Comments on: Tossing HR Under the Table at Home Depot

By: James

James — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:49:31 +0000

I am one of the HRMs whose positions have been eliminated by Home Depot. This is the seventh time that I have personally experienced the loss of a job through no fault of my own. \

By: Harry Green

Harry Green — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:25:03 +0000

If HR is relegated into the background, companies will step back into the dark ages of people management. And potentially more unions, when they are finally decreasing in the private sector. Look at all the laws placed on employers over the past 70 years because they would not treat employees equitably and fairly…unions and government had to step in. We say we don’t need government, but who is going to take care of the employee? Generally, employers will not. Management is its own worst enemy.

By: Jay Hargis

Jay Hargis — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:10:17 +0000

Strategic? Not if you ask Home Depot. An article recently published here on Workforce.com stated that Home Depot is cutting its HR staff by 50%. That’s right–50%. They have decided that they will create a call center to answer employee and manager questions and go with a regional HR function and eliminate the HR support from the stores.
Why?
Housing market. No one is renovating and sales are slow.
What signal does this send to the profession? First, it demonstrates that more people in the role don’t always lead to better business results. Second, this seems to demonstrate the regardless of how important HR is if times are tough it is often one of the first departments to get slashed. Finally, I wonder if HR didn’t miss an amazing opportunity to drive revenue by being in the stores and learning first hand what is going on or did they squander the opportunity and hide in an office?
As Home Depot starts to implement their regional structure, I’m sure that the internal staff within those stores will be fighting for those positions. It should prove to be on the competitive side given the size of the RIF.
I’m guessing that each of those managers is currently thinking “why are we being RIF’d? I’m so busy!”
The reality is that less will get done in the stores and employees will eventually get used to “calling the number” when they need something. Given the traditional ratio of 1:100 for HR, those regional HR managers are going to be really busy!