Fire your HR department, do it now
You know this already don't you ?
One of my investments in a FinTech startup who are having problems recruiting people and when I visited them, I found out why.
The HR drone gave me the CVs of plausible candidates for the decent job with equity. Of the dozen she showed 3 were women, I was at first impressed given the dearth of women in code.
...except that the first CV seemed to have no experience or interest in coding. But she had gone to the same college as our HR. The second was in its way even less impressive having worked for Capita for a few years. Really ? We're a bleeding edge tech startup where every single person seriously affects our success and you want to hire someone from Capita ?
The other was OK, ish.
She had a policy that 25% of interviewees would be female.
Leafing through the rest, I noticed that they all had 2-3 years experience and at that point it got awkward. I know that C++ has been out there since the 1990s, yet none of the CVs vetted by HR were over 30. She was quite smug about that, apparently older people 'lack flexibility' and aren't 'our sort of people' (I'll come back to 'our sort') shortly. At this point I shared that I'm 54. Which left her nonplussed then as she realised that the 'chat' was evolving from a 'how can I help' to 'why should I continue paying you ?' she started backtracking and losing the ability to speak whole sentences.
After that it went seriously downhill.
We're based in the East End of London, possibly the most ethnically and culturally diverse place on the whole planet. Why then were all the CVs from people called "David", "Alan", "Sophie" and I asked rather pointedly for the rest of the CVs and yes, 'non-English' names were conspicuously absent, I specifically asked "how many people called Mohammed have we ever interviewed ?"
Personally I'm a hardcore atheist, but more precious to me than my lack of faith is my money. People who make me richer are on my right side whether they follow the word of Mohammed, Jesus or Captain Kirk.
Smart people make me richer.
Use LinkedIn to search for "developer" in London and you won't see a uniformly white Christian group of under 25s. Yet that is what our HR seemed to think "fits our culture" or rather fitted because not long after she found work in Local Government where apparently her cocktail of racism, ageism and faithism is acceptable, just so long as you have a policy of wasting people's time having a policy of 25% of all interviewees are female (white ones of course).
If that was a one off, it would be just a pub anecdote, but we both know it isn't don't we ?
Hiring is the most important thing you can ever do, delegating it to HR is stupid.
Letting HR have any involvement in pay is worse.
Not only do HRs not know employment law, but smugly assert 'the law says' when their understanding of law is like an understanding of physics you'd get from Dr. Who.
So if they can't get good new staff, have frankly mad ideas about pay and can't even advise on legal issues, why are we annoying our staff with their dimwitted 'policies', flagrant bigotry and social agendas.
Would you tolerate a Java developer who made up syntax that didn't work to fit his demented world view ? If your sales staff were racist would they survive even one day ? If even your receptionist refused to speak to non-whites, would she have a job (she does and deals with every person who visits us with extreme professionalism and yes she now has equity).
International Operations Manager - Managing translation and international expansion
8yQuite right Keith! Wise words. I have heard HR functions likened to the dusting - people only notice when it hasn't been done...
Specialist Employment Lawyer and Partner at Endeavour Partnership LLP
8yI think you pretty much nailed it Keith.
I fail to see the relevance of this simple anecdote to the rest of the world, i.e. why it would justify anyone besides yourself to develop or fire their HR? So keep calm, focus on what you can control and do something about it. Advising the world to fire their HR is a bad case of jumping to conclusions and isn't helping anyone, including yourself.
Head of Learning & Development at Cranfield University
8ySomewhat unfair, Neil. You have tarred all HR staff with the same brush. I think you have had an unfortunate experience with someone who was not on top of her professional role. I am in Learning & Development, part of HR&OD and I don't recognise your description as fitting any of my colleagues in HR - or L&D/OD come to that, either here at our organisation or within the sector that I work (HE). Perhaps things are different in your industry - perhaps it was the person you were interacting with?
Award-Winning Sales & Linkedin Consultancy | Visiting Lecturer | Author: How to Sell Virtually
8yLet me come to HR's defence (no fainting!). A good HR department looks after its people from a development, well-being and recruitment onboarding standpoint. In addition, provided sponsorship from the C-Suite, creates a positive and happy environment for business to be done. People that are happy in their work are generally better performing in the long run. A good HR department will also protect a company’s reputation and bottom-line by exiting staff “humanely” and in compliance with its own operating procedures and the law in general, resulting in less tribunal action and related case work. Good HR departments are definitely worth having. BAD HR departments are a liability though...