UK national newspapers have called HR a "parasite," "bloated" and a "shadow empire" – and the vitriol keeps coming.

The criticism has been enough to drive the CIPD’s chief executive, Peter Cheese, to defend the profession's work in an open letter. But do the ‘HR haters’ have a point?

Or is the profession simply getting caught in the culture war crossfire?

We invited David Blackburn, who achieved the #2 HR Most Influential Practitioner ranking in 2024, on to the podcast to puzzle it out.

A chartered companion of both the CIPD and the Chartered Management Institute, Blackburn won awards for his work as a chief people officer before moving into consulting.

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Useful links:

“Bloated HR is more about woke than wealth” The Times, 4 Dec 24 https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/bloated-hr-is-more-about-woke-than-wealth-f3x6r2th3

“How HR captured the nation” New Statesman, 27 Nov 24 https://www.newstatesman.com/business/2024/11/hr-britain-how-human-resources-captured-the-nation

“A shadow HR empire runs Britain – and it's getting bigger” The Telegraph, 2 Dec 24

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/02/shadow-hr-empire-runs-britain-its-getting-bigger/

Peter Cheese responds to criticism of the profession, CIPD LinkedIn, 6 Dec 24

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cipd_cipd-hr-peopleprofessionals-activity-7270732444188688384-Omml/

As an internal-facing function, HR professionals are often shy to shout about their own successes in public.

Georgina Kelly, our 2024 2nd HR Most Influential Thinker, has seen first hand how this can limit senior HR professionals' careers.

As founder of GK HR Networks and the Women In HR Network, Georgina knows this applies particularly to women, who are less prone to self-publicise.

In the podcast, she sits down with HR magazine editor Charissa King to discuss

• What personal branding actually is
• How to get noticed by recruiters
• Why impostor syndrome is so dangerous
• Why networks and mentoring are so important

Podcast notes:

The interactive HR Most Influential Supplement, including the article on mentoring that features Georgina, is available here: https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/insights/hr-most-influential-supplement-2024/

Did HR miss its chance to win real recognition after the pandemic?
Possibly.

Can HR win that acclaim anyway?
Absolutely.

As automated HR technology becomes ever-more sophisticated, HR practitioners are being given a golden chance to do away with time-consuming transactional work and get stuck into real strategic people issues.

But what's stopping them? All too often, it's HR themselves. In the premiere of the HR Most Influential Podcast series 4, our 2024 HR Most Influential #1 practitioner, James Devine, director and head of healthcare workforce practice at KPMG UK, joins HR magazine editor Charissa King to discuss what the profession needs to do over the next two years to fulfil its potential as a high-impact strategic function.