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The HR profession

From bad to worst as HR is condemned by bosses: HR profession

by Personnel Today 7 Mar 2006
by Personnel Today 7 Mar 2006

Senior executives have rated HR as the worst of all business functions.

An Economist Intelligence Unit survey of 555 global senior executives, including 226 CEOs, reveals that of the functions under review, more people rated the performance of HR bad than good.

No other function – not even the “notoriously unlovable” IT department – came close to being this unappreciated, researchers said.

The survey, sponsored by government agency UK Trade & Investment, found that almost a third of respondents rated HR a four or five (where five is poor), compared with 22% for IT, 20% for knowledge management/research and 20% for marketing/sales. Only 27% gave HR a one or two (where one is excellent), compared with 37% for IT.

The report’s author, Andrew Palmer, said: “People issues are near the top of the list of headaches for companies and their senior executives. Often, the HR department has responsibility, but does not have ultimate control.

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“For example, people are recruited and retained for reasons that sit outside HR’s responsibility in many companies, with line managers dictating the career development of their staff and salary being dictated by the board.”

To address the issue, HR departments must prove their importance to the organisation in hard financial terms and take control of key strategic processes, Palmer said.

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

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Personnel Today
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