Why We Hate HR?

The other morning my day started out with a friend of mine walking into my office and calling me a loser. I was offended and hurt by the unreasonable judgment he passed on me, so I asked him what he meant by it. He explained that he has been disappointed by my lack of posting to my blog. I had to concede. He is correct. I have been a huge loser. So, to redeem myself, I am posting today. Furthermore, my post today is in honor of my friend with the insight to call me a loser.

Last week I was having lunch with Neil - who remains blogless - and the JavaKid. I had been invited by management to participate, as a representative of the technical staff, in the interview process of a new HR Manager. I was honored to accept the invitation, but struggled a bit while compiling my list of possible interview questions that I like to prepare before any interview. I asked Neil and the JavaKid what they thought some good questions would be. Neil directed me to a very interesting article in Fast Company titled Why We Hate HR. Besides having an amusing title, the article raised some very good questions about the role of HR. To be honest, I had always seen HR as the people-friendly staff who help with any benefit questions. The article suggests that HR people of that caliber would better serve society as social works. Heh. This article suggests that HR should play a role of strategic planning, and should always back up any benefit recommendations with some hard, tangible business benefits that can be quantified and proved. Hmmm…metrics for HR! What a novel idea.

Wouldn’t it be cool if HR, instead of setting up a bunch of policy that we had to struggle to work around, used their time and energy to prove to my management team why it is worthwhile, in the language of business that my management team understands, for them to keep me happy and recruit talent?

Just a thought...

Now I have posted, and I no longer rate as a loser. At least that is what I keep telling myself :)