Confessions of a HR Manager

Recently i came across this flamboyant article on how helpless HR Professionals really are. A frusturated HR Manager goes on to say that

Business is not about managing people , its about managing money . CFO & CEO Runs the show here . HR is just a tool, an instrument to dress up their deeds in such a way that it is presentable. HR knows the real truth and still ask people to believe in fables .that's why people hate them . But believe me HR is as helpless as anyone else in company.

Well he seems to be striking the cord in many aspects, I have a close friend a HR Manager who would probably just agree with everything said in this article. Does that mean "Human Capital Development, People are our greatest asset, HR is a Strategic Partner" are all nothing but plain crap? Can HR ever break out of its self imposed cocoon of "not being business oriented" ?

In my view HR is, and will remain, one of the glues that ensure that the enterprise can operate as a cohesive whole. The line of sight should be focused on assisting the function in understanding, managing and improving the “business” of HR. This has everything to do with the profession attracting individuals who have the capacity to understand business, to think conceptually and strategically, and to express themselves as business people. When they do that HR professionals will weild the same power other operating groups such as Finance, Marketing etc possess. That power would help HR to stand up for their rights, protect the interest of the employees with a long term view and gain employee commitment.

Where HR cannot deliver at this level, the function would be in danger of having its influence reduced from insignificance to irrelevance. To me theories and scores of articles on promoting ourselves to be "Strategic, being business partners" are just a demonstration of how good our writing prowess are, ironically we flatly fail to hide our inability to perform at that elevated level.

Hopefully a new emerging new generation of HR professionals could change that for mere mortals!!