Why Employees Hate HR

Human resource department – commonly known as the HR in

every organisation – is the vital link that connects the
employees to the management, and is supposedly the most
powerful and the authoritative department in an organisation.
They represent the management to the employees and vice
versa.

But the truth is that - “The employees hate it and the

management considers it to be useless”. Considered closest to
the top management and the gateway to all their
communications and the front face in implementation of all their
decisions, the HR faces the brunt of the hatred of the
employees.
In recent times, when the credibility of the HR is under scrutiny and
ways and means of finding the return on investment are being
calculated, the HR has found itself to be at the receiving end of the
employee’s hatred and the ever-growing anti HR feelings inside the
organisation.

Why employees hate HR…

Now the main question that arises is – Why do the employees
hate HR?
We hereby attempt to find answer to this intricate question, existing
right from the time when the concept of HR came into existence in
organisations. Employees hate HR because:

 HR is the mouthpiece of all the organisational decisions,

whether good or bad, fair or unfair.
 HR is responsible for implementing and monitoring the
corporate rules and align all functions according to the policies.
Therefore, often portrays the image of the policemen to the
employees.
 The employees hate HR when they face the lack of
responsiveness and
o Fail to get the solutions to their problems
o Fail to get assistance on time to their problems
o Don’t get a fair (less than expected) appraisal and on time
o Fail to separate the HR functions from the strategical
functions of the organisation
o Fail to get timely information and communicate with the
management or higher authorities because of the delay
caused by the HR.

 Sometimes the HR in the organisation starts considering itself

superior and important than other employees, demand respect
 from other and even treating them badly or as inferior beings.
According to various researches, this has emerged as the
topmost reason for why the employees hate HR. as the horns
on the hr employees heads get bigger and bigger everyday, the
greater gets the disliking for them.
 Many HR professionals in organisations are still following the
same traditional and bureaucratic rituals in all its functions and
approaches. And they fail to incorporate employee friendly
outlook and practices.
 Many a times, it has been noticed that apart from the hiring
and the other minuscule HR functions like attendance, the HR
often fails to provide career development opportunities,
employee engagement and other strategic functions of the HR.
 Most importantly, and last but not the least, when the
organisation or the HR fails to fulfill the promises made by the
HR to the employees.

The Truth:
“Everything that shines is not gold” or “Looks can be
deceptive!” These phrases are best suited to the position of HR
professionals in every organisation.
To explain it better with a situation: HR is responsible for the talent
management and employee engagement in an organisation. Both of
them are directly linked to the performance and compensation
reviews, appraisals. Now, the employees get in touch only which
with the respective HR people for any final notification of the
decisions taken regarding the same. But the irony is that the
appraisal decision has in fact been taken by the management and
the other concerned officials like the project manager etc.

But as the decision is conveyed by the HR people, the first axe of

hatred always falls on the HR, which in every case is the mouthpiece
of the management. Now if the HR advocates the case for reviewing
the appraisal of an employee with the management, all it gets is the
bashing that they are on the employee’s side, and, have been hired
by the organisation and not by the employees. They have no power
to take decisions on their own. While balancing the interests of the
employees and the organisation, they often become the whipping
boy, who is always punished for the wrong doings of others.

The Fact:
The fact is that all the human resource professionals have to deal
with humans, their emotions, different attitudes, different
behaviours, different levels of understanding, different perceptions
etc. And what the employees and the organisations forget is the fact
that all human resource professionals are human themselves, having
the entire gamut of all the above mentioned traits. And the HR
professionals are basically striving had to keep both the employees
and the organisation happy.

Converting Hate into Love

Turning the hatred of the employees in love or even the mutual and
neutral feelings of understanding would require a great effort on the
part of the HR to change the basic perception of employees which is
commonly found to be against HR. None the less, the HR can take
the following steps to ensure a healthy start:

 The HR should emphasize on the communication. The

communication should be clear, timely and proper i.e.
explaining the rationale behind the decisions and the actions
taken. Bridge the gap with the employees through
communication.
 Properly and fairly executing the HR processes like the
appraisals and training and development etc.
 Don’t be biased in its decisions. The HR should not be biased
towards the management or personal bias towards some of the
employees.
 Focus on all the aspects and functions of HR equally.
 The HR should not take the undue advantage of their position
and authority.