Let’s hear it for H.R.! There’s a cheer you don’t hear in the office much. H.R. is the butt of many jokes, including a lot of funny ones about Toby on The Office (Michael Scott said on one episode: “If I had a gun, with two bullets, and I was in a room with Hitler, Bin Laden and Toby, I would shoot Toby twice”). But from an outside counsel perspective, I absolutely love dealing with clients who have professional, competent human resources personnel.
Whether you owners of the company know it or not, your H.R. manager is worth his or her weight in gold because they keep your company out of so much trouble. Today’s human resources professionals are just that, professionals. More than ever before, H.R. has to know so much about federal and state laws and regulations on leave issues, disability issues, pay issues, benefits issues, etc., etc. And the laws change all of the time, so they need to continually update their knowledge. Some H.R. professionals are specialized in some of these areas, and probably know as much as many lawyers.
H.R. professionals know how to document what needs to be documented. This may sound tedious or boring, until you are faced with a lawsuit or potential lawsuit. Then, having proper documentation can make all of the difference. We have a saying in my business, “if it’s not in writing, it didn’t happen.”
H.R. professionals keep your legal fees down in two ways. One, as mentioned above, they keep you out of trouble, including lawsuits and government inquiries. Two, they can handle a lot of things themselves without having to call the outside lawyers. Most H.R. professionals I know seem to know the precise time when a situation morphs from an H.R. issue to a legal issue.
I know that H.R. professionals do many other critical things as well. If used correctly, they are strategic partners for management and set the tone for the company culture. I’m simply giving my perspective as outside counsel. This brief post is not meant to give a full overview of the entire profession.
If you’re company is not large enough to have a full-time H.R. staff person, consider a company that will serve as your out-sourced human resources division. There are plenty of outsourcing companies who will do that for you. Here’s a good article on outsourcing: http://humanresources.about.com/cs/strategichr/a/outsourcing.htm
If you are an H.R. professional at a private company in Massachusetts, or if you have taken on those duties by default (as sometimes happens), I would love to work with you. Call me at 617.338.7000.
By Adam P. Whitney
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