HRD, now a days, has become a necessity of every company. They came into picture when the companies felt the need of having someone who could listen and sort out the grievance of employees so that they can work without worrying about their personal and professional issues. But what happened to that thought now.
Most of the companies I have worked with had an HR department that became sort of a coordination point and nothing more. As time has passed HRD has become more and more manipulative which means that they manipulated by the senior management or the departments which bring in the revenues for the company.
In a more simpler way it can be conveyed that HRD now days are just the puppets in the hands of the master (the management) who runs them by being at the back. Take for eg. What happened during 2008-2009 recession? Most of the companies ( those who were not even hit by the recession) which were not doing well in the market encashed the opportunity and reduced their manpower by reasonable numbers. During this time this decision of reducing the manpower were majorly taken by the management and implemented and conveyed through HR. If during this period, HR’s would have taken a step against this decision and had suggested the management to reduce their overhead costs rather than the manpower, it would have reduced percentage of unemployment during that period by reasonable numbers. I appreciate the efforts of those companies who tried reducing their overhead costs and retained their employees. One of such examples is ICICI Bank.
When HRD is empowered to decide in the best interest of the company then they will be successful in retaining the best talent and can avoid all kind of harassments which creep in because of the egos of supervisors/ management. They can easily act as third party and give decisions which can be acceptable for all. For this firstly, HRD has to be trusted by the management.
We need HRDs which can present and take such decisions in favour of the company goodwill because HRD is the heart of the company which shows the emotions and handles all the situations from human point of view. This will avoid situations where egos become bigger than team goals and self respect of employees is just crushed below their egoistic attitudes.
By Ashu Singh
HR Professional