HR People and Bad Reputations

I've worked very hard to do my best in each job - serving internal and external clients with respect and professionalism, and I know many HR professionals who do the same.

My recent personal experiences along with the experiences relayed by people seeking jobs have given me insight into the reasons why people complain about HR.

It is not my intention to offend, but rather to state what many people outside our field say so openly: they have little or no respect for HR. I'm not saying that's the case for each company as there are many known for stellar HR departments.

I do think it is the case that many people fall into this field because they were good at staffing or they were great administratively, seemed to keep track of paperwork, so were anointed with the responsibility of being the HR person.

Some of those people went to classes, read books and joined professional organizations to learn what they should do regarding: recruitment and retention, compensation and benefits, training and organizational development, etc.

Some of those people were so swamped doing the job they had no time for classes.

Then there are some people, just like in any field, who don't know what they don't know, and have no desire to find out. Simply unprofessional.

There were some great HR people who were laid off during the downturn, so there is either no person in the HR role or someone who is ill-equipped to assume the duties.

And it's either the unprofessional people or the un-staffed or the under-prepared people who give ALL HR people a bad reputation. People generalize.

Here's an example.

A woman, herein called "X", saw an interesting position that had been posted just about everywhere. It suited her background so X went through the laborious chore of copying and pasting her resume into the website, filled in certain fields, and customized a cover letter. And when X clicked on the submit button, up popped a webpage that both thanked her for her resume and said there was an error and the resume was not received.

X repeated the process and received the same message. She called the company and the Receptionist provided X with a name and phone number to confirm receipt of the resume. X left a message on the contact's voicemail. {Also contacted the Webmaster who never replied.}

When X followed up a few days later, the HR person was irate that she had her name and number and demanded to know how X found her! X was very surprised, to say the least, and calmly repeated her information. The HR person grudgingly checked for the woman's resume - and it had not been received.

I've submitted resumes and never received an acknowledgement note, and that's not a big issue for me, however it is a professional courtesy easily extended to candidates. But it's the rude response that stays with you.

The same day this happened to me, I presented to a job search group. Several of the attendees were completely trashing HR people for their lack of professionalism and lack of response. And it's not the first group where I've had this experience.

Common complaints from job seekers:

- I don't know if they received my resume.
- I was called for an interview and never called back, no one called to emailed to tell me what happened.
- I was treated rudely and unprofessionally.
- I was told an offer letter would be sent but they reneged, did not provide any reason.
- They don't seem to value people.

Now I know it's not a job seeker's market, but I really don't feel there's an excuse for this behavior. Additionally, it makes ALL HR people seem inept, and I sincerely resent that.

What can we do to change this situation? Please post your thoughts, experiences and ideas.