HR: An Asset or a Liability?

HR has become something of a punching bag lately.  Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow made headlines last month when he told a workforce conference that his HR team was “creating problems that didn’t exist” and that those problems disappeared once he let them go.  The comment went viral, and a lot of executives quietly nodded along in agreement.

In Kruitbosch v. Bakersfield Recovery Services, Inc., a California appellate court decision from last September, an employee reported that a coworker had subjected him to unwanted sexual advances off-duty and off-premises.  He brought the complaint to his HR department and was told nothing could be done because the conduct had occurred offsite.  The HR representative then made a social media post and included a sarcastic comment that the employee understood as mocking his complaint.  The court found that while the underlying harassment was indeed not imputable to the employer, the employer’s response to the complaint could independently create a hostile work environment — and a viable lawsuit.  HR turned a defensible situation into litigation.

But the same logic cuts the other way.  An HR professional who takes the complaint seriously, documents it, treats the employee with respect, and promptly commences an impartial and thorough investigation doesn’t generate a lawsuit.  Indeed, they likely prevent one. Barely anyone notices.

That is what HR is supposed to be: not a shield for the company against its employees, and not an obstacle to getting things done, but a function that handles difficult situations with professionalism.  When it works, nobody notices.  When it doesn’t, the consequences tend to be expensive.

So before dismissing HR as a problem to be eliminated, it’s worth asking a harder question: is your HR department actually equipped to do the job?  Do they know how to receive a complaint?  Do they know what not to say?  Is there a process, and does anyone follow it? In California, where the legal exposure for getting this wrong is significant, those are not rhetorical questions.