MSU Red Cedar Message Board

You really should discipline them a few times first

I see HR ppl in lots of internal business meetings, and they either make cringe-inducing statements that add no value, or just say obvious things that show a total lack of business knowledge. Most often, they say nothing at all and just keep a chair warm. Even the business folks privately complain that Hr asks to be at the meetings, and they let them attend for fear of being labeled "not a team player". It's really gotten bad. HR is just not accountable to anyone in the business and they are just in the way. I think most of what they do (process forms) could be accomplished behind the scenes with 2 ppl or just outsourced.

People above covered it, pretty much. I briefly worked in HR for a medium sized company and affirm that it's about ensuring laws are followed, handling pay, handling benefits packages, handling HIPAA practices, handling FMLA and other negotiated leaves, interviewing people, hiring people, firing people, and ensuring there are detailed records (hire packets, address information, tax information, reviews, disciplinary notes, etc etc..) on every employee.

From there since they are part of the administrative side of the office, they are often corralled by managers into helping with morale boosting events, like parties, newsletters, meetings or other functions that help keep employees on the straight and narrow. So ya, they do a lot.

MSU has a pretty good HR masters program from what I understand. Very successful at placing graduates immediately in very good positions.

I'm a grad of the program. It's well respected and produces good talent. That said my 2 cents on HR.

I can hold my own in a business meeting, but not all can. Certainly better than most non hr could hold their own in an hr meeting. F250 companies are goin to have different HR than small companies.

I have easily saved my employer more 3 times what they paid me in mitigating ER/UR issues, mediations and arbitrations. Most of these savings are due to gross incompetence of business/functional managers. HR could be more proactive and productive if they weren't babysitting adults all day.

That said, I have also worked in a company where HR was all fluff and touchy feely. 300k plus comp'd HR people having 8 meetings to plan their bosses visit, what to say, who to check him in, etc. save the money and hire an admin. all the "let's engage our employees more" bs. If you'd let us focus on training managers how not to suck, your employees would be happier.

Another gem today when a lady in another office apparently decided to show back up to work without a release from her dr. Her manager didn't tell anyone either. So she just worked a week without pay and her manager has been with the company for 25yrs yet didn't know she should get returned to work from her dr.

Uh.....yes. Who else would? Unless, of course, you work as a gardener.

This basically hits it right there. I went through MSU's HR masters program and can speak for it producing some very good HR talent that create real results at Fortune 500 companies.

That being said, I think there are just as many crap HR people as there are good ones. I work with plenty of crap ones myself, so I completely understand. But with any field, the cream of that field rise to the top and are very effective, while those that are crap, will always be crap.

My question to those that complain about HR: how big is your company? I would bet that they are small businesses with few employees, thus no quality HR person would want to work in that environment.

Yes, it's an hr problem now. She will get paid, but I can't get her paid until she is an active employee. Cant be an active employee without getting the dr note. Disability company canceled her claim, but dr won't release her...makes me wish I'd have just gone into brewing science

I've got a buddy getting his masters at MSU in HR. He described it as having good, well paying job opportunities while requiring minimal effort in school. And it's true, I never did see him have to work very hard; undergrad or grad years.

MLRHR is a great program!

Who exactly do you think puts together payscales?

Actually, I liked HR work and found it - and still find it when I get involved - challenging and rewarding. Negotiating labor contracts, determining salary ranges and budgets, and negotiating benefits plans have the potential to impact the company's financial results in a big way. At the same time, balancing those decisions with impact on morale, retention and the ability to attract talent increases the complexity and impact df decisions. Ever been involved in restructuring activities and trying to reallocate talent to preserve employment, while preserving the reputation of the company while being forced to downsize because the sales under-performed and the business case no longer exists to preserve a division? Handling the public and employee relations and communications elements requires strong communications skills and the ability to strategize with the business to keep the rest of the company pulling in one direction. Even defending company actions or responding to external agency complaints, though tedious, pushes many professionals' analysis, reasoning, written rebutall and case building abilities. Training and educating can be personally rewarding. And designing executive comp programs that fuel performance that drives the company has its own rewards. I like operations better....but HR professionals worth their pay earn that pay twice over virtually every day of the week.

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