May 26th, 2010
HR Academy
Recently I got a call from a recruiter looking for some networking help on a job. So far, so good. The requirements came over indicating that the candidate needed to have a credential that I don’t have. Their successful candidate needed to have come up through an “HR academy organization – GE, Pepsico, IBM”
That seems really short sighted to me (maybe because I didn’t punch that ticket). They maybe great HR companies but they are not the only ones. These companies can generate their own share of substandard people. Having done HR there is no guarantee of success.
More fundamentally, it struck me that the credential was being used in lieu of real evaluation and decision. To go farther into the rhelm of “I have no idea what I am talking about… ” I wonder if their insistence on that credential betrays an internal HR focus at the expense of a broader range of business skills.
I know some really outstanding “graduates” of the academy. None of them apply what they learned there thoughtlessly. The processes and strategies are all part of the context of their thinking, not the inherent object of their action. The worst of the graduates do their jobs just like they did back at “ACME” or wherever. They do it the same way because it is the “ACME way”.
What do you think? Is it a legitimate strategy to look for a Head of HR for a division based on the credential of being an HR Academy grad?