Nearly a year later, Keith Hammonds is still trying to defend his article, “Why We Hate HR”. (no, I really don’t want to link to it again…)
According to the HRO 2006 website:
In August, 2005, Keith Hammonds wrote one of the most controversial cover stories in the history of HR, entitled “Why We Hate HR.†Since then, Hammonds, a top editor at the popular 725,000-subscriber monthly business magazine, has received thousands of responses from readers, both supportive and not. Since then, Hammonds has changed his tune about HR. In his keynote “Why We (Used To) Hate HR,†Hammonds describes his personal transformation, which in many ways mirrors the transformation that today’s HR profession is undergoing.
This is curious to me as the articles are now coming out (like this BLR one) stating that Mr. Hammonds is actually defending his original article while conceding that SOME HR folks are strategic leaders, but those are few and far between. I personally don’t see how this is demonstrating “Why We (Used To) Hate HR”.
I’ve discussed the merits of Mr. Hammonds article as well as his subsequent explanation, so I don’t think I need to do so in this post, however, I still maintain that Mr. Hammonds needs to be in HR to understand HR. The best laid plans of strategy and leadership can often be waylaid by a sexual harassment claim. The sign of a good HR leader is the ability to balance the long term and the immediate.
Perhaps that would be a good subject for a keynote speaker at an HR conference instead.