Beyond the normal reasons that people tend to Hate HR – I had one come across my desk recently that might be the #1 reason of why people hate HR – but since there are so many reasons I’ve decide #2763 just sounded better!
Here’s the story line:
Normal sunny summer day. Candidate comes into interview – hiring manager loves candidate – candidate loves hiring manager, company and position. End of story right? Wrong! You see candidate must relocate. Relocation painful. Relocation stressful. I say in my deep caveman voice. Send candidate to HR – they’ll solve the Relocation dilemma because they have Big Relocation Policy! Ugh…
Big Relocation policy says that the corporation will spend a ridiculous amount of money for corporate housing for 90 days. Furnished apartment, flights home each week, food allowance, etc. Average monthly cost for temporary living expense for the organization runs about – $4000 per month – for 3 months. Candidate says I don’t need temporary living – I want to move right away because of getting my kids enrolled in school. Instead of temporary living expenses – can you just give me $2000 for deposit and first months rent on a place in the area I want my kids to go to school? Seems like a no-brainer, right? Wrong, again! Big Relocation Policy doesn’t allow for this. You need to use temporary living at corporate housing. You need to spend thousands of more dollars. We not make decision – policy make decisions…
Good Rule of Thumb for HR Pros:
“If it saves your organization money, find a way to make it happen.”
You think this is a one time occurrence, one bad company, one bad HR pro – it’s not – this is HR. This might not be your example in your HR shop – but I guarantee you, someone has one of these stories about you. Theses things are ridiculous, but we explain them away by telling folks ‘you don’t understand’ – ‘it’s situational’ – ‘it’s a slippery slope’ – etc. You know what – those folks – they do understand. They understand business. They understand how to help people and make their work life a little easier. It’s not them that don’t understand – it’s you.
You want to hear reason #2764 of why People Hate HR…
Sounds like you need Crown Relocations to advise you on a suitable relocation policy.
It’s not just HR…in the army…we used to say: “if it makes sense, it probably won’t happen.”
Thank you so much for saying this! I love the idea that we should all be looking out to make other people’s lives easier (not just HR!). Sometimes we can all get very caught up in “that’s not my role” or “we just don’t do that” situations. But really, is that any way to be? Stubborn policies like the one described above don’t make life easier for anyone (and are a BAD way to express your company culture!). It’s 2013, I think we can all afford to be flexible now and then.
Thanks, as always!