Competency • Waste

Why We Hate HR
You're great at administrivia and wasteful. by Keith H. Hammonds

ing the reputational and intellectual capital of the company, and HR is uniquely unsuited for that. Here are four reasons why: N A KNOWLEDGE 1. HR people aren't the sharpest tacks economy, compain the box. The best and the brightest nies with the best taldon't go into HR. Some enter the field ent win. And finding, nurturing, and by choice and with the best of intendeveloping that talent should be one tions, but for the wrong reasons. They of the most important tasks. So, why does human resources (HR) do such a like working with people and want to bad job—and how can we fix it? After be helpful, but they don't know how you get the best and brightest people 20 years of hopeful rhetoric about and raise the value of the firm. The becoming "strategic partners" with a gulf between capabilities and job "seat at the table," most HR professionals still have no seat. They are nei- requirements is widening. Most HR managers lack basic business acumen ther strategic nor leaders. and can't answer basic questions: Who Most HR professionals are peris your core customer? What chalceived, at best, as a necessary evil— lenges do they face? Who is the comand at worst, a dark bureaucratic force that blindly enforces nonsensical petition? What do they do well? Who rules, resists creativity, and impedes constructive change. HR is the function with the greatest potential—the key driver, in theory, of performance— but also consistent underdelivers. Why are annual performance appraisals so time-consuming—and useless? Why is HR so often a henchman for the CFO, finding ever-more ways to cut benefits and hack at payroll? Why do its communications often flout reality? Why are so many people processes duplicative and wasteful? And why does HR insist on sameness as a proxy for equity? are we? What do we do well? Does It's no wonder that we hate HR. your HR pro know the answers? Just 40 percent of employees commend their companies for retaining 2. HR pursues efficiency in lieu of high-quality workers and think that value. It's easier to measure the number performance evaluations are fair. Only of training hours (what you do) than it 58 percent rate their