Nothing human about Human Resources

I have spent more than two decades working in corporate India without coming across an HR executive I could look up to I met a lot of genuinely nice people of course because these exist in all departments but struggled to find even one who understood what human resources really meant or how those resources were to be nurtured and encouraged This isnrsquot a view most people I know will dispute either which says a lot about how companies really need to figure out if the HR department is redundant and has run its courseThe term lsquohuman resourcesrsquo highlights the primacy of an individual which ironically is the one thing most HR executives treat with the least amount of importance Resources are little more than statistics for a majority of them like a rotating cast of extras in the big play that is life in an office Itrsquos why most HR executives function as proxies for senior management never as representatives of the junior and other employees they are tasked with recruiting and retainingIf this sounds like a rant it isnrsquot meant to be I understand that HR is no more or no less to blame for how any organisation functions than any other department My problem with them is how they blatantly do everything in their power to prevent change for the better A lot of this stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of what the department is meant to do and how it is supposed to care for the most valuable component of any organisation its peopleA couple of months ago a friend of mine was abused by the CEO of her organisation during a routine workrelated phone call She was told that this sort of language was to be expected because the firm she worked for described itself as a ldquostartuprdquo Given that we take our cues of what a startup is meant to be like from poorly produced American television the CEO believed that throwing in cuss words during every call was the kind of behaviour that could land him on some inane 40under40 list of achievers It doesnrsquot help that the people most senior managers in India look up to are all white Americanand sociopathsThe HR department was aware of this and how the CEOrsquos behaviour was a violation of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment POSH Act passed by Parliament in 2013 They reached out to my friend promising redressal and an apology from the CEO then promptly began ignoring all followup calls and emails They spent the next couple of weeks doing everything they could to protect the CEO until my friendmdashthe victim in case wersquove lost sight of that factmdashwas compelled to resignHR departments in India routinely function as whips used by senior management to exploit labour and stub out any hint of dissention Itrsquos why corporate India is rife with abusers of all kinds all of whom are empowered by helpful and pliant HR executives who exist solely to protect the wrong kind of people Itrsquos why the Vishaka Guidelines of 1997 were so toothless and why the POSH Act will continue to do very little of substanceThe female labour participation rate in India fell to 203 per cent in 2019 from more than 26 per cent in 2005 Recent reports tracking how women fare in the workplace show that a lack of flexibility compels more and more of them to drop out regularly Almost all of these issues can be addressed by intelligent human resource management where skill is cultivated and given the kind of flexibility that leads to genuine productivity A hamhanded onesizefitsall approach that defines how most HR departments function is why we may never see change for the betterI try and avoid dealing with HR executives unless Irsquom forced to I restrict my conversations with them to the minimum and reach out only when there are issues with the payroll Itrsquos probably why more and more companies around the world are beginning to wake up to the fact that automating their HR departments makes better business sense They are fast becoming unnecessary and I have no intention of mourning when the last HR department is replaced by a server room or a pantryMachines may be soulless and exploitative but I know a machine wonrsquot wilfully go out of its way to make my life difficult I canrsquot say the same for any HR executive I have had the misfortune of dealing withWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper