Is Human Resource Department still perceived as a support department...?

LinkedIn Question by Mohammed Baseer:

Is Human Resource Department still perceived as a support department...?

My Answer:

Dear Mohammed,

There are two sides to your question. Human Resources Department as perceived by the management/employees AND as perceived by the HR team members. Let me talk about both.

The challenge at the management and employees' end is that most of the times they don't know what exactly to expect out of their HR department. Their expectations are muted due to lack of knowledge about the function and the kind of value it can add to them and their business. Most of them end up treating HR professionals as glorified clerks and accordingly expect them to do administrative and clerical chores. As long as the HR department is seen meeting such expectations they feel satisfied.

Let me now come to the more unfortunate part...the function as perceived by HR professionals. They seem to be happy falling in line with the expectations of the management and employees, as stated above. I have rarely seen them working towards educating their customers, the management and the employees, on the value that they can and should bring to the table. They don't strive to understand the business; they don't involve themselves in the business issues; they prefer to stay away from the core HR aspects; they are happy resolving employee grievances without trying to analyze and resolve the root causes; they hate to confront; they are mostly thinking of their own survival; they blindly tow the management's line.

The real value of HR function is yet to come to the fore. The responsibility of making this happen squarely lies on HR professionals. It's high time that they wake up and smell the coffee. Else HR Department shall always be seen as a support department and may never get its rightful position as a Core Business Function.

Regards
Sudhir