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When I first read Bernard Marr’s post, Why We No Longer Need HR Departments, published on LinkedIn this past November, I had to re-read it two or three times. Was a “best-selling author and performance expert” really claiming that businesses need to get rid of the HR department?
Indeed, he was.
As someone who has worked in HR for more than 15 years, I couldn’t disagree more.
Remove the HR department from your business and you create a lot of work for people who may or may not be skilled in handling people-related work, some of that work involves careful handling of very sensitive situations.
As Josh Bersin said in his rebuttal to Marr’s post, “…human resources professionals solve some of the most important problems in business today.”
If Marr and I were having coffee, I’d ask him a few questions:
· If a company no longer has an HR department, who is going to recruit, screen and hire the talent?
· Who is going to onboard those new employees?
· Will managers be responsible for all employee development?
· And, how about those tough performance discussions — are all managers equipped to handle those on their own?
· Where are employees going to turn if they have an issue with a supervisor?
Check out next week’s post to read why I believe the “advice” Marr offers to HR is completely flawed.
