IT vs. HR

I’m sure I’m not the only IT guy who has had issues with their company’s Human Resources department. In fact, at times I’ve been downright frustrated with decisions that the HR team made that affected my workplace. Situations or decisions from HR that have caused frustration among the Information Technology team (as well as other company departments) that come to mind are: • Unilateral policies from HR that change the work environment or culture that don’t seem to have merit, been properly thought out, or even make sense such as changing the dress code for no reason. • Treating every employee the same as if there are on individuals and every employee is equally valued. • Making decisions that affect employees without understanding what they do such as having incorrect job titles that don’t match the work an employee does. • Challenging raises or promotions for employees when they don’t understand IT: You can’t promote him to Web Engineer III because he only has 4.5 years experience and the job description says 5 years. • Being the morality police: A company email goes out dictating when and where cursing is not allowed. • Looking over your shoulder hoping that pesky HR rep didn’t hear that joke you just made so you don’t get in trouble or reported. • Making decisions based on company CYA instead of the best interest of the employees. • Setting company policy based on a few loud whiners. If none of these ring a bell with you, consider yourself lucky. For the rest of us, dealing with decisions that HR makes can be very frustrating. HR tends to rub people the wrong way because they are an organization that spans and makes policy for the entire company. Everyone is subject to their policies and few people have a say in what the policy will be. Now, let’s consider the situation from a different perspective. What is one of the only other major corporate departments that support and make decisions that affect the entire company? You guessed it – it is the IT department… In most companies, all employees are dependant on the Information Technology team in some regard. From email, to enterprise applications, to intranet, and internet access, all employees are use IT services or applications to do their job. Employees depend on IT on a daily basis. Would you be surprised to know that other company employees might view IT in the same negative light that you view HR? Let’s look at some comparisons. Has your IT team ever: • Made unilateral decisions on what technologies will be used in the company such as dictating that only Windows desktops will be supported and deployed and not Mac or Linux, even though there are users that wish to use an alternative? • Made policy changes related to password use, time between forced password changes, or strength of passwords? • Enforced policy that all employees will use a specific technology to prevent rogue applications? • Made technology or application changes that affect departments without completely understanding what they do? • Became the internet or email police by monitoring web usage and email content? • Made technology decisions based on cost savings or supportability instead of what is in the best interest of the users? • Changed project priorities based on a few loud whiners instead of the general population? If you have, corporate users might have the same negative impression of IT that you do of HR. Now, you might be thinking that this is an unfair comparison. You understand the rational behind these decisions and can justify why they were made. You know you were right to make technology decisions because it is your responsibility to manage the systems and operate them efficiently. You also have legal requirements that must be met that drive certain decisions that affect users.