Transforming Human Resources
Making Human Resources Work for Your Business
Timothy Stagich, Ph.D.
“Personnel Departments (Human Resources) are blackholes of human potential buried under piles of resumes and redtape.” This quote from my book, Collaborative Leadership and Global Transformation, sums up a major problem that is facing many businesses and organizations throughout the world. Human Resources Departments are not fulfilling their potential as major contributors to the success of most businesses. At many companies, HR Departments serve as clearinghouses for the bureaucratic processing of resumes and employee information that could often be handled by clerks in other departments. While most other departments contribute to the development and implementation of important strategies and services for the company, Human Resources is often left to collect paperwork and information on employees to prevent lawsuits or handle inevitable complaints.
Much of the history of Human Resources Departments dates back to 1960s and 70s when discriminatory practices and new laws were forcing many businesses to protect themselves by building cases on employees with information in their files collected from investigations. As new laws were adopted and businesses tried to adjust, more information was collected until Personnel or Human Resources Departments were overwhelmed by paperwork. And, for some of these departments this bureaucratic collecting of information became the justification for their existence. Today, as many businesses and organizations have become more familiar with the laws involving employee hiring practices and discrimination, they have learned how to prevent lawsuits by better hiring practices and the improved treatment of employees. Now, collecting resumes and processing employee benefits are creating a new bureaucratic operation that does little to improve the development of the business. However, much more can be done in the area of Human Resources to help businesses succeed by working to improve the performance of employees on the job and develop greater efficiency through teamwork.
As the employees of Human Resources become more familiar with Collaborative Leadership techniques and training, they are able to work with other departments more universally to improve the performance of their workers. In the process Human Resources can become a much greater proactive asset to the business. And, as employees begin to see Human Resources as helping them to learn and become better team members and performers on the job, it develops a much better image as a facilitator of success rather than an investigator and buffer between upper management and trouble. The reputation of Human Resources Departments is not good at many large companies where employees are often threatened by their existence instead of helped by their knowledge of collaborative teamwork and efficiency through training on the job. Human Resources employees could be doing so much more to become high synergy contributors to the success of a business or organization instead of bureaucratic paper processors.
Working to improve group interaction, teamwork, efficiency and communication are just some of the ways that Human Resources Personnel could be helping to improve the performance of employees and the bottom line of the business. So-called “Lean Transformation” experts are often hired by companies to help them to improve efficiency. However, these consultants focus primarily on efficiency as it is related to “cost centers” for the business and cutting unnecessary waste. They do very little to help the employees to work more efficiently. And, in the long run most real waste does not come from too many employees as it does from employees who could be doing more with the same amount of effort. So, cutting costs is not necessarily the answer for long term profitability as the investment in talented people who know how to work well with each other collaboratively will pay off better over time. This is where Human Resources can become a major contributor and factor for the success of a business or organization as executives learn to use them more to help employees succeed and thereby helping the company succeed in the process.
Copyright 2011, Global Leadership Resources
Discussion Questions
- Why are Human Resources Departments considered “blackholes of human potential”? What are some of the problems with them for businesses?
- What are the present bureaucratic functions of Human Resources and why are they often counterproductive to the development of businesses and organizations?
- Discuss the history of Human Resources Departments and how it has changed over the years? How do employees view Human Resources?
- Discuss ways that Human Resources Departments can be more effective in helping employees and improving businesses and organizations.
- How can Collaborative Leadership training help to make Human Resources more effective as a department? What can it do for the entire organization?
- Discuss the benefits of improved group interaction, teamwork, efficiency and communication for business growth and quality products or services.
- How does improved employee efficiency both cut costs and improve quality? How is this different from simple cost cutting efforts?