Why Don't We Trust HR?

The other day, I threw the question, "What is your experience with HR?" on TikTok, and people were not shy about privately messaging me about their experiences. I thought that I had heard it and seen it all, but then this message made me think. Why are we doing this? Like what is the purpose? I really fail to understand. The message:

My sister is in HR and her boss told her if she didn't stop being nice with others he will not promote her! They force that kind of attitude on them.

When has being nice to the people you are supposed to support and care for become the reason for not being promoted? When has being nice stopped us from being fair, rational, objective or professional?

Just do a quick Google search on "HR is not trusted" or "Why nobody likes HR", and you will find some real stuff out there. Even SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management) admitted that 'HR doesn't exist to help employees"

The article provides an explanation for the purpose of HR and draws on real experiences like this:

I am two years into a career in HR. My work experience includes managing people and training and development. I truly am struggling and considering leaving my HR director role as I am constantly being reprimanded for looking out for the best interests of the employees.

Ok, so where do we go from here? Yes, HR exist to serve the organisation but aren't the people who make up any organisation? This article offers alternatives, but I don't think they address the issue itself. In fact, they ignore the problem and basically say, "It is what it is, suck it up, you are on your own, figure it out."

I believe that the role of HR will never change fundamentally. Their core purpose will always be to ensure sure that organisations run and are profitable. Nothing will change that. They are not in a position of looking out for employees nor have the time or bandwidth.

One solution to this problem is a senior Employee Experience role outside of HR. What does it look like? I wrote an article about it detailing its purpose titled The State of Employee Experience.

Why is it important that we fix employees' experiences? Well, the answer is in the complaints of companies about hiring, retention, and performance challenges. Unfortunately, they don't have enough information to solve the problem because a) people don't trust HR, therefore, don't provide relevant info, b) they are not showing any kind of willingness to learn about employees' experiences. No, the annual employee engagement survey does not demonstrate the intention of learning about employees' experiences. It is a process organisation and HR completes serving no real purpose. So move away from that and move towards Employee Experience.

Follow me on TikTok, where we discuss people and other organisational matters: corporatekindergarten

Also, you can find more practical & immediately actionable alternatives to current practices in my book The Corporate Kindergarten https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BT6YJDN2

Have a happy Sunday!