Is Your Organization Treating Human Resources like Rodney Dangerfield?

I get no respect at all. When I was a kid, I lost my parents at the beach. I asked a lifeguard to help me find them. He said, “I don’t know kid, there are so many places they could hide.”

For those of us old enough to remember, Rodney Dangerfield’s comic routines were hilarious. The self-demeaning comedian regaled his audiences with tales of getting absolutely no respect, from anybody, in any area of his life.

But unfortunately for those who have to live through it, the theme of “no respect” is enacted frequently within work organizations. In political wrangling among functional areas for who has more power, resources, status, decision-making ability, etc., people can get lost in the shuffle—with those from historically disadvantaged identity groups (e.g., people of color) getting downright trampled.

In your organization, do double standards persist? That is, situations in which similar levels of performance result in different outcomes for the employee, depending on his or her status. Research finds that problematic performance from members of dominant groups is often forgiven, whereas similar performance from members of marginalized groups is subject to intense scrutiny and may be attributed to overall incompetence.

A savvy Human Resources department will be on the alert for such differential treatment and nip it in the bud. Whenever a business leader brings up a performance issue, it is HR’s job to advise the leader on the best way to handle the issue. However, overbearing business leaders may prefer to follow their own agendas and overrule HR’s recommendation, treating those from marginalized groups unduly harshly.   Senior leaders who consider the judgements of business leaders as superior to those of HR are either not letting HR do its job, or themselves have done a poor job in selecting the company’s HR team.

People matter. Allowing your talent to be treated like inanimate pieces to be pushed back and forth on a game board at the whim of business leaders results in low morale, lost productivity, regretted losses and–most destructive to the pocketbook of the organization and its reputational capital–lawsuits.

Senior leaders need to take a 10,000 foot view of their organization and give HR the respect this function deserves. In this way the organization has a chance of becoming a healthy environment, one that allows employees to thrive and develop to their potential—and one in which “I get no respect” is a comic punchline rather than a dismal reality.