Has Human Resources as a function gone too far to the right?

Has Human Resources as a function gone too far to the right?

All the way through the last decade there’s been a constant theme with HR pushing more and more onto line managers and employees as it's moved from its old title of Personnel to Human Resources. Why? The main reasons are probably:

1. HR trying to escape from being at the beck and call of Line Managers who would have happily in the past passed the buck to HR.
2. The escapable challenge that’s been put on HR headcount as it seemed as an overhead rather than a positive impactor on the bottom line.
3. The need for real-time and accurate information provided by employees and line managers.
4. Compliance to processes especially through the inception and adoption of HR technology.
5. Re-enforcing the concept of Managers Managing (linked to number 1 above) – after all, it’s the Line Manager who knows their people right?

There are probably way more but just email me at [email protected] so that I can compile a probably long list.

But has this all gone too far to the right and has HR lost an element of what it was set-up for in the first place i.e. to be connected to people? In addition to this, I’ve just read a really interesting post on LinkedIn by Catherine del la Poer where she mentioned about how less human we are all allegedly becoming and does this count for HR too:

“Plugged in ... are we all becoming less human? A friend has recently returned to work after a number of years raising her family. Her number one observation... “everyone is plugged in (to headphones)” ... if she wants to speak to a colleague, even if they sit close by, she has to use email or IM just to get their attention”

The recurring comment that I am hearing a lot more now regarding HR from businesses is “stop tying my people up in worthless HR tasks that take time away from my people doing what they need to do!” Just in case you don’t get this, it’s a call from businesses to say the time that they are doing HR tasks is time that they are not selling/producing etc., ergo and simply put, not making money for their companies. You can obviously take these two ways:

1. The businesses don’t understand why employees and line managers are having to do what they are doing for their company and HR or
2. Is it that HR doesn’t understand the impact on what they are doing and are not agile/lean/customer-focused in what they are rolling out and how they are engaging with the company at large?

Of course, this is purely my view but starts/continues the conversation. However, let’s quickly look at both:

1. If this is a reality then you have to start with the question why and go as far as possible to understand is this a correct perception and if it isn’t then what needs to be actioned to change it (this could be tied into point 2). After all, perception is king and unless you address it and change it, nothing will ever really change.
2. It’s time to look in the mirror – if this is a reality HR has to stop what it’s doing and evaluate the why again. This time from a position of a) what’s being asked for/rolled out is what the business absolutely needs to drive it forward b) is it time that HR took back some of the workloads from line managers instead of trying to convert them into HR professionals c) are systems truly supporting or are they working against the business and d) is it time to change and innovate instead of following the crowd (processes, procedures, systems, policies etc. etc.?

So has HR as a function gone too far to the right? It’s definitely one that I think should be debated and addressed/resolved.

Hopefully if nothing else this article has made you think; you don’t have to agree with it, but if your HR team is under the spotlight or your company has a disconnect on the HR side then at least you should be asking yourselves or others some open questions.

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Author “Human Resources Changes the World”

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