Human Resources – Friend or Foe?

I met someone interesting recently, and she asked me something which I think not many people ask – What is the role of HR in a business? Are they there for the company? For the employers or the employees? When the employers do something unethical (or unlawful), what are they meant to do?

This is interesting. I had always thought they were there for the business. After all, the business is the one who pays them. They are, like the rest, employees of the business. So what makes anyone think the HR are there for the employees? In fact, from experience, most people I know would resort to seeing HR as their last measure, if an option at all.

From this hrVilage.com article, I got a rough definition of what Human Resources is:

The field of human resources encompasses the type and level of management requisite for the active and effective recruitment, hiring, day-to-day employment practices, job termination policy, job description policy and much more.
 

Later on, it states:

It is by developing an understanding of proactive techniques that – when effectively applied to a company’s workforce – a human resources team can actually change conditions on the ground, human resources professional everywhere have begun to tangibly widen profit margins by increasing not only efficiency, but productivity as well.  

From the above, I suppose, it can be taken that by implication, HR has to look after the employees welfare. After all, an unhappy worker is not likely to be a productive one. But still, no where does it state explicitly that HR needs to look out, as first priority, the welfare of employees. To my mind, that is what a union is for. Unfortunately, unions in Malaysia = toothless.

Let’s hear from you. What do you think the role of HR should be? Leave your comments!