BLOGPOST
Why We STILL Hate HR (Even After 10 Years!)
Top CEOs, academics, and even HR executives have promulgated a strategic approach to human
resources for over three decades. Ten years ago Keith Hammonds (2005) explained Why We Hate
HR: despite all the talk, human resources is not strategic yet! Another decade has passed – has
your HR department started walking the walk or is it still just talking the talk? Let’s review
Hammonds’ (2005) four points of contention and consider a recent survey by Deloitte (Bersin,
Gller, Wakefield, & Walsh, 2016) to see how much progress we’ve really made.
1. “HR people aren’t the sharpest tacks in the box.”
What kind of people make up your HR department? Were they hired to elevate your HR function
into a strategic one or are most of them just transplants that didn’t fit in other departments? Do
they still overemphasize interpersonal skills and neglect the business? Let’s put it this way, are
your HR people overly concerned with being nice, and hoping everyone gets along or do they
proactively align their initiatives with executing your organizational strategy?
Today only 40% percent of business and HR leaders reported that they were ready to address
skill gaps in HR – but that’s a 30% improvement from 2015 (Bersin, et al., 2016)!
2. “HR pursues efficiency in lieu of value.”
You’ve probably heard about training opportunities and how many employees completed them but
do you know what kind of contribution HR has made to the top and bottom lines? HR initiatives
should contribute to organizational success, so what’s the impact of the HR function on the value
of your talent? Do you have any idea?
Unfortunately, less than two out of five organizational learning programs were efficacious in 2016.
Although 41% used workforce data to predict business performance 63% reported
underperforming in people analytics (Bersin, et al., 2016).
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3. “HR isn’t working for you.”
Does it seem like HR does you any favors? Or are they actually just doing the bare minimum –
documenting performance for legal reasons? How do rewards correspond with performance? Are
there initiatives to attract and retain top-talent or is recognition for exceptional performance
limited by each employee’s job title? Does it feel like HR wants to force everyone (high- and lowperformers alike) into a box and hand-out uniform rewards?
This year, over half of organizations (54%) weren’t ready to tackle employee engagement issues.
Only 12% emphasized designing the employee experience for optimal performance, resulting in
overwhelmed employees (Bersin, et al., 2016). This year’s survey suggests that 81% of HR
departments don’t fully understand labor laws anyway.
4. “The corner office doesn’t get HR (and vice versa).”
Does the top brass in your organization expect nothing from HR outside of picnics and satisfying
the union? Or are they really concerned with how talent supports the organizational strategy?
Alternatively, maybe your HR people aren’t thinking about talent development and employee
retention but focus on the superficial. Are your executives on the same page as HR?
Well, 88% of business and HR leaders today didn’t believe their companies were driving the right
culture (Bersin, et al., 2016). Do we need to say more?!
Where is your HR function today? Most of us probably echo the results of Deloitte's survey of over
7,000 executives and HR professionals conducted this year discussed above (Bersin, et al., 2016).
So we’ve been talking about becoming more strategic for decades – how can we jumpstart the
engine to a scream? Hammonds (2005) suggested that outsourcing some activities like
assessment, learning, and development could free up HR personnel to jump on strategic human
resource management!
Are you outsourcing talent assessments? Are you connecting talent analytics to business strategy?
Do you have a solid succession planning and assessment processes to support them? Are you still
relying on manager ratings and performance appraisals? Are you utilizing state-of-the-art live
virtual simulations (aka. virtual assessment centers) to measure readiness and potential? These
are just few ways to start elevating your HR function to finally act as a strategic partner to the
business.
Interested in this topic?
Register for a complimentary 45-minute webinar (+15 min for Q&A) on how to become a truly
strategic HR business partner. Date: October 27 @ 9.00 Los Angeles/12.00 New York/17.00
London.
The HR Certification Institute has pre-approved this activity for 1.0 general
recertification credit towards PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification.
The use of this seal confirms that this activity has met HR Certification Institute’s® (HRCI®) criteria for
recertification credit pre-approval. The use of this seal is not an endorsement by the HR Certification Institute
of the quality of the activity. It means that this activity has met the HR Certification Institute’s criteria to be
pre-approved for recertification credit.
Martin Lanik is the CEO at Pinsight and holds a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He
specializes in live virtual simulations (aka virtual assessment centers). With Pinsight’s costeffective simulation technology, Martin helps companies make more accurate succession decisions
and develop stronger leaders faster. Learn more at www.pinsight.biz.
References

Bersin, J., Geller, J., Wakefield, N., & Walsh, B. (2016). Introduction: The new organization.
In Global Human Capital Trends 2016: The new organization: Different by design.
Deloitte.com: Deloitte University Press. Retrieved September 14, 2016 from
http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/HumanCapital/gx-dupglobal-human-capital-trends-2016.pdf

Hammonds, K. (2005, August). Why we hate HR. Fast Company, 97, 40-47.