HR doesn’t do any productive work, for the most part.
Not real sure what they do besides insurance and compliance issues. No workplace, less need for most of them.
I respectfully disagree...and no I'm not in HR.
Over many years I've seen HR's "behind the scene" activities and have come to have great respect for them. You know that high-performing sales guy who's been looking down secretary's shirts for a while? They found a way to can his butt without severance AND without a lawsuit AND without the secretary quitting or suing the firm. They are the ones who successfully ease out despicable employees. They perform due diligence on prospects and find out (somehow) that the guy you want to hire is actually a narcissist with a wake of carnage behind him.
Don't f with HR. They're not all bad and they're kind of more frightening than the legal dept.
Most larger companies have separate departments for that (i.e. Risk Management).
HR actually plays a much larger role in a corporation than the typical employee gives them credit for. If you are in management or in particular an upper level manager, you will realize just how important they are to have around.
Think about it, if they weren't essential, cost-cutting corporations would have done away with them or outsourced them a long time ago (like they did with payroll, travel & expense, company cars, benefits, pensions, etc.)
As I discussed with some on Freep Mail, the most important function of the HR department is to keep the company (and its managers) out of the courtroom. A good HR operation can save a large corporation millions of dollars in litigation and lawsuits - not to mention the bad publicity that can result from these actions.
So while the typical employee may see the HR department as non-contributing employees who are all about the "touchy-feely" with their endless politically correct memos on diversity and what not, it actually serves a larger purpose. Managers tend to see HR as their business partners and recognize their value. Speaking for myself, this past year has even increased my respect for them as they were constantly dealing with helping the company navigate through all the COVID nonsense. Every COVID case had to be reported to them and they were often working into the night dealing with these cases and coming up with the best solutions that protected the company and the employees. They worked their tails off this past year dealing with all this nonsense and keeping the company out of the courtrooms and out of the headlines.