I’ve had horrendous writers block all this week. I can’t write anything. My writers block has gotten so bad the other night I had a nightmare about it! I’ve been having a lot of strange dreams though lately so maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something. Anyway….back on topic.

So there I was with not a topic in site. To waste more time then I already had, I decided to take to twitter and solicit the opinions of the masses. I got some good suggestions:

 

I liked the idea of writing about putting the human back into HR. But then I thought about some HR groups that are too focused on people and not enough on the organization.

Their are two extreme’s I’ve seen in HR: the warm and fuzzy HR group or the Terminator HR group. My experience is that both believe their way is the right way, both think they are doing what is best for employee’s (citizens) and as a result really don’t see any reason to change. It’s kind of the way our political parties are right now.

A little background on these two groups:

Warm and Fuzzy: These are the mom’s in the office (sorry guy’s it’s usually women that make up this group). This is the HR group that is friends with everyone. You can find this group: planning a social event or stocking back up on Kleenex.

The Terminators: This is the HR group that operates just like Arnold in The Terminator movies, give them an objective (performance management!) and rules (everyone must complete a performance appraisal) and they will ruthlessly insure the mission is completed. There is no grey in this group’s world. Frequently heard saying: “The policy says…”

Neither group, like our political parties, is really effective at solving any problems or getting anything of value accomplished.

In companies with the terminator style of HR management, their employees’ just figure out a way to get around the rules imposed. Rarely is any true impact made because people think the HR group are cold, ruthless, machines that follow the rules relentlessly. On the other hand the warm and fuzzy HR group doesn’t have any time to do anything with true impact because they are too busy being a friend/therapist to everyone, this group lives by making exceptions.

I think it’s time we try something in HR that our political parties can’t seem to do: moderate. It’s time to find a nice place in the center of these two extreme’s and try hanging out there for a minute.

What does that space look like? To me it looks like HR pros being accountable and demanding accountability. HR pro’s coach and consult with business knowledge and compassion. It looks like a place where HR is not playing the role of mother/counselor/therapist. It looks like a place where employees get work done because they don’t have burdensome policies they have to work around. In this place HR pro’s figure out what works for our organizations instead of applying someone else’s best practice to our unique companies.

Doesn’t that look like an HR group you want to work in?

At the rate we’re going politically I doubt we will see moderation anytime soon but at least we can try it in HR.

What do you think? Do you work in warm and fuzzy HR? Terminator HR? Or are you hanging out in the middle utopia? Tell me in the comments!