Transcript
Lee Cage Jr.: If you do not understand what the business does, how can you be an HR leader or thought leader within it? So one is, does the HR person understand what the business does, the goals, the KPIs, what it is that you are actually looking to accomplish? That in itself, if they do, that actually helps serve the business even more.
Number two, not just workshops, not just trainings, not just more money on ERPs or whatever. But when people are happier in their jobs, they perform better. When they have a sense of purpose, they perform better. Even if that purpose, unfortunately, is built on a sand castle.
I once worked at a very small organization doing some adjunct type of work, and there were only 10 people, but they created hierarchy, and that hierarchy created a path for people. That path creation created some healthy competition where people wanted to perform better, where they wanted to show up better, where they wanted the A in the class.
So I think HR helps to create that, but also helps create the culture that you want. And if the culture that you want is, we are just here to do a job, we do not have to be friends, we are not a work family, let us do the job, let us get out of here, let us go make money, HR helps insulate that culture.
If you are the culture of we are a family, which I do not like that phrase. I have never been fired from my family. In most cases, you are not getting performance evaluations. You are not put on a PIP with your family. So saying we are like a family is a challenge for me.
But in the other cases, HR is that protector. And tied to protection, to me, HR is in some cases a cheaper attorney. They are helping to insulate the business and the employees.
And just think about why they were even created to begin with. A hundred years ago, HR was personnel. And that personnel was created due to the industrial revolution timeframe. So even just why they were created, the history of the function, I think has a lot to do with the anchoring of today.
