Jack has been with the company for almost ten years. On a Thursday afternoon, he was called to the HR, where he was informed that his services were no longer required. Not that he’d done anything wrong, but the economy is tough, you know. A security guard was called to escort him to the door like if he were a convict. His personal effects would be couriered to him later.
Elsewhere, a company’s new CEO reduced the middle maangement layer by half, sending some 120 employees home. Here is how it looked from inside: a phone in a cubicle rings. After a 30-second conversation, its owner stands up and makes his or her way to the HR, never to return. The whole organization is terrorized for days. No explanation follows.
Yet some other place, every Friday at 3pm for about a year, names are called over a PA. Their holders are to report to a meeting room. Everyone knows that they are gone. This goes on for a year. Morale is at its worst.
Here is my advice to you if you are considering taking a job offer or are assessing the state of the HR department within the organization. Before looking at their promotional materials, policies or initiatives, look to understand how they go about letting people go. That’s the basic litmus test.
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September 14, 2009 at 12:58 pm
David
Hi Ilya,
Once again, spot on.
What happened to the ‘human’ in HR? Some years ago it grew an ego, adopted the ‘it’s not us it’s senior management’ cop-out and intellectually and morally died.
I generalise of course, but that’s what we do to look at bigger pictures. There are one or two professionals with compassion and brains left.
Well, somewhere. There must be. Aren’t there……???
September 14, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Ilya Bogorad
Thank you, David.
My position on the HR function in general is that in its present most common shape and form it has no meaningful use. Transactional stuff (benefit administration, payroll, employee support, etc) can be done much more effectively by a third party. Strategic stuff they don’t do anyway but business execs think that they do and don’t venture into it.
There are exceptions for sure… But how many HR Execs are running Fortune 500 companies today? It’s dead branch which doesn’t have to be that way.
September 22, 2009 at 6:39 am
Svetlana Osadchaya
This is very sad but true. I remember days when girls from reception were sent to marketing to “grow in their career” because marketing was not considered to be important. Now it is HR.
September 22, 2009 at 11:50 am
Ilya Bogorad
Thank you, Svetlana. There is clearly a better alternative and do I hope that you encounter gems of HR departments in your work.