What Do You Think About Human Resources?

[PsychMajorUndergrad18]

Hello Everyone!!!

I am posting this thread because I am actually curious as to what you guys think of the Human Resources Department at your jobs and the duties/functions they have at your jobs. Since I am thinking of making a career out of human resources after college (or maybe grad school) and am interested in working in a hospital or college I would love to get you guys opinions. Also I would love to know what you guys think are some things that HR should change or do better.

So basically I want to know:

1) What is your honest opinion about the people in your HR department (without offending or saying anything unethical or too personal)?
2) What do you think should be the main focus of a HR department in a hospital, psychiatric hospital or a college?
3) What do you think needs to be changed in a HR department in regards to employees, training, communication etc.?

Thank you everyone for answering my curious questions and hopefully I would be able to use your opinions and ideas to make my future career in HR the best it can be.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[CheetahGirl]

Hmmm....are you sure we wouldn't be doing your homework for some class by answering‎ your questions?

Asking what someone thinks about the HR Dept is like asking our thoughts about the Billing Dept or Telecommunications Dept. These are all necessary divisions of any company, be it a hospital, college or other business with many employees. Also I wouldn't be able to broadly answer your questions b/c each focus, each group of employees, each group of changes depend on the department and the needs that it supplies.

I have a friend who works in HR (hiring/recruiting for a medical device corporation), and she loves her job. She was a Psych Major (we went to UG together), but never went past a bachelors with her studies. She lives in the Silicone Valley and makes pretty good $$$ (I don't know how much exactly but her & her husband live well, and travel often). FWIW.

I personally like HR departments and their employees...in hospitals, big businesses,‎ retail work, etc. I actually thought it would be fun to work in HR at, say, Google. But I never traveled down that road...so good luck to you if you choose to do so. I'm sure the hiring will be fun, but the firing will be challenging (if you are in that sort of position).
‎

 

[LETSGONYR]

To be honest, I don't regularly think about Human Resources. My only real interaction with them was right before/as i was hired, and it was fine. I'm not sure what exactly you're looking to hear, but I'd imagine people's opinions of HR are very institution-specific.

 

[WisNeuro]

The HR dept at the VA contains some of the worst and most incompetent people I have ever met.

 

[smalltownpsych]

The worst HR people are the ones who are compensating for feeling peripheral to the companies mission whether that is healthcare or manufacturing and selling widgets. These are the ones who create unnecessary barriers and everyone in the company despises them. I have seen this play out a few times in my life. HR at my current company is very solid and focused on recruitment, retention, and maintaining a positive work environment. The main fault is too much emphasis on providers over support staff, but that is understandable due to the difficultythey have recruiting us.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I'd agree w the VA HR dept. Admittedly if you've seen one VA....you've seen one VA, but it was like talking to a wall that constantly lost things and appeared to barely actually be present most days; metaphorically of course.

 

[WisNeuro]

I always just make sure to find out who the supervisors are, cc them on every e-mail and use specific dates for when things need to be done. The thing with VA HR is that whenever they get a good person in there, that person leaves for a better job in the system. Good people don't stay in that position and it's impossible to fire the ****ty ones.

 

[Ollie123]

I'm still technically on practicum at one VA I haven't been to in 5 years, because out of my 8 emails and 12 phone calls to HR to process my departure, the only time they called me back was to say they were going on vacation for a couple weeks and couldn't do anything til they got back (how "vacation" is different from "working" for their staff is unclear to me...).

I'm not entirely clear on the question. Obviously HR exists in most any reasonably sized business, but its not one we likely have much contact with unless we're in roles with hiring people. It has little to do with psychology as a field and isn't something I think we're well poised to address. I'd say the best HR is a streamlined HR and one that doesn't try and insert itself into an onboarding process when most/all of their staff have precisely zero understanding of the daily activities of the individuals involved. Ideally, I think it should provide basic administrative functions (payroll, health insurance, etc.), provide some confidential Q&A line for employees about ethical/legal issues (at least with larger groups) and serve more of a consultative role with regards to actual training, making sure that DEPARTMENTS are bringing people on appropriately and finding people the appropriate information. The latter is where I think they often dramatically overstep their bounds - at least in my experience.

Also, it should ideally employ literate individuals who return phone calls (see above RE: VA).

 

[bmedclinic]

I'm pretty split. My clinical masters was done at a university that apparently has a GREAT IO program. So a fair number of my friends are HR people in various companies. I like those people. They're competent individuals.

That said, for the hospital I work for, HR is a joke. Similar to what people say about the VA up above. I'd be surprised and impressed if some of those people could actually explain how they got to work, or worse (which I wont type out). Negotiating pay, hiring bonus, etc, with them when I started here was ridiculous. I tired to ask questions about healthcare, zilch. They don't return calls, calls, etc. I got the distinct impression that they a) had no clue what they were doing and b)were poorly organized to the point of incompetence.

 

[ClinicalABA]

The HR department at my current agency is overseen by a clinician, and the local HR reps/recruiters are part time HR/part time direct therapists. We're pretty big agency- 200+ employees, spread out at ~6 regional offices throughout the state. They seem to understand that their role is to acquire, train, and support competent staff. Recruitment is very challenging- we have a high demand for staff in relatively low-population area of the state. Overall, they do a good job. As with other HR departments I have worked with, they rely too much on untested or dis-proven practices (e.g. over-emphasizing data from interviews when making hiring decisions), and don't necessarily directly and objectively measure their performance and result. They are, however, generally responsive to employee questions and needs.

 

[cara susanna]

VA HR is terrible. I have so many stories and I've only been at the VA for less than two years. In fact, I'm dealing with them right now about something.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I'm still technically on practicum at one VA I haven't been to in 5 years, because out of my 8 emails and 12 phone calls to HR to process my departure, the only time they called me back was to say they were going on vacation for a couple weeks and couldn't do anything til they got back (how "vacation" is different from "working" for their staff is unclear to me...).

I was getting information about my federal insurance benefits TWO YEARS after my internship ended. I called many times, faxed paperwork, etc. Eventually the information stopped coming, but it took forever for the VA HR to figure it out.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

My experience with VA HR has been hit-or-miss. At a large facility, it was horrible; the folks there required constant prompting (which sounds demeaning, but there's no other way to describe it) to complete their job responsibilities. It's a horrible feeling when, for example, your employment transfer hinges on HR sending your paperwork to the new facility, but you can't trust HR to do so. Like WisNeuro mentioned, after multiple emails and phone calls (that were never answered), I had to CC their supervisor and my then-department head, after which things moved along quickly.

At two smaller VAs I've worked at (including my current one), HR was/is great. It's true that the more go-getter folks seem to transfer/promote out, but they've been replaced by folks who also do a great job.

At the one large (relatively well-renowned) non-VA hospital I've trained at, HR seemed a bit more efficient by comparison. They were also nice to boot, which was a plus.

 

[deleted343839]

I'm nodding along with most of the comments about VA HR based on my experiences at one (large) facility, and on those a friend who has been employed in a couple of other VA facilities, so it wouldn't surprise me one bit if it were a system-wide problem.

 

[PsychMajorUndergrad18]

Wow thanks for everyone's opinions on this thread! I am very surprised that it got this popular. I would also like to say that this isn't for a class (still haven't taken any IO classes or HR related courses) but for a curious question I had and how non-HR professionals view HR departments. Hopefully when I get into HR, I would be the efficient nice HR person who tries to keep in contact with people (and definitely answer phone calls and emails!). All of you guy's experiences with HR (whether its at a VA, hospital or a agency) has really helped me to figure out what a competent HR professional should do and what a competent HR professional shouldn't do. I hope that you guys do not have anymore problems with HR and that all of your HR departments help the problems you have instead of increases them. I would love to hear more of you guys experiences with HR

 

[PsyDr]

Huge caveats: A. The only reasons I maintain any clinical work is from friendships with various docs and a masochistic drive to help the indigent , B. a negligible amount of income is derived from anything that has an HR attached to it and I would love to be dismissed from these positions. C. I am on the medical board for 2 hospitals and have a weird academic appointment in another which means either they have no idea who I am, or don't want to deal with me. D. I socialize with them on a personal level, but am a dick to them on a professional level because I want to get fired.

1) Professionally, their job seems to not apply to me. I encourage anyone who has any problems with me or my staff to come talk to me. Then we hash it out like adults. There are other professionals who get things done with HR, but it seems silly to have a profession that has expertise in conflict resolution defer to a lesser trained professional to resolve some stuff. There are tons of other staff members, with other credentials whom I'm sure benefit from HR services. Personally, I love the HR department people.

2) Hell if I know.

3) Hell if I know.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I think a hugely important part of having a good HR is having HR employees that actually understand what the company, agency, etc *does*, including terminology. A friend had issues starting their VA internship, for example, because the agency assumed intern meant prac student and requested all this prac paperwork from their DCT.

 

[CheetahGirl]

The HR dept at the VA contains some of the worst and most incompetent people I have ever met.

I have to vent: The VA HR folks are nice...but I agree incompetent. They 'lost' my insurance paperwork and did not file my continuation of temporary coverage (to hold me & my family over until my next VA job starts b/c my husband is a small business owner and I don't even want to discuss insurance offered directly from the insurance providers to small business owners)...so when I took my child to the Emergency Room today for stitches, we were not covered.

My child is fine and the HR folks were very nice & empathic when I started my bitchin'. But, geeeezzzz! Oh well. Win some, lose some. Hopefully, the #@$%&* paperwork (I now have to file) will reimburse me....13 months down the road.