Marie-Hélène Budworth

This article from Canadian Business was sent to me by a student in the MHRM program.  It certainly catches one’s attention – especially for those working or teaching in the field of HR.  On the surface, it appears as though Bruce Poon is arguing that there is no place for HR in progressive organizations.  The article reports that he has ‘eliminated the function altogether.’  But then it goes on to say that G Adventures, the company he founded, has a VP Talent and a ‘culture club.’  Hmmm.  You can’t say that you are getting rid of something when you simply rename it! 

I believe that there is an argument that is obscured within this article that is an important one.  Does HR need some re-imagining?  As with every institution, HR does have some practices that it has held on to despite evidence that there might be ‘other ways‘ of doing things.  For example, HR continues to push elaborate and time consuming performance feedback programs despite the fact that they are disliked by the managers who have to use them and do not lead to behaviour change in the employees who receive them.  What do we do about that?