Why HR Has Credibility Problem

For me, when I think of the Human Resource manager, I think of someone who is so intent on filling vacancies, they don't have time to address the quality of life issues for employees. Unfortunately, as a government agency we have more bosses than just the department head so it is not necessarily the HR manager's fault for all of the issues we face. Since we are currently in a hiring crisis the HR manager and recruiters are looking for almost anyone they can get in. Competition is fierce among the area agencies to get applicants and we are all using almost the same applicant pool. Consequently, there seems to be an attempt to get applicants to accept a position with our agency before they can be hired by anyone else. This has been problematic in that there have been reports by new hires that they were hired with the understanding they would receive certain benefits that were later taken away due to budget issues. That left a bad taste in the mouths of some of the new employees who now, in many cases, are looking for employment elsewhere.

Another aspect of how the HR management impacts the rest of the organization is the quality of personnel being hired. The perception has been that recruitment is being done more at colleges and universities than at military bases or local job fairs. We actively recruit and test at locations hundreds of miles away, primarily to the North and Northwest. As a result, we are hiring more young people who have just graduated from college and have little to no life experience. The new employees are still living with their parents in many cases, and have had very little job experience where they have much interaction with customers. This has created a situation that forces the training to concentrate on teaching interpersonal skills in order to help prevent negative interactions and reduce complaints.

In our organization, the HR manager is a civilian with no experience as an active member of the public safety field. This does not lend itself to bolstering the credibility of that manager as one who knows what kind of person is needed for our business. In fact, in the past 15 years or so, we have had a civilian in that position and there has been an overwhelming lack of belief among the rank and file that the HR manager is qualified to lead in that role. While reality may not bear that out, at least anecdotally there is support for that feeling when we look at the quality of some of the recruits being hired and trained.

On the larger scale within the government, HR has lost it's credibility when we look at some of the benefits issues. Yearly pay increases are not uniformly applied and methods of calculating pay increases have been looked at as suspect at best. Without going into great detail, a pay increase that was supposed to have been approved for all employees, when implemented many employees received only a small portion of the amount they were told they would get. When it looks like upper management gets large bonuses and perks that line people don't get, and then benefits get cut or taken away, it is a difficult thing to accept.