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In response to that nasty article in Fast Company on Why We Hate HR, which has been extensively covered in this blog in several postings (e.g., here and here), the Society for HRM (or, SHRM) has an official response to the article.
Written in the form of a brief letter, the offical response from SHRM argues that HR has indeed become much
The letter also asserts that thousands of HR professionals take courses to give them the business skills, strategic abilities, and so forth, that are needed.
more of a strategic partner and that HR professionals are, in many top companies, operating “at the highest level.”
I personally think the letter is a bit too brief to be very useful in responding to the article; I would have written a letter that went into more depth and detail, offering more substantive explanations for why HR is not always treasured by the rest of the company.
Click here to read more about SHRM’s response to Fast Company’s Why We Hate HR
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Comments
“Waaaahhh!!! The truth huurrrrts!!!“
“Nasty article,” my ass. As a mere peon in the corporate trenches for a few decades, I’d say that Fast Company wasn’t hard ENOUGH on H.R.
Face it: The average HR bimbo — for, in fact, most of them are women — got her job based on her looks and phony charm, and stays there thanks to a cutthroat ability to play politics and screw the people who trust her the most. Brains? Common sense? BAHAHAHA!!!! I suspect that if you really want to pick the perfect HR twit, you recruit from former cheerleaders, who fit that description perfectly.
Oh, and before you start slinging around charges of misogyny, I’m a woman. But instead of having been blessed with the ability to schmooze people and lie to their faces, I’m merely an introvert who’s highly competent at my job, so I’ll never be as valued as highly, or make as much money as, the typical HR hack. Corporate Amerika values bullshit over actual ability, despite all its protestations to the contrary.
A good friend of mine lives in the Bay Area, is a veteran of the dot.com era, and is now trying to get his own business off the ground. He told me that of the dozens of HR drones he encountered while interviewing for jobs or holding them down, there was only one he’d trust to manage his future employees. Sounds about right to me.
Try getting out of your Mutual Admiration Society and consulting the people who actually do the grunt work at your respective companies. Chances all, they all think you’re even more worthless than Fast Company does.
I am the dot.com era veteran mentioned by “anonymous” above, and this is addressed to “George”.
I wouldn’t bother trying to construct any sort of substantive reply to the article that offends you so. The real point of the article is in general, nobody really cares what “HR professionals” think.
There’s no obvious reason why anyone should. As a “profession”, you people haven’t earned the right to have your opinions treated with respect. I regard HR as currently practiced as more a bad habit than anything else. Most technical professionals in industry would be even less polite than I am about your shortcomings. I’ll simply say that human resources is more an obstacle to any reasonable company goals than a vehicle to get to them.
Well written letter. I agree that of course more could have been said. I think the simple and dignified tone is a good one.
If I were running Fast Company, and I wanted to maintain a reputation as a serious, thoughtful, informative, and fair-minded publication (all of which I’ve found it to be in the past), I’d take it as an invitation to publish an interview with Ms. Meisinger (author of the letter), or include her in a roundtable-type article with her and some others, and Hammonds as moderator.
The discussion should continue, and get past the initial round of rhetorical excess on both sides (probably including me).