John,
You were HR for years, and to hear you tell it, the job was often about putting out fires. Why do so many non-HR people have such a negative view of HR, then?
Could this be the issue, John?
...HR departments are overwhelmingly staffed by liberal white women. The company I last worked for had sixteen people in the directory who worked in HR, and fifteen were women. Judging by the three or four that I knew, they had little to no grasp of what it was that our high-tech company even did. I was a temp there for almost five years but couldn't even get an interview for the permanent position that was to replace mine.
That would certainly exclude you. And that may be why your own experience was different.
I believe the issue in these examples is more about the organizational structure. In my experience working in the government sector, HR's primary role was to enforce rules. We didn't make hiring decisions; our focus was on ensuring selections complied with the law and regulations, thereby upholding a fair and transparent hiring process.
ReplyDeleteSo, if a unit needed to fill a vacancy, we'd prepare the job announcement, and the selecting official would approve. We'd post the job, but the applications would go to the person making the hiring decision. HR would make sure that the candidates met minimum qualification standards (for example, you needed to have at least one year of experience at the next lower grade level than the position you were applying for). We also monitored selections to ensure they complied with Equal Employment Opportunity (non-discrimination) standards.
So, the examples in this post would not have happened where I worked because we didn't make the hiring decisions. The biggest issue folks might have with HR would be delays in getting jobs posted and bringing new hires on board (typical government bureaucracy to overcome). In my Postal Service days, HR was considered "overhead" because we didn't generate revenue. That characterization made us more vulnerable to layoffs and downsizing during reorganizations.
HR has a crucial role to play in ensuring a fair and transparent hiring process. However, the ultimate decision of who is selected should be entrusted to the organizational experts with the vacancy to be filled. This approach empowers these experts and ensures that the best candidate is chosen for the role.