The HR Omerta - It's Time to Talk

‘If I betray my HR brothers, sisters and they, may my soul burn like this CIPD card,’ I said in my oath of allegiance to the HR profession. Blood dripping from my pricked finger to signify my commitment to the trade body. My membership essential to my career. I earned my bones, working my way up the ladder, paying every year to keep the letters after my name.

MCIPD, Chartered and Fellow. I have reached the top and begin every job application with my membership status. But it does not seem to make a difference when competing for vacancies. Am I a “goodfellow” or a middleman caught between the divergence of HR departments and the CIPD to understand what good looks like and who fits that profile?

Where does HR go next in this volatile, uncertain world? What the TV mob boss Tony Soprano said resonates with our predicament: “I'd been thinking: it's good to be in a thing from the ground floor. I came too late for that, I know. But lately I'm getting the feeling I might be in at the end. That the best is over.”

After celebrating the end of the personnel era to become the people profession with HR characteristics, our profession is in flux. Our organisational importance has increased but the lowest common denominators of organisational problems continue to hold us back. What is our vision and how is it achieved?

My campaign to defend the HR profession from unfair criticism while acknowledging its performance action plan will look at our relationship with the CIPD. As institutions teeter on the brink and public trust evaporates like budgetary steam, the age of “what’s in it for me?” dawns—where skipping licence fees is a patriotic act of self-interest.

HR has its future in its hands but is under media, public and possibly organisational scrutiny. It’s time for HR to get back on its horse and ride out to show what we do and why.

Understanding the HR Problem

Otherwise you might be quoting the doomed Ralph Cifaretto in The Sopranos: “I don't give a fuck anymore. I've given my life to this "thing" and this is the thanks I get?” Ambition, envy and expectation can be a dangerous combination when you are frustrated and want to reach the top. HR should help the business control toxic ambition like Ralph’s while understanding other people feel the same yet express it differently.

Unfortunately HR jobs can get stuck in the negative, dealing with employee issues and organisational deficiencies. This can be rewarding and fascinating but often frustrating. Doing this consistently prevents the elevation of yourself and the profession.

HR needs to spend more time in the positive, being strategic enablers if the culture and structure allow this. The boom in CIPD criticism reminds me of corporate all-staff calls where unhelpful questions can get pushed to the top and the best questions are not asked or answered. The minority opinion becoming the dominant conversation as not everyone is involved.

This is why HR communicators are essential to change the conversation about how HR operates internally and with the CIPD. The commitment, aptitude and leadership are out there waiting to be harnessed across the HR spectrum to write the next chapter. Applying critical thinking to the source of the positive and negative situations can stop the rushing around and allow us to work with the business and expert services to operate strategically during crises and stability.

The CIPD needs to move with us in the regulations, legislation, workforce planning, labour trends and skills and talent. I am fortunate that my employer pays for my CIPD membership and I work in a supportive HR department; not everyone is as fortunate.

From 2006 to 2026

I found this HR Zone community post in 2006 – It has unfortunately become essential for HR professionals to have a CIPD qualification be it from CIPD or some other body. Somehow industry has decided that in order to advance in HR you must have CIPD. Most job ads these days require the applicant to be CIPD part qualified or otherwise.

Almost 20 years later, the CIPD qualification is often a pre-requisite for mid-to-senior HR jobs. Is this a bad thing? If you did the Level 7 qualification the academic way this is what you expect. Why should you lose out to people who don’t have the qualification? Dealing with the essays, exams, lazy students who did nothing in group projects and some iffy tutors was a challenge. The qualification should mean more and give you more.

I never call myself an HR expert as I learn something new every day and CIPD aids my learning. However, the membership fee should include attendance at the annual conference and workshops. Once you have the qualification, it is on your CV forever. I support the CIPD and its significant media coverage counters the criticism about its worth.

I asked HR professional Robey for his opinion on the prolonged criticism of CIPD and the HR profession. He said: ‘I’m not conscious that it has become any worse in recent years compared to, say, 20 years ago. Whilst voices mindlessly repeating “HR is not your friend!” are commonplace, I have seen an at-least-equal number of people speaking up who have a more nuanced understanding despite not being HR professionals themselves.’

Robey continued to explain it is a management, not just HR, problem: ‘British business has spent three decades under-investing in management training and development whilst fetishising “leadership”, creating a whole generation of business “leaders” who don’t actually understand how to manage businesses, they just know how to lead. But businesses only need leading when they’re in a crisis. The rest of the time, they just need to be managed, so business leaders keep latching onto or even creating crises that good management would have simply avoided to give themselves something meaningful to do with their time.’

Managers are an extension of HR because HR exists across organisations. You need us. The end of HR? "fuhgeddaboudit" I say in my New York mobster accent. Let’s open the books and get more people made the right way to make the world of work a better place.

CIPD Response

I asked David D’Souza, director of profession at the CIPD, what is the CIPD doing to respond to the criticism about its meaning and purpose? How will you respond to the results of the CIPD membership survey?

David’s response: Our annual membership survey is a valuable tool to drive improvements and innovation in our work. We gather valuable data and follow up with interviews and focus groups throughout the year. This helps us understand our members’ different needs and changing expectations at key points in their careers and in the changing context we’re all working in. It helps us see where CIPD membership adds most value – and where there are gaps that we need to fill. And we get to work on addressing them. In the last year, in direct response to member feedback, we have:

• Boosted support, guidance and analysis on key areas requested by members such as on the Employment Rights Bill, AI, wellbeing and leadership development.

• Introduced CIPD Buddy, an AI tool on our website to help members get straight to the info they need on our website with a topline overview of key considerations

• Added more practical tools into our resources.

• Launched a new mentoring service, where members can be matched with a mentor online.

• Introduced digital badges to help members share their hard-earned credentials with peers, employers and clients.

There's so much good work happening across the CIPD now and planned, and we're proud of that. We're disappointed that this current phase of critical noise is obscuring the genuine progress and positive impact being achieved. And also the positive mentions we receive online, in the media and among members and key stakeholders who consistently value our work. We’ll happily take questions directly from members about how they can get better value from their membership.