Unethical Human Resources Department

LinkedIn Question from Mayank S:

Unethical Human Resources Department

My past experience tells me that HR Dept's primary goal is to protect the company's reputation. No matter what happens, the HR department will never make an apology and will bent every effort to ensure that the company's reputation is not in jeopardy. I find this very unethical.

I strongly feel that both individuals and organizations must admit their fault if they are indeed at fault. Whats your opinion?

Thanks

My Answer:

Dear Mayank,

I couldn't agree with you more. Times have changed but HR as a function has stayed where it was during the begining of the Industrial Revolution. As standard questions I always asked following questions to the candidates for positions in HR.

1) What is HR's role in an organization?

2) Why did you choose HR as career?

Trust me, I am still to get a satisfactory answer to these questions. So much so, the employers also don't know what to expect from HR.

I firmly believe that HR has to get out of its gatekeeper role and be the bridge between the employer and the employees, the "human" and the "resources", the goodwill and the bottom-line and between the "hard" and the "soft".

However, it's easier said than done. HR folks are as human, as insecure and as vulnerable as any other employee...they would always find it difficult to go against their employer's wishes for the fear of loss of their jobs or a bad appraisal.

Probably, only way to turn this around is to outsource the function to skilled, unbiased and secure professionals and agencies who would only take the right and ethical decisions irrespective of who is the beneficiary.

I sincerely hope that the HR function and the organizations wake up at the earliest.

Best regards
Sudhir