Why will we NOT have an HR department ever?

We recently realized that we do not have an HR department in our organization for a reason. Thank you to the young, smart and very talented HR professional who applied for a position with us.

HUMANS are not RESOURCES

The title itself is very incorrect. How can a human be treated as a resource? The definition of a resources as stated in Wikipedia is “A resource is a source or supply from which an organization gains profit. Typically resources are materials or other assets that are transformed to produce benefit and in the process may be consumed or made unavailable.” We believe that the very existence of a company is by people. Treating humans as resources makes it sound otherwise.

Human Resource Management

We hire grown ups!. They know how to manage themselves. Micro managing them or even macro managing them does not feel right. We know that once our associates pick up a task, they know their responsibility and will manage themselves well. We do not need to baby sit them.

Responsibilities of HR Professional as PERCEIVED

1. Recruirment and Retention

We are people centric. We truly want to grow every individual on our team. We hence focus on providing a good life environment, noncompetitive growth opportunities and fun. If the next big opportunity is knocking at someones door, we do not want to be in the way. Hence we do not have a notice period of few months before you can leave. We make it hard to leave by solely providing opportunities which are hard to match. If you think harder, all it boils down to is growth of an individual whichever way she chooses to go.

2. Performance Management & Periodic Appraisal

The concept of appraising periodically is not fair. A company expects every one contribute exponentially while they grow their people linearly. This is not fair. A person should be able to grow as she desires and deserves. More add value you add to the company, better you grow personally, professionally, in responsibility and of course financially. We are trying to work a point system which enables you to earn a pre determined cap and make you eligible for an appraisal. If any one has experience or ideas around this, please let us know. We will even pay you if you can build a completely tangible appraisal system.

3. Developing Leadership Capabilities

Some say leaders are born and others say leaders are created. Staying away from that argument, we believe that attitude and ambition drives it all. If you are good at something, you lead & mentor, while be a proud student when some one else is better at something and learn it. You cannot know it all now, can you? We would rather focus on building intrapreneurs than developing someone to become a leader.

4. Hierarchy Management

We are a flat organization. There are no titles, only roles. There are no hierarchies here. We treat every one equally and there is nothing to manage really. We are already seeing a lot of companies being flat and we have already joined the movement.

No Offence to HR Professionals

This blog post is not to offend HR Professionals. We realize that there are other roles you play such as training, health and safety and many more. However, we are only unhappy about “HR” as title in some ways and how it is viewed and realized. These are only our views to highlight a few important aspects that we believe in and know that we truly respect all professions equally.