Respect for HR

Funnily enough I have never felt a lack of respect for HR in the organisations I have worked for. I do think sone HR folks spend a lot of time worrying about such things , sears on the board , the name of the profession etc rather than focusing on adding real commercial benefits by delivering the appropriate people architecture for success. So perhaps if HR isn’t respected that maybe one of the reasons.

Yes that is right. I have always maintained that HR itself is responsible for its respect or otherwise. However, it is interesting also to see and understand that perspective of other departments and people as to how they see HR. HR in itself might be quite happy and felt respected but others in their private talks might loath it. Hence again it is the very role of HR to communicate proactively and productively with people and also transform the mechanism of effective communication with people. If HR could live by the purpose of HR as defined by CIPD "Champion better work and working lives" HR may not ask for respect it may come.

Like Keith and Umer, I've never felt that HR lacks respect in places where I've worked. But I *have* interviewed for jobs where I have felt that the people interviewing me didn't appreciate that HR was a value-adding function and saw it as a mix of box-ticking and hand-holding.

So if HR lacks respect in an organization, I suspect that because the organization (a) doesn't understand what HR can provide to it as a bottom-line contributor, and (b) has therefore recruited people who lack the credibility to change that perception.

I have worked somewhere where HR lacked respect, but it was a product of that HR team's own making. They had a track record of routinely messing up with the basics (wrong pay, recruitment taking ages, mistakes in contracts etc), took a very old fashioned and adversarial approach to every workplace issue and generally considered staff as an inconvenience. It was a difficult place to work, but as I came in with a change remit, at least it was clear what problems I needed to solve and I was able to distance myself from past failings to a certain degree. I had to work extra hard to earn respect in that role though, but it was all the more valued once I had it.

I also think most HR professionals are kidding themselves if they think everyone respects or understands what the department does. For example, in professional services or financial services it is pretty common for those in revenue generating roles to look down on anyone that doesn't work in revenue generating work and treat them as inferior and unworthy of respect. Certainly when I worked in banking and met people in front office at a networking event and they ask where you work, when I said HR I would often get a bristling reaction or a roll of the eyes and you could see them trying to find a route out to get away pretty quickly! Those in Risk, Compliance or Audit also faced similar reactions - we were of course considered the fun police because ultimately we were the lines of defence against wrong-doing in the organisation. It was a sad reality of the culture, but something that we worked hard to address. Importantly at the top of the organisation, where it mattered, HR was considered valuable and worth of respect, but at the more junior end it was a different story.

I have spent most of my working life in organisations where HR was not respected: professional services, where (as Lesley said) anyone who was not a fee earner did not count, and the creative sector, where any reference to any kind of "rules" is perceived to be stifling creativity and one needs to walk a tightrope, keeping fingers firmly crossed that any "shortcuts" won't come back to bite. What was common to all of these organisations was the strongly held perception of HR being some sort of inferior employment law advisory service.