It seems there is an awful lot wrong with Human Resources, if you listen to Rutger University’s Richard Beatty.

Professor Beatty is of the opinion that most HR staff are not equipped to carry out value-add workforce planning and transformation, so he’s obviously not the kind to mince words. However, this is hardly the first time we have seen this opinion. It requires some level of attention from HR practitioners.

Specifically, Professor Beatty says:

HR cannot provide analytics that are useful in making workforce decisions that build economic value

They spend too little effort on attracting and retaining top strategic talent

Too much effort is spent by HR satisfying the employee base

HR people try to perpetuate the idea that job satisfaction is critical

For the last issue, satisfaction and performance, Beatty says that employee surveys done at IBM and other companies found little causal relationship between the two issues. He asserts that there is no evidence that engaging employees impacts financial returns.

Furthermore, he says, employee engagement is very expensive, and you don’t know whether you have ended up satisfying a lot of people that you really wish were not there.

Sounds like a discussion worth having in China at the present moment.