Why We No Longer Need HR Departments
Bernard Marr
📖 Internationally Best-selling #Author🎤 #KeynoteSpeaker🤖 #Futurist💻 #Business, #Tech & #Strategy Advisor
The time has come for HR (Human Resources) departments to call it a day. HR departments often portray themselves as a valued business partner for management and staff alike. However, how can anyone take a department seriously that refers to people as ‘resources’?
Nothing matters more to companies than the people who work there. Companies are nothing without the right people! And I am sure that not one, single individual wants to be referred to as a ‘human resource’.
So, the first point I want to make is that the name is wrong: very wrong. It signals to everyone that this department manages ‘human resources’ in a top-down fashion, i.e. managing humans in a similar way to other resources such as finance, property or machines. If departments can’t see that this is sending out the wrong messages, then they don’t deserve to be there anyway.
Another issue is that HR departments are trying to serve two masters – which, in most cases, is not very successful. On the one hand, they are there to provide support for the employees and, on the other hand, they are there for the company and the senior management to help manage (and monitor, discipline, appraise, etc.) employees. This conflict of interest can cause friction and in many instances HR departments swing to the ‘support the company’ side, rather than the ‘support the employees’ side.
There is more. We can argue about whether the name is right or wrong, or whether the focus should be on the company or on the employees, but what really matters is whether HR delivers value. I have recently seen a number of companies that shut their HR departments down completely; outsourced the function or reduced it to a minimum. The reason they have done it, and not suffered any significant throw-back, is because HR wasn’t delivering any real value. Most of their time was taken up with bureaucratic and administrative tasks or legal issues. If HR doesn’t deliver some unique benefits then outsourcing it makes a lot of business sense.
Other companies, however, have invested in the ‘people function’. They realize that they need people who ensure that the company finds, recruits, retains and develops its people. So here is what I recommend:
- Don’t call it HR!
- Put two teams in place: a people analytics’ team and a people support team.
- The role of the people support team is, as the title suggests, supporting all employees in the organization – from the front line to the senior leadership team. The tasks of this team include: helping employees with their development; ensuring staff engagement; identifying issues with morale and culture and generally looking after the well-being of the people in the business.
- The role of the people analytics team is to look at people more scientifically and support the company with insights and analytics. The kind of questions this team would help to answer includes: What are our talent gaps? What makes a good employee in our company and how do we best recruit them? Which employees have got the highest potential? How can we predict staff turnover? Etc.
- Outsource or automate the non-value adding part of HR.
As always, I am interested to hear your reactions and I've seen many opinions bubbling up in the comments section. Please share your views on the future of human resource departments.
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About Bernard Marr
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that reaches millions of readers.
Business In A Different Way
4moOur traditional wisdom is work must require people to complete, with the advancement of technologies, work can be done in many ways. HR should become WR, work resources instead!
Training and Development Specialist
7moTypical coming from a non hr professional. The thing about speakers is that everyone can speak. Credibility is often measured by the size of the audience. So yes you are forgiven. HR IS NOT DYING, ITS EVOLVING!!!
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10moHere we are almost 10 years later, and we are still having the same conversations about HR departments. Like many here, I have yet to meet an HR department that could: (a) Keep bullying managers in line. Even if you regard this as nothing more than enlightened self-interest, as in preventing a manager from getting the company sued by an employee, they always fail epically. If everyone (even other managers!) is complaining about a particular manager, maybe you need to do something before people start quitting. (b) Make sure there is parity between similar teams and roles. No-one like to be paid less for the same job, or conversely see someone doing less work for the same pay. It's called J.S. Adams Equity Theory, and it's been around since 1963, look it up. Instead they always seem to hide behind the "That's the contract you signed" argument. (c) Make sure that career development actually happens. Many employers talk-the-talk regarding personal or career development, but very few can walk-the-walk. And HR are usually as far away from this process as you can imagine. Unless you have a good immediate manager (see point (a) above), you are basically going to to struggle to get the benefits that you are entitled to.
Providing Unique Insight Into Complex Business Roadblocks | CEO @ Business Velocity
1yGreat article. The only thing I'd add is that the description you have under "people support team" is called Organisational Development in some countries.