Human resources: Undervalued and under-appreciated

YAPSTER e-LEARNING INC.

I have written articles and spoken at length about the fantastically high attrition rates, the needless loss of good, productive people because of poor recruitment, inadequate training and uncaring ma—nagement. Something I have not gone into any great detail is the effect that this is having on the relationship between human resources and the upper management, and the fact that good HR managers are becoming a rarity as a result.

The age-old complaint of every HR manager is that he is always at the end of the line when it comes to budget handouts. Having to beg for the training budget and finding that every year he has to do more with less is something I have heard for 20 years. But there is a real growing resentment happening on a scale I have not seen before. HR used to be an attractive career for the more outgoing person, but not anymore, at least according to those in the industry. Many are seeking alternative forms of employment, and there is a real shortage of good and experienced human resource practitioners. Many companies have to pay twice or sometimes thrice than what they did a few years back, and not even the bigger salary is keeping their HR managers from leaving.

So what’s happening?

Human resources have become a thankless task in many organizations. The phrase "damn if you do, damn if you don’t" is an apt one. The high attrition rates in many companies have seen these managers under pressure recruiting so as to fill in the holes left by less than happy employees who have resigned before their probation period is over. The managers who are causing this mass exodus seem to care little and listen even less to what HR is telling them. One manager I spoke to recently told me that she became an HR manager to help improve the quality of the working environment, not to spend her life wading through resumes. If this trend con—tinues, businesses will suffer, and some already are. Com—pany management must start to realize that human resour—ces are the eyes and ears in their organization. Good HR people know what the feelings of employees are and can help advise how best to react before the worst happens. We have to move away from this outdated notion that human resources are simply the department that does the payroll.

If you own a company or manage people, ask yourself these questions:

• What is the attrition rate in my company or department?

• Why are people leaving?

• What is the average tenure in a position by position basis?

• How much did we spend on recruitment last year?

• Did we spend more or less than two percent of the payroll on training?

• What percentage of time does the HR department spend on recruitment-related tasks?

• Is there any correlation between the business plan and the hiring the company/department has undertaken?

Answer these and you may just start to see things a little differently.

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Bill Spindloe is a human resources consultant and trainer of Yapster e-Learning. E-mail him at bill.spindloe@2studyit.com.