Live data from Hacker News

I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]

bbc.com

31–40 of 76 posts

Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]

#31
HR’s closest department in responsibility is Legal, both serve to protect the company, not its employees. So I can see the argument that you don’t need HR if you have a legal department, have it train managers to handle employee grievances properly, and let each manager deal with vacations, sick leave etc as they see fit.

And finance can handle ordering computer equipment and network management services, get rid of IT as well.

Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]

#32
According to Linkedin there are 25 HR employees at his company Octopus Energy. Their roles are Learning & Development, Talent Acquisition, Onboarding, Payroll Management. These are all roles that are typically taken on by the HR department.

He has an HR department whether he calls it like that or not.

Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]

#33
post #23
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Isn't that a good thing? Each team has its own vacation policy that suits them, instead of some rules imposed on them by HR department.

It's also a good way to get slapped with lawsuits from decisions made by people who don't understand FMLA leave.

Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]

#35

He may think he doesn't have an 'HR department', but whoever holds the pen on his holiday policy, equipment policy, training & development policy, maternity & family friendly rights policy, expenses policy - well, there's his HR department.

His managers handle that for their own employees.

Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]

#36
Anecdotal but I know someone who works on the software engineering team at Octopus, and in their experience there’s way too much micromanagement, and minimal empowerment from engineers to apply their own judgment.

the point being that narrative and reality are not the same thing.

Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]

#38

With good policies and good people, you don't need "HR". I would argue he has HR just without a centralized department. Although either way, the only good HR is no HR. HR sucks.

Your privilege is showing.

I think that the thing to keep in mind here is that HR, like legal, isn't for when things are going well. This comment sort of assumes that you'll never have a harassment problem, nobody will ever have an issue with getting their FMLA "approved", and the company will never have a performance problem that requires letting someone go in a way that won't get you sued.

These things all happen, and there's a lot of No True Scotsmanning in the idea that they only happen to bad companies/people.

Edit: I don't like HR either, but I'm very unlikely to need them to keep my boss from harassing me.

Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]

#39
post #29

No company at that scale will function without people taking care of all the HR and IT functions. Sure it doesn't have to be traditional, there doesn't have to be a department responsible for it, but it has to be done - and you need a lot of manpower to do it. Hence why you usually have departments dedicated for those tasks. You might call it something different or distribute their responsibilities down the chain but…

I’ll counter argue that IT and HR sap enough productivity out of the workforce that the work they do is a net negative.

Re: I employ 1,200 people and have no HR department [video]

#40

He may think he doesn't have an 'HR department', but whoever holds the pen on his holiday policy, equipment policy, training & development policy, maternity & family friendly rights policy, expenses policy - well, there's his HR department.

His managers handle that for their own employees.

That sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. All it takes is one bonehead. Not even a bonehead really, I don't want to try to maintain any semblance of technical acumen in my role and take care of the folks that I support and know all the intricacies of labor-related laws and standards.
Post reply on HN