E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

I cannot wait for the day when the last company that has a Human Resource department goes out of business. Humans are not Resources, they are not Assets, they are not something to have, possess or exploit. The very fact that the departments that are tasked with the recruiting and development of workforce are called Human Resource Departments in many organizations, disturbs me to the core of my being. It is not an accident they are called that. That is precisely how they treat people.

They design recruiting process to screen people out instead of attracting them. They dehumanize people by trying to fit them in to standard roles. They complain when people do not fit their unrealistic molds perfectly. They say that there is a shortage of qualified employees, yet do nothing to help anyone qualify.

Slavery has been outlawed for a long time now, yet we persist in having warm bodies fill positions in our organizations. Then we wonder why everyone hates their job, the quality sucks and productivity is only achieved through automation.

One of the keys to reviving American businesses is to abolish HR. For that matter abolish most bureaucrats who are not directly involved in serving the customers. I, for one, am tired of having phone interviews with people who know nothing at all about the actual job that they are recruiting for. In my estimation, the managers are not worth their salt, if they need HR to do the hiring and training of their direct reports. If need be, have a coordinator, to help the scheduling and benefits. But do not call that person Human Resources Manager. Call this coordinator Workforce Developer, call that person Employee Relations Specialist, anything but Human Resources.

Words do matter. They matter plenty. The quicker we stop treating each other as “resources” that need to be “managed”, the quicker we might end up with a work environment that can actually support mass customization initiatives, instead of resisting them.

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