Hay Group’s Russell Hobby asks “imagine ‘a world without HR”? Where would we be without HR, can you imagine such a thing?

What would we do without HR? Each team or department would have to crank out its own pay cheques. Promotion and performance assessments would depend fundamentally on which manager you had. A great deal of management time would be taken up by dealing with grievances and employment disputes. Career progression would be made on the basis of horse trading between managers. People would tend to recruit and promote in their own image etc.

The overall effect would be to make good managers better and bad managers worse. The risk with that approach depends on what you consider to be the proportion of good to bad managers in your organisation. A good HR department helps line managers do their jobs well, and handles administrative details that would get in the way of their jobs

Line Manager vs HR Professional
Line managers should deal with performance … but many welcome having a good process for measuring performance and collecting feedback. Of course, line managers should select their team members, but it is a waste of their time to draft adverts, sift applications and manage equality / diversity reporting. Line managers should define the talent and skills they need to succeed … but it is great to have experts to design the training programmes, and to convert their instincts into clear, measurable criteria. And of course line managers should treat people fairly … but sometimes you get into conflict with your employees and you need a third party to adjudicate.

Line managers should decide on rewards … but they are vulnerable to pressure from their staff, don’t necessarily have a view of market prices or what goes on elsewhere in an organisation. Line managers should spot potential and guide people to promotions, but who knows what vacancies and opportunities are available? Who can ensure that the most talented people from across the business are in the running?

Organisations also need to ensure the way they treat people is consistent. The alternative is a great deal of unhappiness. Many managers have different views of what is acceptable and unacceptable performance, for example, which clear criteria and benchmarking, facilitated by HR, can address.

Imagine a world in which line managers also had to decorate the office, answer IT help desk calls, source new supplies and design marketing collateral for their products? If people are an asset, just like facilities, technology, raw materials and the brand – then it makes sense that there is a specialist body of expertise in managing that asset. Let’s just make sure it works in support of the business rather than as an industry in its own right.