Remember that HR team members are there to collect a paycheck as well. Many of my HR peers at Target were not onboard with company initiatives and roll-outs but were forced to "lead" through them anyway... Because it's their JOB! Field-level HR managers and BPs are NOT the ones making these decisions and are oftentimes the most opposed. But... We can't say that of course because we'd lose our job. HR at Target needs a COMPLETE revamp. My workload is a complete waste of time and way too much busy-work paired with an inability to make actual decisions. Rather we need to "influence" operational partners who need to be more accountable in the first place. Waste of time. Cut HR out to the bare bones and start over. Start holding operational leaders accountable to the things HR is tied to... Turnover, culture, hiring, performance management, review process. Hewitt has already taken over benefits so stop frustrating team members by not training HR on basic HR functions.
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It is my understanding the purpose or intent of Human Resources is to govern the Human Resource. I believe the keys to that statement include the acknowledgement that individuals have value and additional value can be created by developing and nurturing the Human Resource. In my opinion by that measure layoffs have the possibility of at times being an acknowledgement of failure.
I believe the purpose or intent of Human Resources at some point was to identify the value in employee's particularly employees who had significant experience with the company and sell the company on that value.
In general (not Target specific), HR exists for the benefit of the company NOT the employee.
HR wants to minimize company liability, risks associated with all things related to human beings.
Payroll ... high enough to attract/retain/get by, low enough for company to make money.
Benefits ... ditto.
Hiring? Firing? Training? You got it.
My observation/experience is that the bigger the company, the more "evil" HR becomes as it becomes easier for "what's best for the company" to overshadow impact to individuals layers and layers removed.
What I've also noticed that HR folks individually are nice people until you get a combo of two things:
1) you start talking about anything considered an official HR topic
2) they gather in groups larger than 3 (after that they become a bit of a Skynet-AI in human form)