'Don't Trust HR' Redux

Remember the super-harsh "Don't Trust HR" speech by a professor of human resources we blogged about last week? Today, HR pros from across the blogosphere weigh in on the prof's remarks. The verdict? Maybe prof. Beatty is right about some things, but he's dead wrong on others. Dennis Howlett, writing at ZDNet: "Sure, the numbers matter but HR brings a human dimension that finance lacks. While the vision of the steely eyed bean counter may not be entirely dead, finance is not a place where you'll find much sentiment. Having HR alongside acts as an essential counterweight to ensure that attention is paid to managing the right people well." And if you remember from last week, Beatty had said that "while the language of organizations is numbers, HR isn't very good at data analytics...They don't think like business people. Many of them entered human resources because they wanted to help people, which I'm all for, but I'm also for building winning organizations." We'll tell you the counterpoint to that assertion, and more on the metrics/analytics issue after the jump. To counter that assertion, we turn to Jim Holincheck at Gartner. "Either bring in people with the quantitative skills and teach them HR," he says, "or work with other parts of the organization that have those skills (like Finance or Operations)...it would be good for the development plans of HR professionals to include rotations outside of HR so that they can better learn the business." Beatty also claimed that being an "employer of choice" was a "silly" aspiration. Holincheck argues the opposite: Being an employer of choice is a means to an end. If you want the top talent, they have to want to work in your organization vs. competitors. So, I would tell organizations that they want to be an employer of choice â€” for top talent. I agree with Beatty that that may mean there are a lot of people who are not top talent that also will want to work for you, but that is what good recruiting processes and systems should help you do â€” find the best fit candidate for the particular job without spending lots of money. But as to professor Beatty's claim that human resources doesn't have proper analytics and metrics, there seems to be consensus: he's right. Commenter Naomi Bloom: It's impossible to do analytics when the underlying data is old, poorly structured, lacking in granularity, scattered across myriad disparate systems, incomprehensible by anyone but the guy who left, etc. What will it take to make HRM the truly durable source of competitive advantage that we know it is and must be? Guess we'll just have to keep on keeping on and not give up the fight. Do these assertions seem fair to you? Let us know in the comments. (Hat tip: HRM Today.)

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'Don't Trust HR' Redux - HR Responds

Rachel Kaufman

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Rachel Kaufman