, like Steve, I have been on both sides. While it may only be one step, I thought it an important one when in March of this year I attended a conference put together by CT Partners and which they called: The 1st Annual Board of Directors Institue on Human Resources.
It was a pretty impressive group of CEOs, Board Members, and Senior HR folks. They published a report which is on the CT partners’ site at: http://www.ctnet.com/ctnet/
It iinspired me enough to actually do a blog post at the time that I titled Meaningful Dialogue Isn’t Dead Yet.
What made the day constructive was that it was a real world discussion where all involved recognized that there were a great many critical issues facing us all and it would take all of us to fix them.
Dave, awesome, thanks. I will check it out.
Dr. Francine Hoffman, my Journalism 101 prof, would roll over in her grave if I didn’t call you out on this: “The 1st Annual Board of Directors Institue on Human Resources.”
There’s no such thing as “1st Annual.” It is not “annual” until you hold it a second time. It can be inaugural, first-ever, whatever you want, but it is NOT 1st Annual.
/done channeling Dr. Hoffman.
Some day I’ll share her thoughts on writing obits. Now THERE’S some fun . . .
I’m a firm believer in that you need to have walked the walk to talk the talk…face it all the time in people critiquing sourcing…well said.
Thanks, Kelly.
I don’t mind criticism. I mind people who criticize, get notoriety for criticizing things, and then make money off the back-end of failure. I want to ask, ‘where is your moral compass?’
Finding good information in a social media and the internet is like panning for gold in a cesspool. You have to wade through a lot of s**t to get to the good stuff.
word. case in point: the cesspool that is punk rock hr.
I have found HR’s most vocal critics are typically the ones who have absolutely no idea what we do. They typically have no idea of the breadth and scope of our responsibilities. The criticize us for making them follow “stupid” (and typically legally necessary polices), then come running back when they get named in a lawsuit for breaking them.
We are often seen (and to a point, rightfully so) as a service department, unfortunately like people in a lot of service industries, we are only seen when their is an eff up (ours or others). Or when our service is to be the bad guy, the one who does the counseling, the terms, or has to tell you that no we can’t make an exception because breaking our contract with our carrier could affect a 1000 other people.
Honestly the bad HR cliché is just that. Just like not all line mangers are pointy hair bosses perpetuation the Peter Principle, not all HR Pros are paper pushing incompetents creating policy for all things great and small.
HR is not perfect. You want to fix it, fix the legalization, stupid and bigotry that necessitates some of its more onerous aspects.
Honestly the bad HR cliché is just that. Just like not all line mangers are pointy hair bosses perpetuation the Peter Principle, not all HR Pros are paper pushing incompetents creating policy for all things great and small. So well said. Thank you.
I see this with my husband, we get stopped in the grocery store and someone is telling him how to do his job not realizing that he fights an uphill battle with management every day in the face of budget cuts and he doesn’t want to lose his benefits either!
I liken it to being an instrumentation chemist, from an outsider it looks easy, but there’s so much more behind it: try reading an instrument manual or the full text for FMLA, just because you know all of the words does not mean that you’ll understand them all put together!
Goodness, people. How would *you* feel if you just wanted eggs and milk and someone wanted to hold a public conversation on your work performance?
Also, maybe this is for another post or time, but why can’t I seem to get people to assume positive intent? If you think I’m doing nothing, ask me what I’m up to. Yes, I can write code in MS Notepad that makes life easier for all of us. No, I’m not “wasting company time.” Yes, my husband spends his nights/weekends/sleeping hours going over your insurances, ask him what that entails before assuming he does nothing.
Thanks for letting me share!
No one ever assumes good intent. I discovered this when I volunteered. I worked with people who assumed that every decision was done for power or personal glorification. I’m like, no, really, I like when kittens are abandoned or dogs are in danger of being euthanized because it makes me feel special to swoop in and save them. I get lots of publicity on the local news for my volunteer work, I might turn this into a lucrative business, and everyone loves me more.
NOT.
Far too many people are just stupid. I blame Reagan and the cuts to the Dept of Education in the 80s, but that’s another blog post.
WORD!
And, frankly, I’m done with HR conferences until they actually hire keynote speakers who know what the &#%@ they’re talking about when it comes to HR. I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with being lectured by CEO’s who claim to know how I can be successful in HR. So, Mr. CEO, why didn’t you bring your HR Director to speak in your stead if your company has HR all figgered out, hmm?
HR means battering your head against a brick wall on a regular basis and sussing out where the back door is. It’s no wonder so many people suck at HR because it’s exhausting to fight that battle all the time for a ridiculously low income relative to the big fat brainy stuff and teeth-grinding tolerance required to be successful. It would be very easy to just give up, surf the internet all day, and collect the measly paycheck. I think we’re gluttons for punishment, really.
I listened to Steve Forbes speak at SHRM tell me what’s what in HR and the economy. When was the last time that guy met a corporate or personal budget, had to coach an employee for performance, or went into a Wal-Mart? Give me a break.
To shamelessly crib from de Toqueville:
“Companies will implement the HR department that they deserve.”
Love this. Hard.
(raising his torch in the air) Let them all burn!!!
Oh wait, what are we talking about? Right, HR criticism, douche-bag consultants and the realities of the situation.
I had a conversation this morning with the head of HR for a ~20k employee firm. He told me that I would make a lot more money if I stopped just giving stuff away and started charging for everything I do. “C’mon Mark, you’re leaving money on the table. Why let people have your ideas when you could be making a mint off of them?” He sighed at what a moron I apparently am.
So, when the client tells me to charge more and that I’m being foolish for trying to help the industry mature, that tends to make me question why I do what I do.
The bottom line is that HR drives me crazy sometimes and I’m not going to stop yammering on about it, so please don’t revoke my membership card to the club of “outsiders” who simply want to build a bigger/stronger/faster function. Or, reinforce my moronic feedback loop and I’ll put a stake in this career and move on. I’m cool either way.
Dude, you can criticize HR. You’re on my approved list.
Laurie,
Yeah they need to be managed not micro-managed…..
Ameliorate…..up there with bifurcate.
Two quotes come to mind:
1. People are not entitled to thier opinion. They are entitled to their informed opinion – Harlan Ellison
2. If 50 million people believe a stupid thing, it is still a stupid thing – Anatole France
Love this whole comment, bruno. I’m bifurcating right now, btw.
Matt, love that first quote (second isn’t bad either). I need to remember that and use it (and live by it) often.
While I am concerned that the interest in this topic has waned since Laurie has not commented back on the last half dozen comments and that it may have in fact ‘jumped the shark’ with Stacy’s comment above – I’ll throw in my 2 cents anyway.
I read through the entire post and comments and is it just me or is no one asking “Why do they criticize?” Or is it just that the assumption is that they have no idea what they are talking about? It seems to me that while many of the comments herein lean towards the latter we all know exactly why they are criticizing. I like what Tom Dimmick says above about looking to the CEO if there are problems with a failing or difficult or un-missioned HR department. HR needs to be a bottoms up organization (putting the people first) but with Top down authority to do right by the people.
I also liked what Corey Feldman has to say here (loved you in Goonies!). The Bad HR cliché comes from being forced to be the bad guy. I like the idea of a good strong HR department as one that puts up road signs instead of stop signs. I see a strong and well respected HR department as one that is the police escort in front of the business rather than the ‘red lights in the rear view mirror’. I believe that is a very possible and reachable objective.
Finally, Kathryn Carlson’s comment:
“Manage HR in the same way you would manage Operations or a Customer Service area- streamline, innovate, measure and report. Once HR has to step up to the same standards as other departments- then it will get some respect.”
Um….YIKES! Kathryn, I agree that HR cannot whine all day about a seat at the table but I respectfully disagree with your comment above. Don’t ask me how I know this but if your objective is to kill the collective soul of your workforce then this is a good way to do it. You can successfully do this in Marketing, Customer Service, Ops and especially in Manufacturing, but HR is not like ANY other department. Anyone who tries to make HR fit into the paradigm of how the rest of the business is structured may find themselves riding a trendy wave for a little bit that looks like it is working according to the metrics, but will ultimately, when people start feeling like they are merely that metric, (and they will) lead to long term failure.
So is this about stopping the criticism, judging the criticism, or evaluating the critic? I’m not sure anymore. But when the BUSINESS stops whining about HR and realizes that they’ll get nowhere without the PEOPLE (no product, no revenue, no brand, no profit) that’s when we’ll actually be getting somewhere.
Dude, thanks for the comment. I have a day job as a writer/speaker/consultant and I don’t usually comment in real-time. Your comment is interesting & many thanks for writing!
It is a looong string, I would not have blamed you for moving on. I also realize, upon reflection, that my comment is more to those who may be on the business side of a company complaining about their own HR. I also agree that the HR Consultants who come in relatively blind and try to profess that the existing HR is wrong and they have the answer…. Well, I agree with your position on that one.
I <3 HR people. I promise!
HR exists because large companies needed to do something to gainfully employ their sociopaths. And I am not a fan of people who’ve never robbed people’s houses and bag on that profession like they know what they’re talking about…
Hush, now. I might have to fire you — and you know I’m tough.
As a HR professional, I am often amazed and a little surprised (still after all these years – 20 plus) how the majority of HR critics are other HR folk. We just love to attack our own profession – far more so than other managers. As a line manager for a number of years, living on the other side, I never experienced it amongst the happy crowd of sales and marketing.
If HR can’t demonstrate their value, there is no place for gate keepers and admin folk – they deserve to report to the CFO as we see in so many companies.
HR has a great opportunity to help CEO’s to build a performance culture where employees are aligned, engaged and accountable. There are great HR people that are highly recognized.
Years ago we had to go through a cost exercise and I had to consider the redundancy of one of my HR managers. When discussing it with the senior manager, he offered to reduce some of his production staff as he didn’t want to let her go! HR was regarded as being a real business partner.
“As a HR professional, I am often amazed and a little surprised (still after all these years – 20 plus) how the majority of HR critics are other HR folk”
It stems from frustration. I know my criticisms do. Just a few of the fun things that I have recently seen from my counterparts.
1) I received email this morning asking what’s the status on certain quarterly process. This person is our upline in this process and has a deadline of this afternoon. I’m betting this deadline is going to be missed
2) One of the HR teams solidly misses a deadline. Their director asks if my team to run a fire drill to cover for them and to ask corporate for some deadline exceptions so we can avoid negative employee issues. Corporate raises hell with this HR director about the exceptions. This HR director assigns one of their reports to help us improve our process so we can avoid exception requests in the future…
3) I have been trying to get someone promoted since the beginning of the year. Our HR leadership was thinking about moving a couple of teams (including mine) around within the HR organization. They did not want to process the promotion until a decision was made. It took them several months to even start the review. This review is finally winding down and hopefully I can finally get this promotion processed…
True. The worst HR I have ever seen is HR Consulting companies – bad at recruitment and their own internal HR processes suck.
Often the same is true within big HR departments. The worst is they start seeing themselves as a business. And then they call themselves a MD!
A few years ago I saw a spectacular failure when an ex-consultant was appointed as VP HR. Not too long and their title was CEO. They created a massive overhead and big team and tried to build a consulting group. Once they tried to get external customers to help pay for their big spent it all felt apart.
HR is its own worst enemy…
Thinking, thinking, thinking. Sorry, Laurie, I got nothing to add. You do have some smart readers, don’t you?
My readers rock. Yup.
I wouldn’t DREAM of criticising HR — every HR person I’ve ever dealt with has been stressed being comprehension–!!! Hello– you deal with humans– that’s gotta suck–
Oh c’mon, you’re a recruiter. You are in HR.
HR is challenged by the very evolution that you describe Laurie. It started out as tactical (payroll etc.) and over time got more and more strategic stuff bolted on (until now it “owns” the “talent asset” whatever that is).
As most business disciplines expand like this they bifurcate into a transactional piece and a decision science piece. So book-keeping splits into accountant AND finance. You end up with sales AND marketing.
But HR, for the most, remains just one big contiguous lump from time and attendance through to employer brand. Which is too much of a mindthingy for anyone to successfully get their head around.
That is good insight about sales/marketing & accounting/finance. Awesome.
PS: Don’t stop the critics from sending/giving feedback. If we are going to improve we need to encourage the feedback, and the do something about it
Feedback is for suckers.
I suppose the same can be said for many supporting functions (HR, IT, Ops, etc). If you are not directly responsible for making the Business money then your function is secondary, and supporting. As an outsider – I worked in IT and Project Management specifically – for me, things started going downhill a good 5-10 years ago when HR became more of internal consultants (perception) to Business outsourcing crucial functions than worker bees performing the many functions you listed above. You are right, how does one criticise HR when one hasn’t worked in an HR department. That said, how does HR recruit for a Business Function they have never worked in and have little understanding of? Would the HR department allow a business function to recruit a member of the HR team? I don’t know, perhaps but unlikely.
From my days in IT and PM, I can say that I.T. is a thankless job. People expect systems to work like utilities. You switch on the light and wham there’s light. What you don’t see is the effort that goes into ensuring that it works. I suppose the same is true for HR. You need to be in it to understand it.
Let there be light!
Nice post, thanks for sharing.
Carlo
Thanks, Carlo!
Laurie, I know this post is HR-specific. But I love what you said, because it could be applicable in every other area of just about any company.
The people who complain the longest and loudest about what’s broken are NEVER the ones who put their talents/energy/ideas into a solution. They’re also usually the ones who whine and cry when someone brings the boards and nails to fix whatever’s wrong.
Healthy, viable companies work year round to innovate their way out of mistakes or issues or employee ennui, regardless of whether that’s in HR, IT or in widget-making 101. Unhealthy companies pretend to take the temperature of its employees once a year/decade and then roll over and go back to sleep.
Wait, you’re so right… but now I’m intrigued by what a widget-making 101 class would be like…
Not being in HR is exactly the best way to criticize and perhaps ridicule HR for its conduct and its exaggerated sense of self-importance.
The rest of the company is trying to tell how bad you are from their personal experiences with you as you do management’s bidding to subdue them.
SHUT UP AND LISTEN!
Okay. Perfect. Thanks. That’s really helpful.
I can understand the merit of an “objective” opinion outside of HR. However, listing gripes of how your HR department has slighted you is not criticism; it’s self-centered bitching.
So what have we learned from this? That HR folks love people? That people are often one sour life event away from turning into ax murderers? That HR people are then asked to handle the ax murdering people they love? Or the other people – bosses and employees – who may be afflicted with any one of the DSM-IV’s 297 disorders?
Ho hum…back to work.
We haven’t learned shit. That’s how it goes around here.
Frankly, with all the layoffs it’s kind of nice if someone can make money off broken HR. Go HR for creating new opportunities!
My career in HR spaned 35+ years and I owe a lot to the profession and fellow HR folks – but I also have given back – the balance is there. During those years, I diverted a bite into HR consulting during a job search. Thankfully, HR associates thought enough of my knowledge to assist them in their initiatives. This grew to other clients as pass along comments provided marketing visibility. I moved to servicing the CEO, CFO, CEO, CIO and the rest. I found in working with these individuuals a real desire to to do right by their employees – but additionally they often wanted to do things there way in conflict with the laws of the land in some cases. They sometimes called you in to see how they could skirt the system. Frustrated by being told the consequences of their actions, sulking may turn to critisicm. However, interestingly, I found these people to be sincere in wanting to grow their business, beat their competition and to do so with high product integrity. I would often be called to consult on a people issue of business consequence. How do I motivate this creative person? How might I communicate with this other department manager who feels communications is npower and hold back? How do I compensate a key employee when business is down? Where can I get training for my managers and what do they need – type of assessments? Can you find me a top CFO by next week? What a delight to know that they trusted and HR perspective – but I’ll never forget having established a strong business relationship with one CEO who called me into a Marketiung meeting to get my views of a Foregn commercial they were revieing with their ad agency. What the heck does that have to do with HR?! The reason I bring this up is that once in a firm – consultant or senior HR, one must become a confidant to the leadership. To know the specific company environment (History, people, leadership, products, competiyion, markets, etc.)provide a strong business acumen and understanding of how they succeed, deeply sense the motivations and goals of leaders through observation and listening and to provide excellent guidance and solutions that are workable for THAT company. Thuis is the role of a consultant, but it is also the role of every department manager within a firm – HR or otherwise.
I am now in Operations Management. I found that 7 years ago, HR was turning negative – I don’t mean the bashing of Hollywood in films and Dillbert’s Catbert, the EVIL HR director. These cheap shots are not well deserved, in my estimation. I mean that business began to push the economic bad news initiatives to HR to implement. They wanted hacket jobs and quickly, there was a movement to close plants and take work off shore – still going on today, and continued movement to trim Healthcare costs at the expense of both the company shareholders and the employee. Who gives the bad news…? Often it is the HR person sent to the distant plant to exit people and turn the key in the door uppon heaving. Sadly, this is the down side – this is what employees see and it hits them where they live. So, that said, I looked for more fertile ground – growth in a down economy and an occupation where I could make a difference positively – growing an enterprise and a business area through departmental team development. I miss HR a little. I liked the recruiting – a positive impactful role, I liked the O/D and the Labor Relations – yes, if you play fair and level with the folks, they will understand and appreciate the honesty. I loved the benefits – not for the paper-heavy aspects but the people resolutions – helping a family to get what they needed out of the objection focused carrier or finding alternatives for them. I battled and won outplacement services for Laid off workers and tweaked the programs to increase their effectiveness. There’s lot’s to be said for HR. The critics often are critics because they either experienced an HR negative communicated porly, didn’t feel that there was a business necessity behind offered solutions and policies, wanted to but was stopped from implement a headstrong and inappropriate practice or felt that HR was in some way a lesser partner, or had a less than needed commitment to the success of the business. Not true in all cases – I had the pleasure of working for companies that demanded high performance, business focus within HR – we had to earn and commanded respect – we became the go-to when supervision needed help to accomplish business objectives through people. That has somewhat become lost in this equasion – It does have to start at the top – but it also needs a business focus for the HR guru -who also needs a sixth sense in dealing with people, business structures and all the regulation that makes life interesting, comical and complicated.