A world-class HR team?

I have worked for a few big companies in my time, including one in the FTSE100 and two in the Dow Jones. I've also worked as an adviser to numerous companies, big and small. In each case, the people who work in these businesses share a single, common enemy - the HR Department.

Hardly a big surprise. Yet it seems to be a big surprise to Chief Executives and Boards. Last week there was an advertisement in The Sunday Times for a senior HR executive. What was wanted was:

"A high calibre HR professional...you will have a great track record in delivering business led HR strategies....to continually increase the value proposition of HR across the Group."

Hmm. That set me browsing through the job pages for HR roles. In each case what was wanted was an experienced HR professional, and in each case what was wanted was a successful HR professional. But if you ask most people, perhaps all people, the two are mutually exclusive. Is there a single FTSE 100 company where the managers (not the CEO and board) would put up their hands and say, "We have a world-class HR department". Anybody?

When an HR Director gets poached, how many companies' employees groan and wish that more had been done to keep him/her? Did the share price of any company ever move when a Head of HR changed? Has any senior manger ever joined a company because its HR Department has a great reputation? My guess is no to all of these.

So the big question is, why do businesses persist in employing people from HR backgrounds to run HR? HR, as we know it today in medium-sized and large organisations, is a failed discipline. It not only fails to deliver what it promises, but in many cases it actively antagonises and upsets employees. This is important, because over the years HR has taken on more and more responsibilities. In many companies, HR is now responsible for training, career development, promotions, industrial relations, and pay - or as the worst abusers call it Reward. Why would managers continue to give such powers to people who cannot demonstrate any kind of success?

The answer is two-fold. Firstly, it is part of the increasing internal specialisation of functions within a business. The culture of being a general manager, able to run various different departments and move across functions and silos, is vanishing. Everybody is a specialist, partly of course because that is seen as paying better and partly because of the rise of management-speak and jargon, which aims to make simple concepts such as selling and recruitment into jargon-filled professions. Once a discipline becomes a profession it is effectively closed to those outside its ranks. Yet is it really inconceivable that a senior manger who can run a large division of a business could not run the HR department? Are HR, marketing, sales and the management of IT really so difficult and complex that only those who have worked for years in those areas can manage those who work in them?

Secondly, it is a reflection of the cowardice of CEOs and boards. How many CEOs have the courage to implement what they know - that HR has become a useless monster, wasting everybody's time with ephemera and failing to provide high quality services in the areas that matter. I worked at a large company where HR decide to make it a requirement to tell them how many hours a week I worked. When I queried this, I was told that it was necessary for HR to monitor my work-life balance. So you want me to do more work so that you can make sure I'm not overworking? And why do you think I'm not capable of monitoring my own work-life balance? At the same company I got myself into trouble for questioning the diversity policy. When you are trying to form teams and get them pull together, do you emphasise the differences between team members or the similarities I asked?

So here's a simple idea. Next time you need someone to run your HR department, look for a good manager. Look for someone who understands how to motivate people, how important training is and how to ensure that career progression and development are pat of the company's culture, not some intricately-plotted strategy. Look for someone who wants HR to blend into the background, to be something that people hardly ever notice rather than the department cluttering up you inbox with pointless and annoying emails.

In other words, don't look for an HR professional.