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View Full Version : Your Impressions of HR: Benefit or Burden?



Blacktalon
04-21-2009, 08:23 PM
I'm curious to know how you, as fresh business owners, view the overall usefulness of HR and its application to your business's continued success and expansion.

If you would post your comments, experience and overall impressions, I'd be grateful.

vangogh
04-21-2009, 08:54 PM
Well my business is just me and at the moment I'm not looking to expand through hiring so I may not be able to offer the most useful response.

When I was working for others I always appreciated HR. A lot of good info comes through HR. Everything outside the specifics of the job was usually an HR function. I've worked in places with good and bad HR departments, but in general I've always found HR helpful.

One of the things I remember is that HR people were often more willing to find out answers to my questions. Maybe it was something as simple as how vacation days worked or something more complex like health care options. A lot of times the HR person might not have had an exact answer, but they would usually get back to me later in the day or the next day with a detailed answer. Probably the nature of the job lends to a caring attitude.

Sorry I can't offer more from the other side.

Blacktalon
04-22-2009, 11:01 AM
You provided ample feedback, so there is no need to apologize. You seem to get a grasp on its positive applications to the workplace. That, my friend, is essential. However there are still a lot of individuals, and organizations, who think the opposite.

The issue that bothers me is the way it is perceived not just by management but by the media. Let me expand:

I remember one evening in mid-March where I was detaching my Wii from the TV. In the midst of doing so, the TV was set on an episode of The Office. Steve Carroll's character was in a blumbering speech, encouraging his staff to come do an activity which they thought was ridiculous. Steve's character pretty much said that "we need to do this activity that HR is making us do!" (I remember now, it was a racial tolerance activity). Everyone rolled their eyes and plopped themselves into their chairs as they grunted displeasure.

Is this how we are perceived? When your field has become the centre of a sketch comedy skit on prime time TV, that says something about the overall perception of your profession. Whereas functions like finance and operations are something serious, HR is just a comic relief with no real purpose other than to make people roll their eyes and laugh.

Same thing on Supernatural. A recent episode had the two brothers working for some corporation and an auxiliary character was sent to HR as a means to "punish" that character for some ill he did on the job. Some of the dialogue involved the intention of filling out a tonne of paperwork and forms until the cows came home.

It's frustrating when one body is spewing rhetoric about "HR being recognized more and more as an essential partner in developing innovation in our organizations" and then witnessing that rubbish on TV. That tells me that HR is either still leagues behind, or it's choosing the wrong path and mission.

I'm done ranting now.

vangogh
04-22-2009, 11:43 AM
I wouldn't read too much into what you see on tv. Sure there's a parody on how some people might see HR, but I wouldn't take it to mean that's how everyone feels.

If it is though then you have a good angle into the market. You should be playing up the idea that you aren't like what people see on tv.

I really wouldn't read too much into it though.

Blacktalon
04-22-2009, 11:59 AM
Edit: It wasn't a racism initiative but one on the traditional "sexual harassment" bit that HR is famous for preaching.

While I see through the haze of contemporary media, the media is a channel that forms the impressions of the masses. If they see something depicted in a certain way, then they will, if they have no real sense of intelligence and are instead herd animals, base their opinions solely around what that media outlet dictates, which essentially becomes a part of popular culture.

If HR is seen as a comic relief, then it will be perceived as such. You never see HR being taken seriously or in a positive light in movies. Not like finance or any form of management. Even janitorial functions are taken more seriously than HR!

Aside from front-line workers, HR is the next most expendable function in any business. To give an example, with the Board of Directors I sit on, a fellow Director lost his job as HR manager with a leading telecommunications company. The HR department was the first to get the cuts before any other function or department in the entire organization.

Kind of tells you something about the state of the field, doesn't it?


If it is though then you have a good angle into the market. You should be playing up the idea that you aren't like what people see on tv.
That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm also going to use that as part of my PHd dissertation when I get to that level.

KristineS
04-22-2009, 12:56 PM
I think HR can be as useful or not useful as the people offering the HR services want it to be. I've worked for companies with terrific, caring HR departments, and I've worked for companies that had bureaucratic, nightmare HR departments.

I also think the HR professionals can fall for the latest jargon and buzzwords or the "fad of the moment" just like anyone else. As a result we get lots of things like "sensitivity seminars" which are ideal for sitcom humor (which let's face it, isn't often highbrow humor).

I don't necessarily agree with the idea that how something is portrayed on television relates to how it is perceived in general. Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part, but I hope I'm right.

vangogh
04-22-2009, 01:14 PM
Sean again I wouldn't read too much into what you see on tv. I watch the Office regularly and it certainly hasn't changed my opinion of HR. The show makes fun of everything having to do with office life.

I agree with Kristine about it depending on the people. I have worked places where HR was a nightmare and I've worked in places where it was great. I appreciate the entity that is HR and what it does, but it still comes down to the people working in the department.

billbenson
04-22-2009, 05:36 PM
I can only comment from the employee side. As an employee or job hunter, my only interaction with HR was filling out forms and insurance related stuff. I don't recall ever being interviewed by personnel for a job or anything else including tolerance classes etc.

If the above is typical, it would lead to an opinion of "unimportance" for HR activities. That or falling under an accounting sort of umbrella. That attitude may be more true for people with professional jobs as they probably aren't really going to be interviewed or managed by HR to the degree hourly people would?? People you are selling HR services to are probably from the professional ranks and may be more likely to have this sort of impression... Just a guess.

Incidentally, your analytical approach to HR is interesting. I enjoy your posts.

Dan Furman
04-23-2009, 03:12 AM
Sean, I enjoy your posts too, and wish you all the success in what you are trying to do in regards to HR. So take my post with a grain of salt.

To be honest, I always saw HR as having three functions:

1) Handle paperwork and answer questions regarding benefits, etc.

2) Like others have mentioned, I always felt a lot of "boring, buzzword stuff" comes out of HR.

3) This may be more from my attitude and obvious "clash with superiors" personality, but I kind of always felt a major function of HR is to build and keep a "bad file" on you, documenting every last negative experience, so when it comes time to fire you, the company's ass is covered. Sorry :)

Related to the above, once, as a tech support guy, I got a "bad" letter from a customer who didn't like that I couldn't retrieve her deleted data. I was read the riot act, and HR made sure it "went in my file" - FOREVER (it's likely still there... in 2,000 years, when archeologists dig up the place, they'll learn that Dan Furman gave lousy customer service to this one idiot).

Ok, so now my future reputation is screwed. But wait.... Two weeks later, I got not one, but two "good" letters. I was saved!!!

However, these didn't go in the file forever and ever. These I was given to keep... turns out, the company policy was the good ones don't go in the file. I find that... odd.

True story.

Steve B
04-23-2009, 05:51 AM
Hi Sean,

I was an HR professional for 18 years in the U.S. (the last company was Canadian owned). I'm sorry to say, despite our best efforts, Dan's perception is probably the norm. Our reputation with supervisors and managers is even worse. There are certainly lots of exceptions and things may be improving - but, it's no accident that The Office and Dilbert cartoons are so popular.

Harold Mansfield
04-28-2009, 11:37 AM
I'm with Vangogh. I work alone, although I do outsource small projects.
From previous work experience, I have seen good HR departments and bad ones. My overall experience has been good, and I have found the HR at most places to be very helpful and reliable.

I will especially always remember the HR rep from the last company that I worked for right before I quit (last December). Facing uncertainty in his own position since the company was basically going under and downsizing from 1000 people to a skeleton mop up staff of 20....I appreciated his honesty about the situation, which helped me make my decision to pack it in and do this full time.

"The Office" is a comedy about work in general. They make fun of everything that has to do with working in an office, not just HR...so I wouldn't be too sensitive about it.

If you want to talk about T.V. portrayals: How about how people who work on their computers are always geeky, or how everyone in every movie or T.V. series named "Harold" (My name), is always a dork, or serial killer ?

Most people have a general understanding of how helpful and valuable the HR department can be, and how necessary.

From my experience, the only employees that have a problem with respecting the HR department, are the ones that are in there signing something every week or so.

Patrysha
04-28-2009, 11:42 AM
Off topic...but Harold is my pastors name...and he is neither a geek nor a serial killer (I hope! Yikes!)