Like many readers of our blog, I spend a lot of time trying to learn more about recruiting and employee communications. I dig down to theories about best practices, study metrics and analytics, subscribe to a slew of newsletters, articles and LinkedIn groups, read white papers, follow recruiting professionals on Twitter, and I’m always talking to industry colleagues about what’s new and what’s working in human resources.
Sometimes however, I think it’s good to step back and try to see how the outside world views our industry. When I came across an article from smartmoney.com titled, “10 Things HR Won’t Say,” I was intrigued by the idea of getting an outsider’s perspective–and when I read in the first paragraph an explanation of what SHRM is–I knew I came to the right place.
I don’t believe there’s anything earth-shattering in the essay, but I was pleasantly surprised that the article, instead of being a diatribe about how evil HR people stop you from getting the job you deserve, spoke to some of the challenges HR people face in their daily work. Still, I did bristle at some of the blanket generalizations (ex. “We love tests.” Really? In almost 20 years of working in the industry, I’ve yet to hear an HR pro utter anything like that about employee testing.)
What I WOULD love is for our readers, especially those in HR, to comment on the article. Is an article like this good PR for the profession or does it continue to perpetuate stereotypes? Let me know your thoughts!
Hey Tony. Interesting read. A somewhat more critical assessment is found here. There’s a dark side!
http://www.switchhr.com/2010/03/14/the-anti-people-department/
Brian, thanks for the note. Wow, I would say that your switchhr blog post was definitely a “somewhat more critical assessment!” Can always count on you to tell it like it is and not pull punches. Keep up the good work!