Largest Organization Without an HR Department?

August 9, 2005 in Leadership with 3 Comments

Fast Company has a fascinating article in the August issue about why we hate human resources (HR) departments. I’ve neglected a conversation with Lisa Haneberg who was intrigued by the fact that we don’t do formal performance evaluations at Granger. I wonder what Lisa will say when she finds out that we don’t even have an HR department.

In fact, I’d be curious to know if we’re the largest organization you know of that doesn’t have an HR department. We have over 70 full- and part-time employees on staff. Can anyone top that? It seems like HR either gets in the way of leadership making positive changes or HR gets in the way of employees getting appropriate support? For now, our solution to the dilemma is this: Don’t have an HR department.

3 Responses to “Largest Organization Without an HR Department?”

  1. Lisa Haneberg August 10, 2005 at 10:28 am #

    Well, Tony, that is impressive. I know companies with up to 50 people without HR, but I must admit, I do not know any larger than this. One thought – I wonder if Semco has HR? They may not, and if they don’t, then they would have you beat by several thousand.

    But it is unusual for sure! As I have said before, it would be interesting to hear more about how your organization has made these decisions and how they are working for you!

  2. Komal Ali April 27, 2008 at 11:36 am #

    Hi
    I want to know about that organization who has no Human Resource Department.
    I want to know about the working of the organization that how they manage, evaluate performance without HR department.
    Can you help me please??
    Thnx

  3. Raja April 12, 2009 at 6:01 am #

    Could you please help me with the names of companies who do not have an hr dept. and the problems faced by them.
    thanks!!