HR Britain how human resources captured the nation
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The postwar period and civil rights movements brought more workplace legislation and social pressure so that staff welfare and fairness became a primary concern alongside productivity. By the 1980s “personnel management” had evolved into “human resources” and by the 1990s new computing technology had enabled “strategic HR management”: more data, more processes, and more people needed to oversee them. A further shift towards employee well-being, and diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI), in the last 20 years has completed HR’s evolution from responding to business needs, to shaping them.
The UK legal and policy framework has also been fertile ground for HR growth over the past 20 years. The Equality Act assigns rights that have been interpreted well beyond their intent of fair opportunity, and definitions of “protected characteristics” are increasingly unhelpful. For example, graduates checking “disability” on their application to the Civil Service Fast Stream rose from 11 per cent in 2014 to 23 per cent in 2020. At the time, this allowed candidates to skip an assessment stage, perhaps an incentive to disclose an anxiety disorder. The civil service now is less certain how many people are blind, bipolar, using a wheelchair, or with self-diagnosed ADHD. It’s not a great leap to appreciate both the work this creates for HR, as well as the impact it has on productivity.
If we could track trends towards higher retention, happier workers, fewer grievances, this growth would be welcome. If there was a correlation with HR and improved outcomes it would be rational for leaders to invest more. There is evidence for the opposite. As HR roles have increased so too have the number of tribunals and days lost to work-related illness, while productivity has flatlined. HR expansion is not coinciding with desirable things and appears to be coinciding with undesirable ones.
Many are studying the ways in which Britain is lagging behind its neighbours, in productivity, growth and state capacity. But in HR we are a superpower, leading the world in supply and demand. The first step is to acknowledge there may be a problem. As the report from last year’s Inclusion at Work Panel recommended, senior leaders in all sectors might look closely at what their HR functions are both costing and achieving. A second step might be to question whether all HR jobs need to be graduate level. Most start-ups and small teams now use AI tools for standard contracts and compliant policies. Larger organisations might find that with these tools school leavers, well managed, can easily provide the HR support they need.