Phildhrra.org

Human Resources is a business activity with schizophrenic tendencies. It means different things to different people, and in many places it’s the one department everybody likes to hate. Practitioners are often seen being dragged off by people in white coats while they convulse and sob “why doesn’t anyone love me?”

North Americans have a different view of HR than Europeans do. Europeans look on HR as a career option, and professional organizations bestow accreditation on individuals who undergo rigorous study on the topic. In North America up and coming executives may be assigned to head the function as part of their development plan on their way to some other high level position. Generally, other employees within the function in North America are less likely to be there as career choices than their European counterparts.

There was a time when large companies had “Personnel” sections in most departments so the clerk, supervisor, or manager might well know everybody in the area by name. They would also be aware of what was going in the employees’ life. They would help folks with forms and policy and whatever. “Personnel” had a face most could identify. In the world of academia it was known as a soft science.

That has all changed. The function has been centralized and there may not even be an HR department in the region, never mind the city. Some companies in Europe now have “call centers” that service the entire continent. HR has been reduced to a telephone hot line or an online computer.

The theory was that the front line manager should be the best person to provide information to his or her staff, and HR would be a resource to help them do this. Unfortunately many front line managers have neither the desire nor the imagination to be the HR person as well as the production manager for widgets. Industrial supervisors and managers aren’t known for their people skills, and together with managers across the board feel the HR role takes too much time away from their primary responsibilities.

Our obsession with productivity has driven a wedge between employees serving the company and the company servicing the employees. That’s what happened to the human side of the business.

There are three aspects to HR: first there’s the hiring and firing, then there’s policy and program development, then there’s the morale in the workplace. It all comes together in the workplace, and that’s where the function has been compromised most. Managers are required to deal with every issue under the sun, but a telephone or a web site doesn’t have one of the basic components of people management: human intuition. That’s the oil that keeps the human side of the enterprise running smoothly.

When we expound on our human resources being our most valued resource and then interface with our people through technology is there any wonder we have a disconnect? Is there any wonder that survey after survey concludes most people are not happy in their job? Is it not clear we need to redress this imbalance?