Why We Love To Hate HR and What HR Can Do About It

An excellent article in the Harvard Business Review about why Human Resources has failed to capture the imagination of operational management and how to change it . . . 

"Like any other function, HR must show why the issues it addresses matter to the business and that it has sensible ways to manage them. A few years ago the head of HR at a leading corporation—someone who had survived lots of restructurings—was asked about the key to his success. He said, “I do whatever the CEO wants.” Though doing things the boss doesn’t want is certainly a career-limiting strategy, too many HR managers wait to be told which issues to tackle. If a company starts a wellness program after the chief executive has a heart attack, or launches a women’s initiative after his daughter takes a job in the business, you can be sure that the HR team is not leading the charge.

"CEOs and other operating executives are rarely experts on workplace issues. They often have no relevant experience, now that fewer of them are coming up through training programs and rotational assignments in which they could have learned effective people-management practices from knowledgeable peers. So the HR team can show these executives what they should care about and why. That means articulating a point of view on every people-related topic relevant to the business. "

Article here:  https://hbr.org/2015/07/why-we-love-to-hate-hr-and-what-hr-can-do-about-it
https://hbr.org/2015/07/why-we-love-to-hate-hr-and-what-hr-can-do-about-it