"Has HR Lost the Plot?"

I’ve worked in HR long enough to know it should be about people, progress and partnership.

But what I saw, time and time again, was something else entirely.

HR functions that were more interested in covering their backs than opening their minds. Leaders who knew policy inside out but wouldn’t sit in a room with the people their decisions affected. Culture reduced to a checklist. Humanity buried under hierarchy.

And the more I tried to do it differently, the more I stood out for all the wrong reasons.

The Incident

For over twenty years, I worked inside HR teams that had lost sight of what they were there to do. They talked about values but operated through fear. They claimed to support people but too often, they managed them like liabilities, not human beings.

My values never matched the culture. While others accepted things as they were, I kept questioning them. I saw things through a more human lens and I just didn’t fit a system built for control, not connection.

While others sat at Head Office defending “HR’s strategic voice,” I was out in the business on factory and hangar floors, physically on business sites, in meetings in the business, in one-to-ones with managers who didn’t need another policy, they needed real support. I spoke the language of profit, growth, knowing your customer & operations, not just policy and precedent. I believed HR should be useful, human and embedded.

And that made me… a problem.

I was told I was “too close to the business.” That I didn’t “understand my place.” Once, someone even told me I’d “gone native” for daring to partner with people instead of policing them.

Let that sink in: I was doing my job well and that made me suspect and suspicious to my HR colleagues.

Because in many HR environments, the priority isn't to support the business. It’s to protect HR’s own authority. And when someone doesn’t play by those rules, when they lead with empathy, speak with honesty or challenge ego they’re seen as dangerous.

And now we’ve given HR a new name People and Culture, as if a fresh label fixes what’s broken.

But it’s not the name that matters. It’s how we show up.

And far too often, the same rigid mindsets and protectionist behaviours are just being repackaged under a friendlier title.

The Insight

It took a long time and it was extremely painful but eventually I realised something important.

The most toxic behaviours I’d seen weren’t always driven by arrogance, they were driven by insecurity.

HR professionals who knew every clause of the employee handbook, but didn’t feel confident walking into a boardroom. People clinging to rules not because they believed in them, but because they didn’t trust themselves to lead without them.

Fear dressed up as formality. Ego wrapped in policy.

And the cost?

Innovation slows. Conversations shut down. Managers stop managing. Teams disengage. And culture becomes something printed on a poster, not something anyone actually experiences.

The Application

This isn’t just a problem within businesses.

Across the UK, businesses are being sold HR and People Development services that are anything but human. Outsourced advice lines, generic policy bundles, compliance-driven e-learning and templated performance tools dominate the market. These services are impersonal, dehumanised and completely detached from the realities of running a business. It’s not a partnership, it’s process. There’s no relationship, no connection just a script and a system. You call, you wait and you speak to someone who doesn’t know you, your team, or your challenges. Frankly, they shouldn’t be advising on something as complex and personal as people.

And yet this is what so many SMEs are being told is “support.”

It’s not just poor service. It’s risky.

What We Do Differently

That’s why I left traditional HR.

Not because I stopped believing in it but because I still do.

In fact, I’m passionate about HR, deeply. My God, I’d worked in it for over 20 years. This wasn’t just a job; it was part of who I was.

But I couldn’t do it anymore.

I couldn’t keep trying to change a system from the inside that didn’t want to change. I couldn’t stay quiet while people were misled, underserved, or treated like problems. I couldn’t keep showing up in spaces where care was seen as weakness, and speaking up was seen as a threat.

So, I walked away.

And because of that same passion, because I do believe in what HR is supposed to be, I started Breen & Associates - Results Through People.

To create the kind of service I always wanted to offer. To work with businesses that value people and want to get things right, not just legally, but ethically, commercially and culturally.

At Breen & Associates - Results Through People, we prove that HR doesn’t have to be cold, complicated, or corporate. It can be practical, personal, commercially focused and still led with heart.

We offer tailored, commercial HR & People Development support for small businesses and SMEs. No jargon. No ivory towers. Just straight talking, legally sound advice you can trust.

Yes, we’re experts on employment law. Yes, we’ll keep you legally protected. But we go further.

We help you grow through your people, not in spite of them.

We support founders, owners and leadership teams with hands on, context driven HR solutions and a strong focus on people development. That includes:

• Leadership development
• Coaching (personal, leadership, business and executive)
• Resilience and mindset training
• NLP
• DISC Human Behaviour profiling and training
• Culture building grounded in trust, accountability and emotional intelligence

We work with people, not policies. We embed ourselves in your world. We ask the right questions. We tell the truth, even when it’s hard. And we don’t just fix what’s broken, we help you build what’s next.

Because small businesses and SMEs deserve better than tick box HR, whatever name it’s given.

They deserve HR that actually helps.

So, if you’ve ever sat in a meeting and thought, “Has HR completely lost the plot?” you’re not alone.

And you’ve just found the alternative.

If you’re looking for real connection, trusted partnership and HR that puts people first we’d love to hear from you.

Visit our website, get in touch, or take our free Employer Health Check to receive your personalised Employer Action Plan.

Let’s bring the human back into HR together.