If you have HR people, you'll have HR problems
I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
11–20 of 76 posts
Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
#12I feel like an HR department is one of these bureaucratic components where its stated purpose is different than its essential purpose to the business, and it would be hard to replace without accurately modeling this hidden essential purpose and precisely replicating it on a smaller scale. If you just conduct the stated functions of HR through your CEO office, you may not capture the essential function and it may not work out.
Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
#13[deleted]
Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
#14I'm not sure how meaningful this is, HR is hardly rigidly defined, it can be anything from outsourced to including functions like payroll and so being unavoidable.
I'm glad Octopus is a company like this though, considering itself edgy I suppose I mean, and having 1k2 employees rather than being just an almost empty shell as are many energy companies. For the unacquainted: it's rather HN-friendly - its tracker plan is updated daily rather than monthly or less frequently as most are, and it also has an 'Agile' plan with an API and hourly pricing. (I'm not a customer, just like the idea of it, perhaps soon.)
Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
#15This has very little content (1 minute video). I can imagine why it would be advantageous but it would be great to hear more about how it has worked.
Some more information, not a lot though. It’s mostly marketing I would say.
Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
#16More here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56130187
But this is all very vague and hand-wavy as to how specialist functions, skills and knowledge are provided especially with regard to legal compliance, and tech types rubbing their hands in glee should note that he dismisses IT departments as well.
It seems there is a more nuanced philosophy here that there may be useful lessons to draw on but it isn't detailed in these articles.
Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
#17At this size u need HR just to deal with holiday requests and sick leave.
Or just delegate down to the employee's direct supervisor. You need HR when someone has a harassment claim against a coworker, or their boss. Some third party not in their chain.
Having 150 people do HR tasks means you have 150 different versions of vacation policies.
In large companies that works, because there's an actual HR department that writes the ironclad rules that the direct supervisors follow. Not sure how it works in a wild-west ad-hoc environment like this one.
Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
#18At this size u need HR just to deal with holiday requests and sick leave.
Having worked and managed in several companies of this size I have no idea why you would need an HR dept to manage that. Easily the job of manager owned tool, secured spreadsheet, or some simple vendor supplied thing. Easily a self serviced thing.
Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
#19Good HR is really good. But most places, especially bigger firms, have mediocre or bad HR. That's worse than nothing. Either do it properly or don't do it at all.
Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]
#20Full article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56130187
> But it is a single, personal incident, which haunts him to this day, that really underpins his management philosophy.
"When I was 27, I was managing a manufacturing business in north London and there was a woman who ran the reception and also did customer service, who was in her 40s," he remembers.
"One day I heard her speaking to a customer on the phone and I thought I could help, so I leaned in and gave her some wise words.
"She finished the call, like a consummate professional, and she turned to me and said: 'Greg, I bring up two boys and a husband on the poxy wage this company pays. If I can do that, you can be pretty sure I can do anything this company wants from me. And by the way Greg, I was here before you were here and I'll be here after you have gone. I love the company more than you do, so you never need to tell me what to do.'"
Jackson was stunned into silence because she had just given him - her boss - an incredible dressing down.
"I realised she was right, and I remember I gave her a hug. It was one of the greatest learning experiences of my life and it forms the basis of my management theory today."
The episode taught him to favour a hands-off approach that lets individuals and teams sort their own affairs as much as possible without interference from above.