HR, the complicit org

SNL: Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka Trump

When I was first asked to take over HR by my co-founder and CEO, it was the furthest function in my mind. My original thoughts about the function were not very positive. I thought they were the police of the organization, and could not do much in impacting organization culture. My CEO convinced me that it was the place to build culture and he needed founder talent and someone he could trust.

I have no doubt that our HR department did phenomenal work in building building the culture for the organization; however, it was only because the CEO allowed me the space as a founder to help shape and build the culture. This is rare in any other organization that does not have founders at the top or at any org.

To this day, whenever I am asked if they should go to HR with a problem, I tell them not if you want the organization to know about it. Reality is that HR is there to represent the company, not fight for you — the employee. Their primary purpose is to reduce risk for the organization. And, only recently has HR been tasked or taken on help with employee effectiveness — at the request of the organization. Reducing risk comes in many forms: employee issues, compliance training, compensation leveling, promotion guidelines, performance reviews etc… — all of this is with the purpose of reducing risk for the organization.

HR departments in America operate under a dubious mandate: Keep workers engaged and happy, but make sure nobody sues the company. (Myth: HR is on your side.)

Sexual harassment complaints are a nightmare for HR, just as much as they are for the victim. Several times, I have had heard the story of a woman who does not want to quit her job but has no choice. And the only way to stop being harassed is to take herself out of the situation.

This does not mean do not make complaints, but it is often seen that HR is incompetent, but the HR is set up to do the bidding of the corporation, it is less incompetent and much more complicit to these issues.

Why competent HR could not save Uber

Many critics fault “incompetent” or bad HR at Uber for letting Susan Fowler’s complaints go unaddressed as well as perpetrating bad behavior. The proper response from HR would be to involve Legal and an investigation should have ensured.

So what if that did happen? If Legal were to find fault with the organization it is up to the business (not HR) to decide to take that risk and how to deal with the risk. If Legal were to find fault with the employee, it is up to the business (not HR) to decide what to do with the employee. HR can only advise. They cannot make hiring or firing decisions, that is up to the manager. They can advise and recommend, but cannot and are not accountable for hiring and firing — just the process around it.

So, if you find yourself frustrated with a nice empathetic HR organization that can’t get anything executed, or an incompetent HR organization that doesn’t listen to you — that’s because the HR org does not work on your behalf, it works on the company’s behalf.

At most companies, HR is an administrative department that has no real authority beyond our four walls. At our best, we are business partners and advisers. At our worst, we are babysitters and police officers.
(Myth: HR is on your side.)

Even good HR could not have saved Uber (or any company for that matter). Uber failed to scale the people of its organization by continuing to allow bad behavior proliferate. Eventually this type of cultural debt that is rooted in morality and ethics will always disrupt the organization — you just won’t know if it disrupts the part with the high performers or not. By allowing the behavior to continue, HR is complicit.

Hiring HR won’t help stop VC sexual harassment

HR again shows up in the middle of another sexual harassment case within a kissing cousin industry to startups — the VC world. And finally, some traction to a long open complaint (7 years!) and open secret.

In Reid Hoffman’s call for the #Decency Pledge, the root of the lack of outrage is that

…the venture capital industry faces is that it lacks a good HR function that covers what happens between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

Thus, on a structural level, venture capitalists unfortunately have no HR department to prevent predatory and inappropriate behavior, and so try to characterize (falsely) their actions as innocent flirtatiousness or banter.

Good HR will not fix the matter for two reasons:

(1) VC firms are too small to have HR. When an org is so small, no amount of HR can help. HR is a way to scale people. When the org is small, it is just a way to not work out people problems and blame someone else for poor behavior.

Also the VC community has too much at stake to self-police. It is currently only about 4% women, and therefore, it naturally tips in favor of men who currently tend to be transgressors in harassment cases.

(2) Good HR cannot fix bad behavior. In fact it might proliferate it. Imagine if Binary Capital had hired HR, they would have their hands busy with non-disparagement agreements trying to clean up his mess and make sure it did not get to the LPs.

The #Decency Pledge (*) has asked a pledge to stop sexual harassment through clearer communications, a reporting to their colleagues “appropriately”, and everyone (entrepreneurs and LPs) stop investing. This is an ideal state upon a power dynamic rooted in gender bias, unfortunately no amount of good HR can help with decency.

So, what can help?

Here are some ideas, for all the fixers in us, where the onus is not on HR. Mostly these are taken from female founder groups, and other great thinkers, like Ellen Pao or Brittany Laughlin, feel free to add more in the comments.

• Allow space to discuss. While a zero tolerance does raise the bar, but can put the onus on the victim to have even more to lose as Brittany points out. Oftentimes, it’s hard to find the language to talk about tough issues. Language has changed to use words such as “bias” rather than “racist” or “sexist”. The only choice is to report and have an investigation — binary policies.

• Game Theory + Tech. An app that uses game theory to reduce rape on college campuses. If two independent nodes report the same person, the system will file a report. In VC world like college world no formal authority or relationship is established until funding is received and even then the rules around this are murky. For Uber or any private organization, HR should be the Callisto.

• Commit to changing the landscape. Instead of a #decencypledge, many women have suggested an #equalitypledge. VCs should hire more women investment partners as well as commit to a certain percentage of portfolio dedicated to women founders. Capital is still the oxygen for any business and it should not be used to curry sexual favors.