Fostering Innovation

32Love Your HR Department, Just Don't “Love” Your HR Department

You already know that I advocate embedding an HR business partner on your IT team. I didn't always feel this way. When I was a fledgling IT manager, I saw HR as an obstacle, a group of people who didn't get it. I'd ask questions like, “Why can't I just hire all my friends, give everyone on my team a large raise, and fire poor performers like they do on TV?” After all, who has time to give their employees honest feedback, performance reviews, and career coaching? We have “real” work to do.

My contentious relationship with HR didn't improve until I saw a better way modeled by my mentors. When Greg Rake took over the supply chain at Pier 1 Imports, he invited me to dinner with his leadership team. As I took my seat, I noticed something strange. Sitting among the supply chain team were HR business partners from across the country. The HR and supply chain leaders laughed, talked, and solved problems. This group of people worked together as a team. Greg was running a global organization with nearly 1,000 people, and he understood that people were the lifeblood of his organization. Running a supply chain wasn't just about ships, trucks, warehouses, and boxes. It was about leadership, culture, and performance management.

Around the same time, Pier 1 hired Sharon Leite, now CEO at The Vitamin Shoppe, as the EVP of store operations. Sharon partnered with HR at the highest levels from day one, embedding people practices into ...