Here is a letter written in response to my Logout column “To Improve Quality and Profits Get Rid of "HR" that appeared in the January 2011 Customer Interaction Solutions.

In the piece I decried the too-often poor contact center agent and supervisor hiring and screening practices, such as job descriptions having little to do with the reality of the work, as a result of the human resource "HR" mentality--treating people like raw materials rather than as individuals.

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Brendan –

I read your article (Customer Interactions Solutions, Jan 2011 issue) and couldn’t agree more.  HR serves very important functions in any organization; however executives should not assume that HR staff are experts at recruiting talent. 

Inside every great organization today, their executives understand the importance and priority on their “human assets”. They get personally involved in their talent acquisition and employee retention initiatives.  Recruiting and hiring great employees on a regular basis is a science just like any other profession.  You cannot expect administration or operations staff (or computer software) to achieve this for you.  As they say, “the quality of the hire directly maps to the employee’s work performance” and also “you’re only as good as your people”.

Employers who believe in these statements get it right.  Organizations that have been cutting back on their internal and external recruiting resources these last 2-3 years have been getting it wrong.

John Alexander
Partner/Co-Founder
Berkshire Search Partners
Hackettstown, N.J.
http://www.berkshiresp.com/