Opinion | HR voted least productive department - do you need to be more involved with your staff?

The UK workforce views HR as the least productive department in their company, according to new research from Ciphr. One in seven (14%) of those surveyed labeled their HR team unproductive or very unproductive, increasing to 19% among middle and lower-level managers.

For some reason, staff think their HR leaders are lazy, or at least that the work they do doesn’t make a difference in their organisation. The explanation for staff feeling this way towards their people practitioners is grounded in multiple reasons. However, the study suggests that the main reasons the UK workforce feels this way are down to a lack of understanding of the roles and responsibilities of HR and a lack of visibility in this department.

Essentially, because staff don’t work with HR on a regular basis, in the same way they might with other departments or roles in an organisation, they have the perception, whether conscious or not, that this department is the least productive out of all departments.

Knowledge Portal

Productivity at work | Defining and managing HR's understanding of being productive

Even though these survey results might make you angry or frustrated – HR has been continuously overlooked and undervalued in recent years – you can hardly blame employees for having this perception. For the average worker, contact with HR is minimal at best.