For some reason, I have been up later and later. Not being able to get to sleep. Not for the wrong reasons. Not for worries or issues with the day. Not problems with work, contracts or developing ideas. I have been up late lately simply because my mind has been filled with ideas. A few of those ideas are about HR (I know, I am a dork). Been spending a lot of time thinking of solutions to issues that we create ourselves and differentiating them from what the environmental barriers are presented for us to face and conquer.

The topic on my mind now is “Why can HR not be considered as important as Marketing, Sales and/or Operations?” These are areas that have been traditionally looked at as revenue generators for the business. While HR helps in, what I call, the 3 D’s – Direction, Delivery and Development of talent and business strategies; the business does not give the function as much weight as the others. Why even ask the question. This is a big question. It is a question that should be asked and followed with steps and actions put in place to address, improve and change the typical business perception.

I ask because we should care and we want to have an effect. As professionals within the field, we should care in order to have a true impact on connecting the HR practices and strategies to the overall business strategies. Like a marriage, these principles may be happy and dysfunctional, but it is the hope that the marriage will last.

The History of HR did not start with the mindset of Henry Ford, wondering why people so often brought their heads and hearts, when all he needed was their hands and feet. In my opinion, and based on history, the true aspects of HR started with the idea out of concern for the worker and the business. That basic personnel management functions – employee selection, training and compensation needed to be addressed.

Whether I am right or wrong, I believe we do not sit down enough with the RIGHT leadership. We do not encourage the WRONG leadership enough. Proving to both with evidence of how HR can be right for the organization. Some of you may not have the positional power to demand or drive this strategy. Whether other parts of leadership use HR in a transactional way agree with our expertise or not, HR should be in the vehicle to drive discussions and even make arguments to help increase the effectiveness of the all people, processes and strategies involved. I mean we help direct, deliver and develop the people right. Ultimately driving the impact of the business. So I simply ask, what actions will you take to help your position make an impact and change the perception? Change the perception. Become legendary!

For years there have been arguments for and against the performance review. There are many who diss the process, wanting to get rid of the actual review itself. There are others who feel it is a bedrock of information for both employee development, self checks, collecting historical data on the employee and as a way to evaluate the way a manager simply manages.

The performance review can be bad but it can also be great.

Idiots lay blame solely on a tool

if you lay blame on a tool, then that is what you are! There are valid reasons to blame your legacy system or the vendor platform you use to manage the reporting of performance. If you are an organization that can’t fork over the cash for a huge system, you may have problems with the process of implementing and getting the reviews turned in. But those who simply blame the tool or process are idiots.

It is my belief that if you had managers that were competent enough to do the job they were given, saw examples from their previous bosses, had recieved training, practice and the ability to manage their employees effectively (not just the person but also their development and performance), then you would not need the systems and deep processes. Those who blame tools are blaming band-aids for an injury rather than understanding why the injury is there in the first place.

A performance review can be bad

However the performance review is absolutely wrong if it is done only once or twice a year. This is because the all that happens within a review process is not all formal. You have to include informal talks, coaching and checks. It is not a question whether or not the review is done, but when and how often. But sadly, once detailed objectives are agreed upon and benchmarks given… that is when people usually wait until the next year to talk again.

Botome line: It’s not the review that is bad, it’s the approach and management around the review that is broken. I think many people fault a tool when they would rather not fix the person! Blaming tools is easy, fixing people is the tough part.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours? Ditch the performance review or fix the process and people around it?

I have seen a lot of articles and heard many conversations lately around the following:

• HR is not effective…
• HR should put itself out of business…
• There is not a business need for HR…
• Human Resources doesn’t provide value to the business…
• Everyone hates HR
• Dump, Dump, Dump…

…and so on and so on

The sad thing is I’m not hearing or reading this from the American Marketing Association, a random Public Relations group, CNN, Fox, Fast Company, Department of Labor, or even Forbes (while they have had some articles, they focus on other things rather than HR).

The people and places I hear these comments the most are from…

HR Folks.

People need to get over these old arguments and make new solutions. You can take the exact same statements from above and substitute Sales… Marketing… R&D… Operations… Administration, etc. etc. because I guarantee that they say and think the same things at times.

Maybe it’s time our departments, functions and people within Human Resources go to a motivational seminar or just gain some self composure and confidence. It’s time to stop ragging on yourself and do your job and increase the apabilities and performance of the people within your organization!

Do you feel we are being harder on ourselves then we need to be or do you think it is justified?