How did HR get to be so well paid?

Ubbquittious · 08-05-2022 1:41am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119018028#Comment_119018028

Thats what they are in most cases. They can also get you booted out of a job easily and themselves are isolated from having to do any real work

Strumms · 08-05-2022 1:53am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030561#Comment_119030561

Because unless the company is that large the HR only have one or two HR personnel on site, so not enough to have a manager overseeing them… last job had no HR on-site. He was based in Croydon in the UK….fly over if there was an issue or if not a walk around twice a year… completely isolated from understanding the challenges and machinations of our employment and worker / management relationships and challenges again ..

anytime there was a problem he gets the managers side first via phone calls and email without experience or context of that individual so employee is behind the 8 ball.

Paul Pogba · 08-05-2022 7:03am

If HR were doing their job correctly, unions wouldn’t have so many members

jackboy · 08-05-2022 7:32am

The recruitment side of HR is a complete farce. The modern companies strategy for recruitment is completely ineffective and not fit for the purpose of finding the right person for the job. HR may as well pull names out of a hat.

Jim2007 · 08-05-2022 8:54am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030718#Comment_119030718

HR are doing their job - managing to the maximum benefit of the company, don’t mistake HR for some kind of charitable institution!

Jim2007 · 08-05-2022 8:59am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030738#Comment_119030738

So you didn’t get the job then….

If the business management are not getting the personal they need to do the job, HR staff would not survive very long. They might not be your idea of the ‘right person’ but the choice made is good enough to keep the operation going.

squigglestrebor · 08-05-2022 9:16am

I wholeheartedly agree with the general HR are shitebags vibe but I dont think the are paid well? In most companies id have thought there average salary per head is the lowest out of any department? Hope im not wrong haha

jackboy · 08-05-2022 9:36am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030866#Comment_119030866

Wrong, recruitment strategy of multiple interviews is completely ineffective and will not determine the best person for the job. Unfortunately, the only way of determining suitability is to give someone a job and then wait for about a year to see if they can do it. Pulling a name out of a hat is as effective as interviews.

I have heard some laughable things from HR after interviewing people. Probably the best was after a company I worked with were interviewing for a scientist. HR rejected some candidates because they came across too intelligent in the interviews and intelligent people are ‘weird’.

Another time a manager was shocked that a new employee was completely useless even though their CV and references ‘proved’ they were an expert in their field.

There are literally companies who you pay to write your CV to deceive HR for interviews and this can be done with incredible ease.

Jim2007 · 08-05-2022 12:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030954#Comment_119030954

You are entitled to you opinion, but I'd take it with a very large pinch of salt.

Over the past 30 years I have recruited people at 7 multinationals and not even in one occasion did I encounter anything remotely like you are describing.

HR perform their recruiting activity in conjunction with the hiring manager, they advertise the job, filter the responses based on the agreed criteria of the hiring manager and they present him with say 3 - 5 people. Yes some good people will slip through the net, but is not important to the company, the objective was to identify 3 - 5 people to consider for the position and it has been achieved. It is cheaper to junior filter the resumes rather than tie up a manger to go over say 200 responses.

Taken out of context it is difficult to draw any conclusions on the rejection of an intelligent candidate, but it can be valid. If the the work is below the level for the candidate and there is little prospect of promotion of a move to anther are it is pointless taking on the candidate because they will only exit early and you end up having the cost of doing it all over again. And yes many intelligent people are a bit unique because they have some kind of autistic spectrum disorder and I don't say that lightly because I have recruited and worked with many, including my son. Often they are just not suitable to be let loose on the general public when representing the company.

Any manager that accepts someone on to their staff without checking that they have the technical skills necessary to do the job and just relies on references has only himself to blame. He should have insisted on technical interviews etc... if he did not, then he owns that decision.

Of course there are plenty of companies out there that willing to write a CV for you. But if you have spent any time recruiting in a specific area, it is easy to pick out the delegated resumes. Candidates that are too lazy to write their own resume hire companies that do exactly the same - the sentences and paragraphs repeated over and over in resume after resume.

You seem to think the objective is to get the best candidate for the job, it is not, it is to get an acceptable candidate at a reasonable cost.

Christine Neville · 08-05-2022 2:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030738#Comment_119030738

So how is it you think they manage to get away with it? Is it because multinationals can afford to waste a bit of money on hiring the wrong staff? Is it because HR know exactly how to pull the wool over the eyes of management? Whether HR know a lot about the industry they're recruiting from doesn't matter a whole lot seeing as they are told what criteria to watch out for. They're involved less and less towards the final stages of recruitment.

I remember my dad telling me about how this one lady in HR would be almost sitting on the lap of her boss every time he came over from Belgium. And she'd hold pointless bonding events that all her staff had to go to and she'd get him up on the zoom call to see what's going on.

Christine Neville · 08-05-2022 3:20pm

@jackboy I have heard some laughable things from HR after interviewing people. Probably the best was after a company I worked with were interviewing for a scientist. HR rejected some candidates because they came across too intelligent in the interviews and intelligent people are ‘weird’.

So you overheard two people having this conversation? Was it a case of "he was a bit weird", or was it "he was so intelligent, that's weird". That candidate wouldn't be discussing the technical stuff of their job with HR anyway so I don't know how it was that they demonstrated such intelligence.

I always got the impression that HR frown upon answers that aren't scripted, as they would see this as not being prepared. Even though it could well be the case that someone who hasn't prepared for such a question could well give a great answer if it came from the heart. But be it a good answer or not, the HR person will still know that it's an extemporised answer, and may see it as them not having bothered preparing??

08-05-2022 3:26pm

The most ignorant, intellectually challenged people with the poorest people skills in my experience work in HR.

Zebra3 · 08-05-2022 6:20pm

My experience of HR is that they have very little to do.

So when something happens that they are dragged in to it becomes “a big deal”.

Most people I know in management positions hold them in complete and utter contempt.

Comapny I work for, they seem to do very little apart from recruit and finalise payroll which all the info is handed to them by managers.

They work in a separate location to the vast majority of the rest of the employees, only get called about serious disciplinary issues, and do little else bar the old trick of sending out emails to look important/busy.

And their ability to help recruit the right people is dreadful as they have no idea what’s really needed on the floor which they have almost zero interaction with.

Motivator · 08-05-2022 7:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119020420#Comment_119020420

In my current job the HR team is made up of two women. One is an absolute star, always looking out for people and checking in to see how they are. She’s wasted in the job and her calling is in some sort of therapists role.

The other woman is an absolute viper. She’s known as Harvey Dent (two face) in the offices. She’s basically a mole for the CEO and will do everything in her power to screw people and catch people out. At one of the Christmas parties a few years ago she brought two bottles of non alcoholic wine to the hotel earlier in the day and had them serve it to her at the table. She acted drunk for the night and it was only copped when one of the young lads working in the hotel tipped off one of the lads we worked with.

gladvimpaker · 08-05-2022 8:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119033311#Comment_119033311

I've seen it, people in powerful positions acting the clown and gaining people's trust, getting all the information from people on the floor at the staff barbeque or Christmas party and running to the hierarchy.

Harvey Dent lol haven't heard a good nick name like that in years, reminds me of a guy we used to call Bert Racoon :)

chrissb8 · 09-05-2022 5:08pm

HR works with large, big organisations. It is very much needed in that case, as there is constant hiring, labour issues etc. Then it's important as a function to the business, such as the Civil service for example.

Otherwise, just get an HR agency to do any of the documentation etc. Then let the managers of different areas of a business hire their own people and curate the job specs. Sick and tired of seeing over 20 technology requirements for advertised IT-related roles. Clearly written by HR who have no F'ing clue as to what is needed.

micosoft · 10-05-2022 10:58am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030718#Comment_119030718

Actually it's a choice. No Union means more HR staff to directly engage with staff. Unions are often part of a HR strategy in businesses to simplify engagement on pay negotiations etc. Better have employees to pay for their own HR to collectively negotiate conditions.

Shiok · 11-05-2022 1:48pm

Should anyone wish to join my anonymous HR support group, a safe place to reflect on what type of developmental trauma could have possibly led us to collectively pursue a career in one of the most vilified professions in Ireland, I am available.

Suggesting we invite the likes of Leena Nair (HR Unilever to CEO Chanel) & Mary Barra (HR GM to CEO GM) as keynote speakers and discuss what we have always wanted to say such as the 10 worst examples of emotional intelligence you have witnessed in May. The OP has kindly provided a starting point - forming opinions based on a story his / her daddy told them, thinly veiled sexist comments and feeling resentment towards someone full-stop but particularly over a very misjudged perception of power.

sam t smith · 11-05-2022 1:52pm

In a previous company the non-management level HR staff had the title ‘HR Partners’ for some reason.

Tony EH · 11-05-2022 6:50pm

@[Deleted User] Performance reviews tend to be monitored by HR, so they control the hiring, firing, and the giving of promotions or salary increases.

And THAT is the most concerning thing about the whole shitshow that is HR.

They have far, far, too much power in modern companies.

Tony EH · 11-05-2022 6:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119011350#Comment_119011350

"Talent" just another bollocks American buzz word business term.

Pretty much like "Human Resources" itself.

01-06-2022 6:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119006220#Comment_119006220

Regrettably, I picked up the company newsletter today.......there was a big spread welcoming the two newest members of the " TALENT DEPARTMENT "........

I never met the existing two but it seems there's 2 more been added & it's no longer called HR, Jesus!!!