The Inherent Lunacies of Human Resources Departments in Consulting Firms
Do you remember May 2009?
A lawyer in Victoria (BC, Canada was appointed to investigate the British Columbia College of Teachers (BCCT) after several complaints that the Teacher's Union had hijacked the BCCT and tried to conserve or even reduce standards while demanding higher wages and better and benefits for teachers.
Some years ago BCCT tried to toughen up continuing professional development for teachers but the union stepped in saying BCCT has no right to demand higher level of competency form teachers, and teachers have the right to perform at any damn level they feel like.
So, BCCT wants to increase the standards for teachers and education in general, but the Teacher's Union, as all unions do, want to keep standards as low as possible.
And this is the exact battle I see in so many consulting firms between the C-level executives and HR departments.
HR departments keep hiring people, as per HR Best Practice, with impressive resumes, amazing references and recommendations, but C-level executives keep crying for people who can actually do the work.
And this is what we discuss this month's brain-fryingly exciting episode of Commando Consulting, entitled, "The Inherent Lunacies of Human Resources Departments in Consulting Firms"...
A lawyer in Victoria (BC, Canada was appointed to investigate the British Columbia College of Teachers (BCCT) after several complaints that the Teacher's Union had hijacked the BCCT and tried to conserve or even reduce standards while demanding higher wages and better and benefits for teachers.
Some years ago BCCT tried to toughen up continuing professional development for teachers but the union stepped in saying BCCT has no right to demand higher level of competency form teachers, and teachers have the right to perform at any damn level they feel like.
So, BCCT wants to increase the standards for teachers and education in general, but the Teacher's Union, as all unions do, want to keep standards as low as possible.
And this is the exact battle I see in so many consulting firms between the C-level executives and HR departments.
HR departments keep hiring people, as per HR Best Practice, with impressive resumes, amazing references and recommendations, but C-level executives keep crying for people who can actually do the work.
And this is what we discuss this month's brain-fryingly exciting episode of Commando Consulting, entitled, "The Inherent Lunacies of Human Resources Departments in Consulting Firms"...
posted by Bald Dog @ Monday, March 14, 2011
3 Comments:
At Thursday, 24 March 2011 at 09:34:00 GMT-7,
jaigwon@juno.com said…
Well stated and frightfully accurate. I think the truth in today's social and professional world is that the bureaucrats and technocrats have risen to the top of the new pecking order. The traditional mano a mano relationships and challenges have mutated to a group think based set of standards and beliefs. Leadership, once taught and valued has morphed to a twisted, watered down variant of management based on populist values and institutional criteria. All organizations are, by nature, human collectives or herds and as such, are biotic. The human resource component should be the most important element of any organization as found on a sports team, creating teams, but instead, we find human resources are nothing but paper processors and legal defense mitigators. How short sighted and inane.
Jim Uhlmann
Hale'iwa, Hawaii
24 March 2011
At Thursday, 24 March 2011 at 18:24:00 GMT-7,
Bald Dog said…
Hey Jim,
Good point. Even those companies that tout that people are their most important assets disallow HR people to sit around the boardroom table and discuss strategic company matters.
So, over the years, executives have pushed HR, as a non-serious but still required department, into a corner office out of sight. And HR has done basically nothing to regain credibility and join the leadership team.
The good thing is that there are some great HR thinkers who are willing to upset the bogus HR Best Practices (based on the industrial age), and embrace a new type of HR for the knowledge age.
Yes, there is still a long way to go, but we can see the signs of improvement.
At Saturday, 14 May 2011 at 23:34:00 GMT-7,
Anonymous said…
You are correct! Graduates from the school of hard knocks, those who are truly intelligent, versed in the actualities of life while actually earning for themselves and their own, are being squashed by the lazy special interest, to make their lives easier by avoiding the soiling of their own hands. It is the apathy stage of democracy that kills everyone that actually worked to establish anything good in this world while simultaneously creating an environment that fosters the parasitic society. I would be happy if you killed them all and let God sort them out. That is your motto, is it not? The irony of this comment is that it is the only solution to get society back on the right track. Get em Jim.
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