Nothing human about Human Resources

More and more companies around the world are beginning to wake up to the fact that automating their HR departments makes better business sense

I have spent more than two decades working in corporate India without coming across an HR executive I could look up to. I met a lot of genuinely nice people, of course, because these exist in all departments, but struggled to find even one who understood what human resources really meant, or how those resources were to be nurtured and encouraged. This isn't a view most people I know will dispute either, which says a lot about how companies really need to figure out if the HR department is redundant and has run its course.

The term ‘human resources' highlights the primacy of an individual which, ironically, is the one thing most HR executives treat with the least amount of importance. Resources are little more than statistics for a majority of them, like a rotating cast of extras in the big play that is life in an office. It's why most HR executives function as proxies for senior management, never as representatives of the junior and other employees they are tasked with recruiting and retaining.

If this sounds like a rant, it isn't meant to be. I understand that HR is no more or no less to blame for how any organisation functions than any other department. My problem with them is how they blatantly do everything in their power to prevent change for the better. A lot of this stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of what the department is meant to do, and how it is supposed to care for the most valuable component of any organisation: its people.

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine was abused by the CEO of her organisation during a routine work-related phone call. She was told that this sort of language was to be expected because the firm she worked for described itself as a "start-up". Given that we take our cues of what a start-up is meant to be like from poorly produced American television, the CEO believed that throwing in cuss words during every call was the kind of behaviour that could land him on some inane 40-under-40 list of achievers. It doesn't help that the people most senior managers in India look up to are all white, American,
and sociopaths.

The HR department was aware of this, and how the CEO's behaviour was a violation of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act, passed by Parliament in 2013. They reached out to my friend promising redressal and an apology from the CEO, then promptly began ignoring all follow-up calls and emails. They spent the next couple of weeks doing everything they could to protect the CEO, until my friend - the victim, in case we've lost sight of that fact - was compelled to resign.

HR departments in India routinely function as whips, used by senior management to exploit labour and stub out any hint of dissention. It's why corporate India is rife with abusers of all kinds, all of whom are empowered by helpful and pliant HR executives who exist solely to protect the wrong kind of people. It's why the Vishaka Guidelines of 1997 were so toothless, and why the POSH Act will continue to do very little of substance.

The female labour participation rate in India fell to 20.3 per cent in 2019 from more than 26 per cent in 2005. Recent reports tracking how women fare in the workplace show that a lack of flexibility compels more and more of them to drop out regularly. Almost all of these issues can be addressed by intelligent human resource management, where skill is cultivated and given the kind of flexibility that leads to genuine productivity. A ham-handed one-size-fits-all approach that defines how most HR departments function is why we may never see change for the better.

I try and avoid dealing with HR executives unless I'm forced to. I restrict my conversations with them to the minimum and reach out only when there are issues with the payroll. It's probably why more and more companies around the world are beginning to wake up to the fact that automating their HR departments makes better business sense. They are fast becoming unnecessary, and I have no intention of mourning when the last HR department is replaced by a server room or a pantry.

Machines may be soulless and exploitative, but I know a machine won't wilfully go out of its way to make my life difficult. I can't say the same for any HR executive I have had the misfortune of dealing with.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.