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Why We Hate HR

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Why We Hate HR

Fast Company,

5 min read
5 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Human resources departments should focus on human capital; instead they do administrative tasks.

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Editorial Rating

7

Recommendation

While the title of this article may or may not be tongue-in-cheek, Keith H. Hammonds makes some thought-provoking arguments about the role human resource (HR) officers should be playing at their companies. Employees are often unhappy with their company’s HR department. Instead of being strategic partners in their employers’ businesses and supporting talented employees, HR professionals concentrate on purely administrative tasks. But is that really their job description or, as Hammond suggests, are they just not qualified to do more? getAbstract recommends this sobering yet fascinating analysis to anyone working in the field of human resources.

Summary

Picture this: Las Vegas, Caesars Palace and hundreds of midlevel human resource (HR) executives mingling at a “strategic HR leadership” conference. After a presentation from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage senior vice president of human resources Julie Muckler, titled “From Technicians to Consultants: How to Transform Your HR Staff into Strategic Business Partners,” the audience appears slightly “dazed.” And that, precisely, is the problem with HR. When it comes to the straightforward administrative tasks of dealing with wages and benefits, a role that is increasingly being outsourced...

About the Author

Keith H. Hammonds is president and COO at Solutions Journalism Network and was Fast Company’s executive editor between 1999 and 2007.

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