Human Resource Management in the 21st Century
Fact or Fiction?
Question 1: “Why we hate HR?”
2007 May 15 Posted by Michael
Keith H. Hammonds’ 2005 Fast Company cover story article “Why We Hate HR” brought attention to and sparked heated debate concerning the his perspective concerning the current state of human resource management as a viable profession. In presenting his view of concerning the value and professional caliber of HR professionals Hammond states “Most HR organizations have ghettoized themselves literally to the brink of obsolescence. They are competent at the administrivia of pay, benefits, and retirement, but companies increasingly are farming those functions out to contractors who can handle such routine tasks at lower expense. What’s left is the more important strategic role of raising the reputational and intellectual capital of the company — but HR is, it turns out, uniquely unsuited for that.”
Here’s why. HR people aren’t the sharpest tacks in the box. If you are an ambitious new graduate from a top college or B-school with your eye on a rewarding career in business, your first instinct is not to go into human resources (at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, which arguably boasts the nation’s top faculty for organizational issues, just 1.2% of 2004 grads did so). Says a management professor at one leading school: “The best and the brightest don’t go into HR.”
Who does? Intelligent people, sometimes — but not business people. “HR doesn’t tend to hire a lot of independent thinkers or people who stand up as moral compasses,” says Garold L. Markle, a longtime human-resources executive at Exxon and Shell Offshore who now runs his own consultancy. “Some are exiles from the corporate mainstream: They’ve fared poorly in meatier roles — but not poorly enough to be fired. For them, and for their employers, HR represents a relatively low-risk parking spot.”
Hammonds’ indictment of HR professionals’ value and professional caliber raises questions concerning the viability and validity of his positions on these, as well as related, topics.
What do you think?
Share This »14 Responses to “Question 1: “Why we hate HR?””
Michael Says:
Great question!
To ask this question is to answer it.
The profession must reinvent itself.
The good news is in many organizations, large and small, the reinvention is underway.
Several domains for discussion:
Professional Orientation - Shifting the orientation of human resource management to human capital management (i.e. in professional titling, professional education, and business-based experiences).
Professional Competence - Becoming human capital management specialists developing expertise in 1-2 human capital related disciplines (e.g. human asset analytics and organizational culturist©) vs. a generalist orientation (e.g. employee relations, training, staffing, and performance management).
Professional Practice - Reorienting the purpose, focus, and practice of HRM to be business-centered (business professional first; HRM professional second); and deliver human capital solutions aligned with business needs enabling marketplace differentiation and competitive advantage.
Professional Center-of-Excellence - Delivering human capital-oriented thought leadership and best practices enabling strategic contribution contributor self-leadership (e.g. personal accountability and responsibility), driving organization productivity, profitability, and market growth.
The domains represent change topics. The call for HRM professionals to change; reinvent themselves and the profession, has been sounded. The challenge of transformation is offered. To call for industry change and be offered an opportunity for transformation is at once enabling and inhibiting. As an industry, we must realize this portal for reinvention has already begun to close. Increasingly, organizations of all sizes, are demonstrating reduced tolerance for imprecise HRM value propositions and/or non-measurable business contributions.
In future entries, I will trace the 3-phased history of “how” and “why” the HRM profession is in its current state and will provide recommendations, supported by literature and best practices, for our creating the contexts and conditions for developing the 4th phase of HRM evolution toward human capital management.
Today, the HRM industry’s has the opportunity to reengineer itself and emerge as a more viable, valid, and reliable business discipline.
How would you begin?
Robert Says:
HR can be annoying forms to fill out when you start the job. HR can be the place you go to complain when you feel you have been treated unfairly in the workplace. HR can be the reason a situation resulted in a lawsuit. A great HR department is often underappreciated and overlooked. A legally compliant workplace can not only help to avoid lawsuits or provide defenses but also promote productivity and insure a safe and comfortable working environment for employees. HR is simply an undervalued component of many organizations. Like attorneys, interaction with HR often comes at uncomfortable, difficult or annoying times. This is why “we” “hate” HR.
Patti Says:
I have to agree with Robert. I have been in and out of public sector HR for the last 9 years and am back in it again. Being a legally compliant workplace doesn’t always make people happy, but it must be so. I try for small “wins” with the departments we serve and hope that these will add up in the long run. BTW, I’m happy to see this blog!
Michael Says:
Hello Patti,
Thank you for participating in the HRM Blog!
To point, this legislation provides opportunity for legally compliant workplaces and stakeholder happiness? Workplace compliance and stakeholder happiness share the same root. Legislation provides stakeholders with opportunities to develop new orientations through cognitively reconstructing their perceptions and attributions relative the social interaction in 21st workplaces.
I like your approach of “small wins” in helping stakeholders understand individual responsibility concerning the legislative and operational mandates associated with Title VII.
The proof of workplace compliance with all legislation if evidenced in the “long run.”
However, in this workplace race, the guidelines and rules are clear, the course established, and with deliberate organizational leadership providing guidance and opportunity for stakeholders to experience a “metanoia” or shift of mind concerning all aspects of Title VII, everyone will be a winner!
Again Patti, thank you for participating and engage often.
isaac dixon Says:
Hello everyone! I addressed this issue when this article initially ran in Fast Company. Businesses cannot have it both ways. If HR is truly integral to our businesses lets begin treating that way. This means quit using HR as a place to relegate people that cannot cut it in other parts of the busienss. Stop assigning HR the responsibility for planning the company party (get an employee committee to do this). Insist on the same level of skills as we do for people running IT or Finance (quit promoting people who are nice people into the role). If we inherit people who are not trained put a development plan in place and either train them up or move them out.
The bottom line is unless we think enough of our own profession to care more deeply who enters it these types of articles will continue to have more truth to them than we would like to admit.
Samantha Says:
The challenge with HR is that business owners don’t want to have to deal with it. I don’t know anyone who started a business with the idea that they would have the best human resources department in their industry. Instead business owners want to focus on why they went into business, on their individual passion that drove them to become an entreprenuer.
This is why HR gets pushed to the side and often placed on the shoulders of individuals who aren’t really sure what their role is within the business.
Jennifer Starace Says:
I love this article and I hate this article at the same time. Although I am an experienced SPHR, I have found many of the issues mentioned to ring true. Perception is reality and many people believe that HR does not know their stuff especially in the area of metrics and budget reports; yet, I have also found that many presidents and business owners don’t like to play by the rules and unfortunately for us HR folks we don’t make them. Prior to 1964, if you had a good personality and degree in English or Psychology, you could be the HR Director. Now, the list of employment law is long with ADA, ADEA, FMLA, FLSA, HIPPA, FACTA to name a few and growing daily to include new immigration laws. The prediction is that HR positions may eventually become lawyer positions if more legislation develops. One thing to keep in mind is that this is only one aspect of the field and very few companies have specialists for this area. So, HR professionals are burning the midnight oil to comply with the law as well as recruit, coach managers, conduct investigations, train employees and so much more — if they are doing the job. So,when executives are fortunate enough to find high performing, knowledgable HR professionals, don’t squelch the creative and strategic thinking by making them feel like an overpaid administrative person. There is a valuable place for HR in the boardroom and many are willing to earn it. When the workforce shortage comes on strong, HR truly will have its greatest opportunity to shine for those businesses poised and ready.
Michael Says:
Jennifer,
Well said!
You state “don’t squelch the creative and strategic thinking by making them (HRM Professionals) feel like an overpaid administrative person. Human capital professionals have a valuable, if not paramount place in boardrooms and many are willing to earn it.”
So, agreed!
It’s the “earning it” part that continues to be the HRM industry’s overarching challenge. To your point, the roles and responsibilities of HRM professionals appears to be migrating toward workplace and employment law. This said, by design and default, the traditional “five (5) pillars” of HRM are being toppled in favor of more specialized legal/human capital-oriented professional expertise; perhaps from your perspective; the law. This trend, be it beneficial or not relative to the HRM industry, forces HRM professionals out of their generalist roles and into specialized and competency-driven thematically congruent areas of expertise that align with the three (3) core competency areas of the HRM Leadership Development Model© which focuses on transforming HRM professionals thinking and behaving from an administrative, task-oriented approach to HR to specific, foundational content areas of the HRM Leadership Development Model © (i.e. business, legal, and cognitive and behavioral psychology).
This approach coupled with the specific competencies and skills associated with the HRM Leadership Development Model© gained working “on-the-line” or in related work environments, HR professionals can gain respect as a vital and mission-critical partners. The HRM Leadership Development Model © articulates three (3) core competency areas:
1. business knowledge, acumen, and experience - enable business achievement.
2. cognitive and behavioral psychology - acquires, develops, and place human capital; and
3. identifies, captures, and deploys HC-related knowledge and expertise (knowledge management) to enable 1) business achievement (i.e. point #1 above; 2) culture formation and evolution; and 3) succession planning-based business and human capital models aligned with achieving organizational, cultural, and business objectives.
After these three (3) areas are cultivated, made transparent, and are self-managed, all other activities and tasks currently associated with HRM (e.g. benefits management, organizational development, party planning, etc.) must be outsourced enabling the reacquisition of 30%-50% (on average) of HRM professionals time to devout to the three (3) core competencies.
However, remember the old saying “Be careful what you wish for may get it!” Human resource professionals are famous for bemoaning their unempowered status, especially leadership status, by stating “If I didn’t have to do this administrative work, which has nothing to do with my field of HRM, I could………………” It is the “I could” that becomes at once inspirational and intimidating. Many HRM professionals are not prepared to take on the mantle of organizational or department leadership. They simply don’t have the business knowledge or field experience to be credible with large portions of the organizational population and have had limited exposure to senior leadership, except perhaps from an employee perspective, therefore not knowing the critical thinking, behavioral rationales, and decision making practices relative to key organizational, cultural, and business initiatives.
My question is “have you witnessed what generally occurs when HR professionals reacquire 30% to 50% of their work time back without specific guidance concerning how to invest this time? Unfortunately, many HR professionals migrate back to what they know best, feel comfortable with, and execute well; administrative responsibilities. In turn, perpetuating their lack of credibility, limited exposure to business dealings, and lack of inclusion as the key stakeholder human capital leader and manager.
Again Jennifer, well said.
Thought…………………?
Paul Pierce, SPHR Says:
Thank all of you for your comments. And, too, as Patti writes, nice to see this blog!
Many comments could be made about the value of “HR”, but I will make just two observations.
Distain for HR does have its roots in the fact that often times average workers park there, but also in the fact that management and more specifically (so-called) leadership really has no vision or robust understanding for the role HR might play.
For example, in a company I worked for it routinely takes 4-6 weeks to get reimbursed for a travel claim. Something as routine and prosaic as untimely reimbursement to employees for expenses they’ve incurred on behalf of the company is a very genuine dissatisfier. That, in turn, does effect work. So, point is, I fault management for being inattentive to the impact of myriad “small” events and not managing/supporting the HR function as they would other functions, such as contracting, et cetera.
These two factors—”leadership” inattention and indifference to the actual execution of ’small things’—makes all the difference combine to cast the HR function in a poor light.
Jean Says:
This narrow administrative focus is exactly why many dislike HR. What is needed is a more global view of the company and how they can add value proactivly to assist in managing the human capital. The administrative duties can be automated and managed by clerks.
Rick Says:
HR doesn’t have to be the hassle that many perceive it to be. Seeking opportunities to reduce Workers Comp cost and provide affordable health insurance benefits, I looked into PEOs. By outsourcing human resources for your current employees,business owners can reduce employee overhead and administrative paperwork.
Professional Employee Organizations removes the non-productive tasks from your business so that you can concentrate on growing your business. It’s like having your own personal staff of human resource experts to handle all of your employee hassles. I
researched the value of utilizing a PEO at
http://www.onlinehrhelp.com.
Michael Says:
Hello Paul,
Thank you for your contribution.
PEO’s provide an “outsourcing-like” HR and related services option.
Has anyone else used PEO’s?
Michael
Jill Says:
As a human resources professional, one might be surprised to discover that 1) I “Googled” “why I hate human resources” and found the article Susan mentions above, and 2) I’m pretty much in agreement with it. I have a Bachelor’s degree in economics and a Master’s of Industrial Relations, and I have been in the “industry” for 10 years. I am disillusioned with the lack of HR practitioners who have either a “business” or “analytical” bent. Those who do seem to get frustrated and move into consulting.
I could go on forever about my personal frustrations, but this is about the article “Why We Hate HR”. Although there are some good insights, the article is mostly one-sided, blaming the HR community as being inept, but what it doesn’t recognize is that human resources is a “function” much like “finance” is a function, and in order for it to be successful, it takes more than a group of HR professionals in an ivory tower pushing paper and talking about strategic HR amongst themselves. Executives, managers, and employees all have a role to play in ensuring an organization’s human resources function is successful. As an HR practitioner, I can’t count the number of times managers wanted to engage in HR related activities that would only result in disaster. Then they get pissed off at HR because they try to prevent that disaster. For example, the manager who wants to hire his best friend at a ridiculously high salary, or the supervisor who wants to unilaterally fire or transfer a poorly perfoming employee who he has never given ANY feedback to for 10 years. How can HR professionals be effective when no one wants to hear what we have to say? Maybe many of my colleauges could talk the talk, but couldn’t rub two brain cells together. But I know of some of us who are salient people with some great tools and ideas and no one will listen, including executive management. No one wants to be told or advised what to do. They want to do what they want to do and all they want is the HR person to endorse it. Perhaps this is another reason why HR professionals are relegated to administrative tasks, because that’s all people want them to do - i.e. “here, fill out this form for me, I have more important things to do…” No one says “help me get my team to perform better” because this would imply that the manager isn’t doing a good job, and he would never admit that publically. Let’s face it, HR has the pleasure of telling managers and executives how to behave properly if they want their staff to stay and perform. But people are people. They are sometimes control freaks, glory hogs, conflict-averse, etc. and don’t want to be told to act otherwise, especially not by HR…..
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Jean Says:
What do you see HR Professionals can do to change this perception ?
May 16th, 2007 at 5:34 am