Why does everyone hate HR department?

Well, not everyone hates HR department. At least the HR people do not hate HR department. Well, i do not blame the HR department of any company. The HR is meant to manage people and mostly the preferred source of bad news communication from the mangement. If there is some good news to be brought in for the employees, the company's CEO or MD does it. If there is a bad news, they just give it to HR and they have to communicate. So in effect, the HR comes in the Hate line of the employees.What employees must look at is the root cause of the bad news which comes in.

Moreover, HR is hated because its the one point of contact for all the issues of employees. Its difficult for them also to resolve those issues as and when they come. I have seen some very good HR managers and some not so good ones. I just can say that how an HR manages the employees, makes him a saint or a devil.

1. They pretend to be on your team
2. Inflexible policies and red tape
3. No real understanding of you or your job
4. Talking to them accomplishes nothing
5. They think you are a resource

Though it is said that HR are the facet and bridge between 2 strong parties...It goes much more difficult to handle things becuase HR are said to be responbsible and accountable for things which they cant take a decision on. Also HR do escalate concerns of all to respective stake holders, however the concerned authorities take time to get back to them, & others think that it is HR who are not interested to help the employees..

They are held to be responsible for decisions which they have not taken (though i do agree that it is their responsibility to convey in the right manner).

HR are the one who understands both the parties and know as to how put front before them as well. It is only the lack of patience in the individual parties which makes them stamp the HR's.

It would be great to know from you guys.

Does Everybody Hate HR?
Tough one to answer in Yes Or No !!!

But if you get things in perspective you will understand how Important you (or HR Department) are & will not worry if some people Hate you for any reason..

I think that HR's needs some characteristics in addition of his/her study and knowledge about that interesting field. HR manager should be accepted wo/man in the company that every body could trust him/her and know him/her as one of his/her friend.
So it is better to become friend with all the personnel and touch their work and situation closely. In this way s/he can help them really. HR manager must have stronger relationships with the worker of the company. And pay more attention to their request and benefits. But I believe that most of HR manger pay more attention to the owner of the company and try to make stronger relationship with them.

I believe in many ways many Fast Company nailed it.

The attitudes of many HR employees do not always match up to the teams they are in place to support. Furthermore, (I have recently discovered)HR is notoriously unresponsive to individuals or organizations that are not “on the inside”. Said differently, returning telephone calls and simply following up on commitments are nothing more than common courtesy and professionalism.

Unfortunately, these courtesies are often not extended by the hand of HR.
Perhaps some of the “attitude” may be due to the lack of financial and strategic autonomy afforded to the HR department by many organizations. More of us should consider HR to be a strategic partner Vs a cost center intended to perform the role of corporate police. In order to do so however some drastic change in attitude needs to occur. The first step of the process could be to adopt an attitude of servant leadership and “how can I help you” attitude.

Finally, the HR department and staffing are often the first exposure many outsiders have to an organization. In my professional opinion, we need to do a much better job in acting as goodwill ambassadors to the outside world(your network knowledge). Only then can we capitalize on all the external resources and opportunities that so often fall by the wayside.

I completely disagree with you. What happens today is a follow up of past. Why should I hate you if there is no reasonable reason? HR is a dept. to look after the welfare of an organization's most important resource- "Human". But I am sorry to say loads of examples scattered in my country where human are not treated as Human. As a result that human hits back those humans. The core reason behind such hatred is not listening to employees, not reaching to their points of view, not knowing their social back ground etc. etc. To accomplish organizational goal most of the time we impose "something" to an employee instead of motivating him/her to do the same! And the most somber thing is that HR dept. (s) are even not in a situation to admit this matter.

We should not paint everyone with the same brush!

Have to realize: Great people in this world have great personality, and great people never cry FOUL.

The same way everyone in the industry has to understand that, doing his great job while keeping hurmony is the best tribute to his/her role.

It is never smooth task for anyone starting from developer--leader--managers-heads-CEO-Ministers--Prime ministers of Countries, All of them face challenges in their work in many forms, many expectations.

But that does not mean you will accept that you will be hated!!!

Wonders are possible--People understand behaviour and no one loves rude, tricky, shrude people.

Politeness, sensibility, reasonability is always praised and signs of gentlemen!!

This is lame excuse that HRs faces challenges so they are doing difficult jobs and so are they hated.

Solution is: Becoming professional, yet a sensible person with mind, respect for self and all.

normally HR dept in any organisation acts like a dictator thinking as if they have the maximum onus and they are the policy makers and they are responsible for every thing that happens in organization.all though it may be true that they have so many guidelines to adhere, problem arises if they act with some partiality depending on situations.law makers should understand that employees are also humans as them and HR dept has to listen the voices of employess even though words or feelings are sweet enough.impartial work practices alone can sustain and not the simple adherence to policies.

I've worked for 3 MNC's & one thing common in all these was Lousy HR, always like a government office. I guess some where in the HR curriculum they have a topic called as How not to help employees..

Disclaimer: Not to hurt anybody but this is what I've seen.

We normally Hate HR because:

1. They think they are the one POLICYMAKERS and everybody has to maintain it..... the worst thing to even IMAGINE....  They really behave like a Ringmaster of a circus.....

2. They mostly forget that They are the supporting dept and has no or very less value addition towards Organisational growth....  they keep the issues of supporting a side and try to find out company policy for safeguarding themselves and there thoughts..

3. They also OUTSOURCE the function of RECRUITMENT to consultants and all.... and believe in only admin jobs... What is the use then..???

4. If any urgent thing comes up Instead of doing the work they fingure out policies of organisations.....

5. they just dont believe in Employees welfare... they rather TRUST in Companies policy Matrix and all...  for them company policy caomes first and then Employee.... There honesty is for Framework and not the Employee as they say Employee comes and go but Ploicies has to stand for last.....

6. When Problem comes they just step aside by handing over some stupid forms and all to fill it up...

7. The Biggest Problem... Salary... I dont know Does they really pay from there pockets or what...???? and that too not even on time......

Beside these there are several other areas to be evolved from Individuals....... Finally everybody has different reason to HATE HR....

Not every one hate HR.Human Resource Professional is deals with the most difficult & dynamic part of any organization. but some company is not appointed who are having master degree(Specialized) in HR, only they are selecting Degree holder for some reason, in this case misguide to the employees & management also, if any person have specialization in the Human Resource, he knows to deal with the employees & the management also.

Person having no marketing knowledge may hate HR department otherwise no reasons to hate the HR department.

i would say..its not like that  the people hate hr ...

reason behind..now hr participates not only in admin work but also a strategic partner of the company.

it has travelled a long  journey from personnel department to human resource to human capital management .where it sets strategies for human capital which should be aligned with the organization strategies..i mean to say is the time has gone when people used to hate hr dep. because today the hr department and organisation aggregately in favour of talent management they are more focusing on satisfying the needs and wants of employees so that they can retain the talent as well as attract the talent .they are more helping to solve grievances and so on..

shobhna shrivastava

Since HR is a service and support function in any organization and does not contribute directly to value-creation, it cannot keep everyone happy at all times. Hence, the dislike for HR may be there. But then it's a fleeting statement to say that everyone hates HR. No; everyone doesn't hate HR and certainly not all the time.

It is only because HR deals directly, rather only, with humans that dislikes against them gets highlighted.

Nobody hates HR.....

Everybody wants transparency,as long as HR is open and there is no information lick-age ie he/she should be feel comfortable to discuss their problems.Normally what happens people are having bitter experience in past may be in term of promotion or any issues related to day to day performance and they losose trust. So it is very important we keep our commitment and be transparent as much as we can.

The owner(s) of the company may turn HR into Human Resource Development ( HRD ). It is the owner who decides how to handle his/her human resources and HR men/women are to give effect to that. They position themselves in between.

As any asset is to be nurtured, developped and maintained .. so is the case of humans. For better results, employees are to be developped and fine tuned as per the mission of the business ( or wishes of the owners ). Here comes : HRD.

If all unplesant works are bestowed to the HR and all good job is handled by the Management, the image of  HR may be lowered. In all cases, role of the third entity, here HR, may not be plesant all along.  Any bad feelings in handling HR may be taken as "job hazards" which is there in all professions. Nothing 2be wooried for. HR is there and will be there.

The HR function is tricky - they have an intrusive job, yet they should appear nonintrusive. The HR guys are supposed to service other employees while they appear to be more in the picture to make themselves relevant. This galls - the ability to walk the tight rope is crucial in HR, or everyone ends up mocking at HR.