Four Groups

Following on from our own post on levels of happiness within HR, Personnel Today have also picked up on the same survey in their article entitled ‘Tears on my pillow: why is HR so unhappy?’.

As I’ve said before, I think the issue is one of perceptions within an organisation and the apparently schizophrenic (or Shadow-like) response that specific parts of an organisation can have. Extracts from the article follow;

“I’ve been in HR for 27 years and the profession has always been unhappy. There is too much naval-gazing and most of the problems are of HR’s own making,” Paul Kearns [said]. [However,] Angela O’Connor, vice president of SOCPO and HR director at the Crown Prosecution Service, refuted claims that HR is suffering a communal melancholy. So, the experts’ opinion is split and it seems the profession has something of a schizophrenic mindset, with HR either ecstatic or chronically depressed, depending on who you believe.

It is interesting that this piece links in rather well with others online. Ian McKenzie, Regina Miller, Lori Dorn, Diane M. Pfadenhauer, Jim Ware and Critic have all written a similar piece in response to Liz Ryan’s article, “Why HR Gets No Respect”. Slightly tangental, but I believe that happiness and respect share a strong relationship. Links to their pieces are below;

The Rodney Dangerfield of the corporate world?
HR as a Scapegoat
Was it something we said
Respect for HR
Administrivia
Scapegoating HR

From my own perspective, I believe that a move towards an integrated model of HR, an idea which is hinted at in an article called ‘An Integrated Model for Strategic HR‘, is perhaps the best contribution I believe I can make at the moment. However, if you don’t want to read it, the story in a nutshell is that HR would benefit from a model that created a series of direct links across the employee life cycle. In other words, just as all aspects of a company’s finances are run through one or a combination of the balance sheet, P&L or cashflow statements, so HR would benefit from a similarly simple management structure. If a simple structure was able to touch all aspects of the employee life cycle and it attracted explicit decision making, at least in part, HR would be in a far better position…