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Why We Hate HR?

The July edition of Fast Company magazine had this phrase on the cover.

It's an interesting concept.

Although I think Hate is too strong a word, I must say I have noticed the problem. In many organizations HR is treated like the "fifth" wheel, (the spare tire) needed but not really appreciated until a flat tire occurs. But I know from talking to my HR colleagues that they really long to be full-fledged members of the management team in their organizations.

In some organizations, very few in fact, the Human Resource function is that dream position where the person occupying the top HR job sits as a full member of the management team. In these companies the HR Staff have a well defined purpose as a genuine ally of both the organization and the people within it. Seeing itself as a "profit center", it is itself lean, effective and vital to the company's success.

What can be done to make the second scenario the "norm"?

First let me say that Human Resources like Management itself is still relatively new. And just as, over time we have come to have new insights about leading and managing people, HR as a corporate business function has been evolving right along with it. With that grace in mind let me offer some possibly new insight.

Exactly what are the right skills, knowledge and character that produce an HR person that can truly be effective? This is evolving and becoming clearer all the time as CEO and business owners determine exactly what they want from their Human Resource Department. Our training of HR professionals needs to keep constant pace with the marketplace in this regard.

But what can be done to establish the second scenario as the standard?

I think to be truly effective, there needs to be some tweaking of the preparation for HR professionals that breaks the current mold. In my opinion, the best case scenario would be that the person leading the HR department has qualified HR knowledge AND has spent time in a supervisory or management role that is responsible to produce revenue and achieve profitability, or in the case of a non-profit, tied to accomplishing core mission, and, has that experience under the pressure that typical line managers face every day successfully.

True credibility comes, well, from being credible. (Duh!) Believability comes from having "done that", and from knowing the truth. Any would-be HR professional who really desires credibility, should, upon graduation, get a job in a management capacity where he/she has direct responsibility

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