HRCI Fulfills Every Bad Stereotype About HR

I just finished watching HRCI’s latest webinar, Alchemizing HR: Navigating What’s Next. Maybe I’m naive, but I was expecting it to include helpful insights and calls to action for HR professionals who are ready to get real about equity in their organizations.

Apparently “what’s next” only includes the coronavirus. Ten minutes in, and there was still no mention of Black Lives Matter, racial justice, or even social unrest. It was clear this webinar was going to be limited to the Covid-19 crisis, further confirming that SHRM and HRCI, the two biggest certification bodies in HR, have got to go.

I cannot imagine being a Black person on this call. It was almost as if the hosts, particularly Amy Dufrane, the CEO of HRCI, went out of their way to avoid addressing the outrage that has stemmed from the murders of George Floyd, Ahmad Arbery, and Breonna Taylor (among so many others).

At the beginning of the call, Amy Dufrane told attendees (of which there were apparently thousands), that they could use the chat function but made sure to tell us that they had the capability to delete chats, so we all better keep it “nice.” I can’t say for sure if this was intentional, but only some chats were made public, and my question about whether or not they were going to address the health and well-being of Black employees and/or the Black Lives Matter movement was never shared with the group.

And it’s not fair to blame the hosts entirely. When they brought up the survey results highlighting what callers named as their top priorities right now, you can barely see “diversity” in the word cloud.

Screen Shot 2020-06-17 at 10.15.52 AM.png

What world are these HR professionals living in? Are they really intent on keeping their heads buried in the sand?

About 30 minutes in, Clarissa Peterson, who is herself Black, began to lightly mention “D&I concerns...civil unrest…” and made other references to the racial justice uprising that’s taking place. But still the conversation remained focused on Covid-19 and how companies were coping, even ignoring the easy segue that Black Americans are dying of this disease at a disproportionately high rate.

At the end, they showed a slide outlining what business leaders want from HR at this time (check out the awesome / tragic chat at the bottom), and the first point is:

“Transition from ‘I’m here to serve’ to ‘I’m here to lead’”

Screen Shot 2020-06-17 at 10.43.30 AM.png

No one in the HR field should be leading anything if they are unwilling to even look at the deep, systemic issues of oppression in the workplace.

No one in the field of HR deserves “a place at the table” (a common HR complaint) if they’re unwilling to even try to become competent in anti-racism.

I’m not saying that I’ve figured it all out and am the perfect ally, or that I haven’t perpetuated harm in the past in the name of HR. But we are all being asked to do better right now, and organizations like HRCI and SHRM have shown their true colors by fulfilling every awful HR stereotype: that HR professionals are disingenuous, working at the behest of morally corrupt leaders, and scared little cronies out to enforce the rules.

I can’t believe I paid HRCI so much money to get a PHR certification and stay current with it. Anti-racism fluency should be a core component of any HR certification process from now on, full stop. Diversity, equity and inclusion shouldn’t only be something that you can specialize in later. It should be at the foundation of the profession.

At the end of the call, Amy Dufrane said that this is “an opportunity for HR to shine.” I wish that was the case, but all I see right now is more of the same harmful practices and ignorance.

If HR really wants to lead right now, it needs to take a good long look at itself. I hope that these organizations and all of the HR professionals who hold them in high regard accept that they’ve made mistakes and try to change. If they don’t, I’m ready to join with others to create a new, more equitable and radical professional association for those of us who care about people and the workplace.