Thanks a lot for your comments. As a good HR practice, I have tried to provide timely feedback! :-)
My only problem is that most responses seemed to be pretty superficial and not touching the 'real core'... Further, it appears that most people have faced this kind of a situation, but have failed to CONSTRUCTIVELY DEMONSTRATE how they could change it (providing a business case that could help management buy-in). Somewhere, the root cause is not being identified correctly...
I would love to see more responses with a little more 'detail' in the opinion with a view to 'demonstrate' the failure mode better.
Regards,
Nikhil Gurjar
President
Consulting Connoisseurs
<link no longer exists - removed>
From United States, Daphne
50My only problem is that most responses seemed to be pretty superficial and not touching the 'real core'... Further, it appears that most people have faced this kind of a situation, but have failed to CONSTRUCTIVELY DEMONSTRATE how they could change it (providing a business case that could help management buy-in). Somewhere, the root cause is not being identified correctly...
I would love to see more responses with a little more 'detail' in the opinion with a view to 'demonstrate' the failure mode better.
Regards,
Nikhil Gurjar
President
Consulting Connoisseurs
<link no longer exists - removed>
From United States, Daphne
Where ever the 'human potential' is not recognised,the HR will fail.
Where ever 'humans' did not understand the 'business success' the HR will fail.
and finally
Where ever thr HR does not exhibit any 'balance' the HR will fail.
AVS
From India, Madras
Where ever 'humans' did not understand the 'business success' the HR will fail.
and finally
Where ever thr HR does not exhibit any 'balance' the HR will fail.
AVS
From India, Madras
Now days there are lakh of systems to circumvent failure… just check the blog www(dot)kservehcm(dot)blogspot(dot)com
From India, Madras
From India, Madras
1)crucial role of hr comes in to the picture when recruitment takes place.so whn right people not at the right place then hr fails.......
2)when hr is not concentrating on employees suggestions and problems then hgr fails.......
3)whn hr is not modifying the jobs of the employee that is enlargement and enrichment.so,employees feels the monotonous work then hr fails.......
4)whn hr is not linked with the emotional level of the employees then hr fails.but it should be to the extent.
From India, New Delhi
2)when hr is not concentrating on employees suggestions and problems then hgr fails.......
3)whn hr is not modifying the jobs of the employee that is enlargement and enrichment.so,employees feels the monotonous work then hr fails.......
4)whn hr is not linked with the emotional level of the employees then hr fails.but it should be to the extent.
From India, New Delhi
HR is vital since HR is the denominating resource in any organisation.But they do not realise this and thus they are not in a position to lead their role effectively.
From India, Bangalore
From India, Bangalore
@avsjai, Can you 'objectively demonstrate' what your point is? To me, its some kind of a 50000 ft up-in-the-air song!
@malinichandran, well, I went through your article. Its an interesting perspective. I do not know if thats the entire thing.
@preeti h. sharma, nice observations. I would say that these are more of characterizing failures rather than characterizing the reasons for failure.
@jaya..., Is this attributable to the education system (or the lack of it) for HR pros?
From United States, Daphne
@malinichandran, well, I went through your article. Its an interesting perspective. I do not know if thats the entire thing.
@preeti h. sharma, nice observations. I would say that these are more of characterizing failures rather than characterizing the reasons for failure.
@jaya..., Is this attributable to the education system (or the lack of it) for HR pros?
From United States, Daphne
HR is a powerful Deptt. whichever organisation is it. It fails when HR personnel tries to bring a person who is well deserved for the post but with a good price and Mangement do not interested in quality but wants that a post be filled with less remuneration. Here HR department is helpless. They give up in front of Management.
Regards,
Harmeet Singh
From India, Gurgaon
Regards,
Harmeet Singh
From India, Gurgaon
Hi Readers
In my opinion and experience I would like to share shortcomings / failures of HR department. However the points put forward are my personal and limited experience only, you may just relate to it some or all deficiencies / difficulties that are faced in your nature of job also.
Recruitment : Selection of right candidate finally rests with line managers and inspite of providing them with a line up of candidate who match with the job description, skill sets, qualification, attitude etc which are preliminary screened by the HR executive, this candidates are rejected or selected on trivial reasons which are not even documented properly, this could be personal bias, lack of interviewing techniques, egos and prejudice, favouritsm, lack of empathy etc. Line managers end up hiring wrong guy for the wrong job. so lack of understanding between HR and Hiring department results in increased cost of recruitment.
Training : In several cases, HR department is not totally involved in the nature of jobs of the line employees, HR department does not have a detailed knowledge of tasks, duties, responsibilities, accountability of several positions, so in the name of training, they only act as coordinators to arrange training programs suggested by line managers, which could be more or less technical and job specific, HR department washes its hands off after orientation or induction program, by givins presentations etc etc.
Appraisals : HR department involvement in appraisal is mere coordinator in order to collect the forms, or print them out, and finally summarize the results. in some cases HR acts like an alarm clock reminding managers to conduct appraisals and submit the results. the appraisal which happen between employees and managers depends on relationship shared by manager and employee, so again, reasons like favoritism, personal bias, ego and prejudice come into play and not provide realistic or practical evaluation of employee's performance as per the KRAs / KPIs agreed as per JD.
Image of HR in the companies : HR executive are the pretty faces sitting in the department to do paper work as required as part of Quality certifications of the company , if an employee come to HR with a genuine reason / complaint / concern.. he / she is advised to sort it out with his department manager.
HR personnel does not have much say in the succession planning, promotions, salary negotiations etc to the management.
Any policy, procedure, idea newly introduced by HR department to benefit the company in terms of better Human resource management, it is laughed off by the line manager as " Just another policy again, it will go down the drain soon - ha ha ha "
More or less HR executive are clerks who are making reports, fulfilling statutory requirement and filing of documents. so Hr department merely ends up as cost center.
Please give your suggestions how this can be changed and HR department and its staff becomes true contributers of the business !
Thanks and Regards
Hussain
From Kuwait, Salmiya
In my opinion and experience I would like to share shortcomings / failures of HR department. However the points put forward are my personal and limited experience only, you may just relate to it some or all deficiencies / difficulties that are faced in your nature of job also.
Recruitment : Selection of right candidate finally rests with line managers and inspite of providing them with a line up of candidate who match with the job description, skill sets, qualification, attitude etc which are preliminary screened by the HR executive, this candidates are rejected or selected on trivial reasons which are not even documented properly, this could be personal bias, lack of interviewing techniques, egos and prejudice, favouritsm, lack of empathy etc. Line managers end up hiring wrong guy for the wrong job. so lack of understanding between HR and Hiring department results in increased cost of recruitment.
Training : In several cases, HR department is not totally involved in the nature of jobs of the line employees, HR department does not have a detailed knowledge of tasks, duties, responsibilities, accountability of several positions, so in the name of training, they only act as coordinators to arrange training programs suggested by line managers, which could be more or less technical and job specific, HR department washes its hands off after orientation or induction program, by givins presentations etc etc.
Appraisals : HR department involvement in appraisal is mere coordinator in order to collect the forms, or print them out, and finally summarize the results. in some cases HR acts like an alarm clock reminding managers to conduct appraisals and submit the results. the appraisal which happen between employees and managers depends on relationship shared by manager and employee, so again, reasons like favoritism, personal bias, ego and prejudice come into play and not provide realistic or practical evaluation of employee's performance as per the KRAs / KPIs agreed as per JD.
Image of HR in the companies : HR executive are the pretty faces sitting in the department to do paper work as required as part of Quality certifications of the company , if an employee come to HR with a genuine reason / complaint / concern.. he / she is advised to sort it out with his department manager.
HR personnel does not have much say in the succession planning, promotions, salary negotiations etc to the management.
Any policy, procedure, idea newly introduced by HR department to benefit the company in terms of better Human resource management, it is laughed off by the line manager as " Just another policy again, it will go down the drain soon - ha ha ha "
More or less HR executive are clerks who are making reports, fulfilling statutory requirement and filing of documents. so Hr department merely ends up as cost center.
Please give your suggestions how this can be changed and HR department and its staff becomes true contributers of the business !
Thanks and Regards
Hussain
From Kuwait, Salmiya
Dear Seniors & Respected Colleagues
Actually I think that HR fails in the “ H “ part. The human aspect of it they are to busy perfecting how the payroll works, how travel allowance is paid, how the bonuses are worth and they forget the employee capability is all about the motivation the emotional intelligence the career planning part from the employee point of view, employee development in the organization, they are busy with the training part but they don’t check on their development . employee relations, employee value to the organization, the team working aspect. I think we have great books written about the human aspect of human resources but sincerely speaking I don’t think much of it is applied in the really world they are still words in books awaiting application.
Then Again its I have developed this opinion based on experience as an HR Specialist working in Gulf
From Oman, Muscat
Actually I think that HR fails in the “ H “ part. The human aspect of it they are to busy perfecting how the payroll works, how travel allowance is paid, how the bonuses are worth and they forget the employee capability is all about the motivation the emotional intelligence the career planning part from the employee point of view, employee development in the organization, they are busy with the training part but they don’t check on their development . employee relations, employee value to the organization, the team working aspect. I think we have great books written about the human aspect of human resources but sincerely speaking I don’t think much of it is applied in the really world they are still words in books awaiting application.
Then Again its I have developed this opinion based on experience as an HR Specialist working in Gulf
From Oman, Muscat
Greetings,
Your examples are from different situation in an environment where the HR is passive. It’s the management who takes the call and HR merely follows it. This situation cannot be tagged as HR's failure as the innate structure is different.
An HR failure is a situation, where the HR is the decision maker, yet it takes initiative where they fail to achieve, the intended.
Its true, every situation depends on its player. But the organization, where the owners care the least for HR and is hostile to any HR initiative, even the strongest HR would fail. In such a situation running the operational and statutory functions remains the responsibility. There is hardly anything to learn from such systems. Surviving to be on the job is what every HR would do.
Whereas in companies such as Tata, with better focus on HR should be considered by measuring its initiatives. Here's a link to one of the org initiative, which could have resulted in a huge HR failure but was given a new direction. http://citehr.com <link updated to site home>
I guess we discuss situations like this, to create our takeaways.
Regards,
(Cite Contribution)
From India, Mumbai
Your examples are from different situation in an environment where the HR is passive. It’s the management who takes the call and HR merely follows it. This situation cannot be tagged as HR's failure as the innate structure is different.
An HR failure is a situation, where the HR is the decision maker, yet it takes initiative where they fail to achieve, the intended.
Its true, every situation depends on its player. But the organization, where the owners care the least for HR and is hostile to any HR initiative, even the strongest HR would fail. In such a situation running the operational and statutory functions remains the responsibility. There is hardly anything to learn from such systems. Surviving to be on the job is what every HR would do.
Whereas in companies such as Tata, with better focus on HR should be considered by measuring its initiatives. Here's a link to one of the org initiative, which could have resulted in a huge HR failure but was given a new direction. http://citehr.com <link updated to site home>
I guess we discuss situations like this, to create our takeaways.
Regards,
(Cite Contribution)
From India, Mumbai
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