HR Is Not A Policeman

Long back in a history class I had read concepts of international policeman. For a long time it enthralled and captivated every pupil’s mind, how and which policies of the United States of America resulted to it being referred as the international policeman. True to its name, even today with what happens in Afghanistan, Iraq or Pakistan; US of A has a major hand to play while portraying itself as a peacemaking force.

No I’m not discussing the world politics, but drawing a parallel to the very concept of policing around! One of the functions in an organization vis-à-vis Human Resource is several times taken to be the department used for policing around the organization’s views. The definition of being one can bring about goodness to the organization as well as be misconstrued.

When I talk of the goodness, we have a body that tries its best to lay out protocols and ensure compliance on universal grounds without deviation or exception. Some may argue why at all is the department needed when neither can it take decisions of its own nor can it think out of the box nor does it yield productivity of any kind. A function which by itself is bounded by policies those that end being meaningless, when others in the market are adopting the open house schemes. However how much ever one may decide to deny the need for discipline, end of the day as personal experiences everybody starts believing in the sanctity of the methodologies. For example dress code is a thought for contempt for many, whilst others believe it’s a must to harbour company’s culture.

The goodness is not that worrying as much as the misinterpretation is. How many times have we come across individuals from HR who believe, they have the supremacy to decide the future of an employee – either making or breaking it? How many HR’s think they can get away with whatever they do, because they are a part of the elite managerial group that handles employees? Ever heard of an HR suggesting that they have the liberty to break the rules/clauses/protocols since their policies are for the delivery functions and not support? Seen an HR who thinks they have rights to all the privileges and nobody can question them on the same? I have for myself seen people from the HR brigade exhibiting such behaviour.

Why if you ask me, or for that matter they themselves; all you can gather from their expression is that they are the one’s making the policies and they have certain anonymous powers to bypass them!

Before I got into the profession a friend of mine had then said, how one needs to be careful with not annoying an HR during campus placements. Narration of a story followed, the moral of which was, the lady HR didn’t find the candidate smart to talk and exhibited a personal disliking, hence closing his chances for employment without consultation with technical experts. Interviewees line of thought (including his friends) says unfair deal, HR are dangerous to mess around with. Interviewer’s line of thought says the person seems weak in the capability to be trainable due to severe communication barriers. For serious HR’s they know it well, how not to mix personal and professional experiences/instincts. If they aren’t one, they themselves would be poor judges of the right candidature skill and degrade the objectivity involved in the situation.

Another instance when an HR believes he is not liable to pay fine when he loses a material that is the property of the organization. While the delivery guys should be instantaneously fined, because they committed a serious offense. Why should HR or any support function be an exception here and believe they have superficial privileges that allow them to act the way they do?

Or why do they believe certain rights should be exclusively provided to them, when at the same time the policy says check the employees on it and rectify issues if any?

The other day I heard someone quip (in serious tone); let’s make a sick room within the HR room. An inquisitive person asked, and why is that the thought. The answer was something like ‘So that we can all rest whenever we feel like to. But the delivery guys should think twice before entering the room, since it’s the HR they are coming up to.’

With imaginations running so vivid about the seamless powers a designation is entitled to, HR is certainly not a policeman trying to enforce things, moreover boss around for wrong reasons. Perhaps one of the activities entrusted by the organization upon HR shoulders is be within the policy limits, however if somebody thinks it gives them the edge to act beyond their skin; they certainly require to assess their skills and career track. For that matter, any career track, if one’s acting beyond the desired attitude, time for solitude and introspection!