How HR is your HR?

They need to question what they have, dismantle fundamental frameworks and rethink the way they do business.

Many companies in this region are falling into a rut, clearly victims of their own processes-becoming more complacent and lethargic. The bigger they become, the more difficult it is to shake off 'rut' mentality.

There could be a lot of thing that need to be restructured: the organizational chart, job descriptions, operations, marketing methodology….any number of things. But the fail proof criterion is strategic alignment with the company's mission-it's raison d'etre.

Unfortunately the crux of the problem begins with a mismanagement of the basic corporate 'DNA' building block-the employee. The person who makes it happen. And paradoxically, this most vital of the corporate crown jewels is managed by the company's most bumbling of apparatuses: the Human Resources department.

Even the most visionary of companies are victim of extremely 'un-HR' HRs. These strange hybrids often act as 'watchdogs' and policemen rather than the facilitators and builders they can and should be. They forget that their mandate should be to get good people and keep good people. They don't understand that the most productive people are always the happiest…that it's not all about financial reward, but about other factors such as work environment, culture, sense of belonging, empowerment and personal enrichment. Unfortunately, most companies treat their employees as easily replaceable commodities, just like broken chairs or computers. Yet logic tells you that it makes more sense, strategically and financially, to keep a good employee on the job than to recruit another one from the outside.

I knew an HR manager not so long ago who embodied the 'un-HR' phenomenon. He positioned himself as the company's power broker and its corporate face. He even looked like a bully--classic burly frame, boxer's nose, protruding forehead and a voice so deep he could make a grown man quake. He badgered employees, made female employees cry, slashed well deserved vacations and used training courses as a currency.

This kind of HR perseveres in many of the best companies around. Usually the single most typical perception an employee has of HR is of a department created to short change their entitlements, cut down their pay, question their grievances and have little interest in any ideas offered to make life better for everyone. And I hear this view from expats and locals, alike.

Unfortunately, this sort of un-HR practice will continue for as long as this is an 'employer's' market. Because of the massive influx of job seekers into this region from all over the world, and the large numbers of local graduates who are increasingly becoming more employable, companies are treating even their good people as utterly dispensable, each replaceable with the next new face who is willing to work for less. The result is persistent instability-where employees constantly threatened by the possibility of being replaced are always on the verge of jumping ship.

So if companies are to grow and flourish, they need to keep the passion going-an energy that comes from each and every employee. This way, instead of cyclical performance, patchy achievement, and poor motivation, companies can enjoy sustained and robust growth. And all that really begins with an 'HR' HR department.