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Is HR the employee's 'friend or foe'?
An article in the UK's Guardian newspaper (discussed here) includes a quotation from a UK HR consultant who believes that "HR are double-agents, the smiling assassins."
The article asks if HR is "friend or foe" to employees. The overview of the HR profession in 2011 presented in the article ostensibly seeks to present a balanced perspective on where HR sits in the organisational power structure, and on whether its loyalties are to the employer, the employee or somewhere in between.
But the article in full appears to suggest that HR is more "foe" than "friend" to employees. I'm interested to find out your views on this article, and the extent to which the perspectives it presents resonate with your own views on the state of the HR profession in 2011.
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7 Answers
HR is simply put, part of the management of the business. In that, it represents the culture, value and mission of the organization. In the best and most effective organizations, it is both a champion of the business and the employee in that in truly successful situations, they should be one in the same.
That being said, things are not always what they should be. How HR is preceived is part of the culture of the business and its track record. I guess the answer all boils down to the time old answer....it depends.
I've always thought that HR was in the unique position of being neither friend nor foe, yet also being both.
A good HR pro has to watch out for the company's interests, of course, which often puts them at odds with an employee or two. Between handling the dismissal of a poor performer and organizing the latest round of layoffs, it is easy to see them as the "smiling assassin" you mentioned.
On the other hand, how many HR leaders haven't had to go to the defense of an employee, to talk a manager down from their gallows, or put in extra time to find the right person to join a team? That's the friend side. Making sure we get the right people in the door, and then making sure they are treated fairly.
So I think the answer is both. Maybe not a great place to be, but it sure beats always being the bad guy.
HR people really need to be better PR people! HR leaders know their role in an organisation has evolved from 'friend', but it appears we as HR leaders forgot to tell everyone that we now play a very different role.
Dave Ulrich in his book 'Human Resources Champions',(1997) discusses the transition from the day when your Personnel Manager used to be primarily concerned with the warm and fuzzy employee administration services role to today's evolved Human Resources leadership role as a strategic partner to the business. But does being a strategic business partner really make us a 'foe'?
The world has changed, economies have changed and business has changed. If HR's role hadn't changed to suit the environment there just might be an article in the Guardian discussing the relevance of an HR department at all...
There's also a good related Q&A thread and discussion over at:
http://www.focus.com/questions/human-resources/should-hr-beholden-itself-comp...
To employees, HR is foe. I am not saying this to discredit the merit of the HR profession or the other responses. On the contrary, I believe HR is an integral part of business and plays a pivital function for the company.
With that said, I believe HR is ultimately "foe" to employees for three reasons.
1. When the incentive and motivation of the employee is aligned with that of the company, then this is not an issue. HR is a support function that helps the employee get benefits, hire people, etc.. For 90% of the employees, their exposure to HR is just that and they may mistakenly think that HR is on their side whenever they have an issue.
2. This won't be the case when the employee's agenda is at odd with that of the company. When push comes to shove, HR is funded by the company and one of its function is to protect the company from liability. I think that's where the analogy "smiling assassin" comes from. HR needs to appear diplomatic when an employee has an complaint towards the company. It will take necessary action to appear to listen and then document that they responded to the grievance appropriately. The primary goal for HR is NOT necessarily to represent the employee but make sure the company is doing all the legal necessary steps if it ever end up in court
3. Examples of times when employee's agenda is at odd with the company include but not limited to
a) sexual harassment complaint
b) Violation of privacy complaint (e.g., disclosure of personal health info by a senior leader that affected an employee's work reputation)
c) contesting an unfair review or lay off
d) any kind of discrimination complaint
While HR will appear to set up meetings for the employee who complained with the right leaders in the firm and tell that employee they will investigate thoroughly, HR's number 1 goal is to protect the company from any lawsuit by following/documenting actions taken in response to a complaint.
I am not saying this is wrong. I think it's absolutely necessary for HR to play this function for the business to fend against frivolous lawsuits. I just think that sometimes employees naively think HR is "on their side" when HR simply cannot take both sides in a conflicting issue between company and employee.
I view HR as being positioned as an advocate for the "company" rather than positioned as a dichotomous department within the department to where it's either an advocate for the employees or for the management. To integrity and credibility of the HR field is, in my opinion, is strengthened when HR demonstrates a position of "Company Advocate". Whatever is in the best interest for the Company. To me this requires a balancing act between identifying interests and obligations from the standpoint of the employee and from the standpoint of the manager and company. Taking all of these things into consideration helps to identify what is in the best interest of the Company.
HR department employees, like all employees, get paid by their employer therefore the HR department is neither a friend nor a foe of employees but rather just another department doing the work of the employer.
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