Why Employees Should NEVER Trust Human Resources

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HR is not your friend and employees should never trust them…. that’s the message of an article I recently read.

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Check out the comments too.

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This Months Book Club

Next week we’re discussing:

Inclusalytics?

by Victoria Mattingly, Sertrice Grice and Allison Goldstein?

We're going to be discussing this in the Element of Inclusion Book Club on Wednesday 26th April.

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Earlier this week I shared:

4 Things People Don't Talk About Enough from "How To Be An Anti Racist"

It's featured in Sharon Hurley Hall (she/her) 's Anti Racism Newsletter.

Check it out here.

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HR is not your friend and employees should never trust them.

That’s the message of an article I recently read, but do you think that’s right??

HR professionals have a bad reputation.?

They’re like real estate agents and insurance sales people: you don’t need to travel far to hear a horror story about a bad experience.?

You can say that about a lot of occupations.

I often say it about so called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion experts.

So why the focus on HR?

I read a short article called “Why Employees Should NEVER Trust Human Resources” and it inspired an episode of our podcast.?

I don’t want to pretend it’s a balanced discussion about HR because it’s not.

Here are a few quotes:?

“HR is not going to be your champion”

“While HR may not be your enemy, they are NOT your friend.”

“Employees generally do not trust HR and that mistrust is rightly deserved.”

I’m not going to do a full breakdown of the article.?

I’m not going to provide a balanced discussion either.?

Next week I’m going to present an equally unbalanced counter position to this article.?

This week I’m going to highlight 3 themes I identified:?

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1 HR is an Agent of the Organisation?

This is so obvious you may think it’s not worth saying, but not understanding this is why so many people get disappointed with their relationship with HR.?

I’ve spoken about Principal Agent issues in a different context.

Here's something different:

- Think of HR as the Agent.?

- Think of the Organisation as the Principal.?

- The Agent acts on behalf of the Principal.?

This means if you’re not the Principal, the agent isn’t acting on your behalf.?

The article asserted this by saying: “Human Resources first and foremost exist to protect an institution from exposure and liability in its management of its workforce.”

HR is motivated to protect the organisation from legal exposure and reputational damage.

HR often act is if they need to protect the organisation from you.?

- Your issues?

- Your experience?

- Your complaints

These can lead to legal exposure and reputational damage for the organisation.?

There are plenty of irresponsible employees who cause that.?

That’s one perspective.?

Here’s the ugly truth I’ve encountered:?

Sometimes managers and leaders cause problems that expose the organisation to legal exposure and reputational damage.

But because they are managers and leaders.?

- They have the power to wield HR as a weapon

- They have the power to wield HR against other employees.?

There are plenty of irresponsible leaders who do that.?

On the show I talk about my own experience and give a detailed example of some anonymised data I’ve collected.?

These are the words of someone who felt that HR was being used against them by the organisation.

It’s an example I’ve come across so often it’s staggering.?

Check it out here.

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HR Doesn’t Have As Much Power As You Think?

In the article the author said: “HR will accept and listen to complaints from employees but never take any real action to correct the root causes of the problems because management, primarily senior management, does not want it to”?

This is a direct reference to the lack of power HR has in the face of unscrupulous leaders.?

HR don’t have the power to take real action in the face of potential abuse by the leaders.?

Too often they are the ones forced to cooperate with what the article described as “rogue and just downright awful managers”.

I want to volunteer my bias here:?I used to work as a chartered accountant and in my role we had a strong influence on the organisation and the leaders.?

We positioned ourselves as business partners and that meant not only did we advise and guide; we had the power to intervene.

Everyone had to cooperate with us.?

You had to be accountable to us.

Obviously it’s not the same thing but I’ve rarely observed organisations who felt that they had to be accountable to HR outside of compliance and regulations.?

Too often HR Leaders aren’t able to influence the organisation in they way they want.?

People often leave HR for this reason.?

I know because I’ve spoken to hundreds and hundreds of HR leaders and I’ll be sharing what they told me next week.?

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HR are the true face of an organisation?

Personally, I think you should trust HR as much as you trust your organisation.?

It’s not useful to think of HR as being separate and distinct.?

I find HR typically reflect the true character of the organisation.?

I always play a game when I come into contact with an organisation.?

I pretend it’s a person and I ask myself “would I be friends with this person?”?

This tells me what I think about the character of the organisation.?

This tells me what I should think of HR.?

It’s not scientific, but it’s never let me down.?

What do you think of your organisation?

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As always

I'm cheering you on

Dr. Jonathan

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