Human Resources now fills the shoes of what used to be known as the Personnel Department and the HR Department ensures adequate benefit and compensation planning; employee dispute resolution; retirement and pension planning; job recruitment; as well as redundancy handling, to name just a few of the roles covered by HR.

We do HR however operates with the strong belief that there are two fundamentally different areas of HR; although many business are unsure of the difference, often referring to HR as “hiring and firing” or “that’s just personnel isn’t it?”  So what are the differences? Well first of all, both roles are important and We do HR strongly believe that HR and Personnel are both essential and critical for the effective management and smooth running of a company.

The old personnel function (now sometimes called – apologies for the buzzword – “Transactional HR”) deals with wages, recording of holidays, sickness records, induction programmes, organising training, making sure that annual appraisals are carried out, the actual recruitment process (CV’s application forms, interviews etc), disciplinary, grievances and of course “hiring and firing”.

HR on the other hand encompasses a far more strategic role. In the opinion of We do HR, every executive board should have someone on it who is responsible for handling the strategic people function of the business.  This means making sure the right people are in the right place. Someone who understands executive-speak, and can justify the ROI (return on investment) of any training programme.  A person who has business acumen, financial understanding and looks for solutions rather than adding to problems.  Most importantly, the HR Director should be prepared and able to challenge the CEO or FD in the decisions they make about their employees.  

Here are a few examples and questions which highlight the difference:

• Does the company operate an old-fashioned Appraisal Process, that is backward looking and focussed on what an employee has done in the last 12 months or does it utilise a Performance Management Process that is forward looking, aligning the employee’s future goals, targets and objectives with those of the business?
• If a company spends £10,000 per annum on training courses, how much business did that generate for the company; or were employees just sent on a myriad of training courses that are good for up-skilling the employees and make them feel better and of more value to another employer – it should not just be about developing people for the sake of it – and valuable training budgets should not be cut when times are tough so long as a cost-benefit-analysis has been carried out.
• When the company needs to make some savings on the bottom-line, the quickest and easiest way is to cut staffing levels through redundancy – however, not only does this involve a lengthy process; but often good loyal employees with key knowledge and experience of the business are lost forever (and sometimes to a competitor) – well there is another way;

• let’s say 10 employees need to be made redundant
• average cost is £5,000 per employee = £50,000
• good HR will ask the FD if they have that money in the budget, bearing in mind the usual reasons for redundancies in the first place is because of a loss of business
• consider spending £10K on marketing and £10k on re-training of your workforce – go out and get more new business rather than looking on the negative side of things
• not only will this keep those key people in the business, but they will be more loyal and committed to you because you didn’t sack them!

The above are just a few ways in which HR, a strategic role, can benefit the business and that’s where We do HR can fit within your organisation; by supporting your in-house personnel function with advice and guidance; and/or developing your key managers to make the right people decisions;   Contact We do HR Limited for a free no-obligation review of what your business needs on 0800 980 73787 or e-mail Alasdair Ross on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it