A fair number of people like to slam human resources. People criticize human resources personnel for any number of reasons, from causing a bottleneck in the hiring process to being too rigid on their hiring practices. It’s an ongoing discussion, perhaps, but one that really has no true resolution. Perhaps in the end it may not have any real credibility.
Personally, I like human resources personnel. As a background check company, we like to do business with them. Most human resources personnel know the drill and they are easy with work with. They understand the process of background checks and how that process relates to their preemployment screening programs. The more experienced HR people are fluent in criminal records background checks, always the most complex, and for the most part they understand the exigencies of turnaround times in relations to the criminal courthouses in a world of governments without a budget.
Most HR people are pretty dedicated and care about their work. They do the best job, often under pressure from managers and various adversarial circumstances. Most will take more seriously the results of background checks. In certain cases I recall, the manager may want to hire a job applicant in spite of the very negative criminal records report or other aspects on their background checks. But it is the HR Manager who goes the extra mile and provides evidence as well as an experienced opinion that this employment candidate is simply the wrong hire.
Laurie Ruettimann has written an interesting piece on Punk Rocker Hr. The piece is entitled You Are Not Allowed to Criticize HR. I happen to like the Punk Rocker blog. I like its presentation and certainly its attitude. Besides anyone who accompanies her blog post with a photo of W.C. Fields has got to have something on the ball.
In her article, Laurie discusses the genesis of the Human Resources Department and its logical relevance. Stuff I didn’t know. She rightly claims that HR wasn’t started in a vacuum. It evolved out of perceived need and expanded to accommodate the ongoing requirements of the employers’ recruiting facility. Makes sense.
Laurie admonishes those who criticize Human Resources while having no idea of what HR does really and how it does it. As for the rest of the article, I won’t ruin it for you. It is fun to read, especially when the site is Punk Rock HR. So read it. Enjoy it. Or not. Leave your opinion.
I will add this. Laurie protests that HR critics think of HR personnel as ” old biddies.” For Laurie, at least, this certainly is not the case.
Check them out before you hire.
