HR is in decline, but let's not celebrate

The latest article in the McKinsey Quarterly is entitled "Making Talent Management a Strategic Priority." (You may need to subscribe for the link to work; so here's a .pdf version: Download mata08.pdf.) It's worth a read, with lots of insights for internal communicators. One passage in particular struck me:

Our research confirms the idea that HR’s influence is declining. The executives we interviewed criticized HR professionals for lacking business knowledge, observing that many of them worked in a narrow administrative way rather than addressing long-term issues such as talent strategy and workforce planning ... As one HR director explained, senior executives “don’t see us as having business knowledge to provide any valuable insights. We’re doing many things based on requests, and they don’t see HR as a profession.”

Employee communications people have big issues with HR. Many communicators downright hate the function and dislike many of the people working in it. But before we start dancing on HR's grave, let's remind ourselves that employee communications often reports to HR, and we are often perceived by executives in the same way. There's plenty of paint on McKinsey's brush left over for us.

Whether you like HR people or not, the report's findings are a chilling reminder of how the human side of big business continues to decline.