One of the reasons we practice foresight on an institutional level is that it takes time for our ponderous bureaucracies to catch up to a quickly moving reality. We simply need time to transform that which is resistant to change, lest we end up misaligned for the world.

One such institution these days is the department of human resources. First of all, let’s forget the somewhat Orwellian feel of that name, which sounds like something vaguely associated with Soylent Green or The Matrix. The function of human resources is fundamentally out of harmony with the way labor markets need to work today. Businesses need to be acquiring scarce talent wherever they can find it and making sure they get paid. That’s all.

Today, markets are so volatile, companies are encouraged and permitted to hire and fire essentially at will. Unless an employer has committed a serious workplace violation, in most places a public company need but declare the position eliminated in the next quarter and move on, without serious fear of reprisal. Actually, this isn’t a bad thing. Allowing employers to try new talent quickly without the fear of being stuck with unproductive or ill-fit workers is a way to motivate innovative new ideas. After all, if your idea doesn’t work out, you can send the quickly assembled staff to “flourish elsewhere,” in the nomenclature of one major industrial company.  This is actually how skilled labor worked under the guild system for centuries. Our most recent development of “lifetime employment” is actually the anomaly, forcing employee and employer alike to remain rigid where flexibility might serve them better.

Makes sense, right? If you want to try to build a new cathedral, you only get the masons and artists to come by while the project is on. And if your brand new buttressed wall, ultra-high dome design isn’t working out and you need to stop, you don’t want to be forced to keep the whole crew on retainer forever. Makes sense, even today.

This is where HR is poorly suited. From just anecdotal data we’ve received, HR departments still hire each job like they are selecting a new bass player for the Rolling Stones or something. Some companies subject candidates to more five hour interviews for a new job than many people require to choose spouses. Months can pass by with interviews piling up and no job offers sent. Why the fear? Why the morass?

Because HR departments are encouraged to choose employees as if they might be around forever.

We live in a world where some of our currencies might not even be around next year.

We live in a world where cheap oil won’t be around in a few years.

We live in a world where your business model might not be there in a few quarters.

Thus, we need less HR and more guilds. More easy come, more easy go.

Now, we just need to think about why healthcare is tied to employment in America…