Some things about workplace culture feel universal, and negative experiences with human resources is one of the biggest. The profession has a long history of being the butt of office jokes and much maligned in pop culture.
A big part of that is the belief that HR exists not as the name suggests—to be a resource for the humans that work for a company—but rather to protect the company from liabilities presented by the people that work there. But a lot has changed about the HR industry and its role within companies since its inception around the time of the industrial revolution.
As the needs of both companies and employees have evolved, human resources has grown to include roles overseeing compliance; harassment and bias training; diversity, equity, and inclusion responsibilities and goals; pandemic health and safety; remote and hybrid work policies; evolving attitudes and demands around benefits; and more. Once seen as out of touch and inefficient, the industry is now in the middle of some of the biggest workplace issues.
That expansion can bring big challenges and opportunities. The HR industry is expected to grow by 10% over the next decade, attracting millennial and Gen Z employees who are likely to change the face of human resources even more.
So, what would a progressive, employee-centric human resources department look like? Is there a future where HR is no longer the butt of office jokes?
On the latest episode of The New Way We Work, I spoke to Lars Schmidt, who is the founder of the HR consultancy Amplify, host of the Redefining Work podcast, author of the book Redefining HR, and a regular contributor to Fast Company.
Changing HR’s reputation
Schmidt says that HR’s bad reputation is earned from the way the field was set up to be a compliance role for the company. But current HR practitioners are on a spectrum. He says there’s only a small share that are integrated throughout the business. “They’re relied upon for the value they bring to the strategic operations and, ultimately, the bottom line of the business” he says, but “that’s maybe 10%.”
On the other end of the spectrum, he says, is “that ‘old school legacy kind of transactional personnel’ of stereotypes; that’s probably 20%.” The remaining 70%, he says, has the potential to move toward the leading edge that balance both the needs of employees and of the company. The potential for that 70% to move up depends on the ambitions of the individuals within an HR department and how the company wants to think about the role of HR.
As Schmidt points out, there has been a lot of change in the field of HR over the last three years. One of the biggest shifts, he says, is the way companies are viewing the roles and skills needed. Historically, HR was a place where professionals spent their careers without a lot of mobility inside and outside of the function, but that’s no longer the case he says.