Great HR Blogs for Leaders

Since I started this blog last year, I’ve found a lot of similar blogs on leadership, and a few on leadership development (see “more leadership blogs, left sidebar). I have not, however, found another ‘corporate insider’s” blog on leadership development. That is, written by someone who’s responsible for leadership development and succession planning within a large company. So I’m hoping I’ve found a niche, although a small one.
I’ve recently discovered that there are a LOT of human resource (HR) blogs out there. That was at first surprising to me. HR folks have this reputation for being not very open about what they do (they can't - so much of what they deal with is confidential). Maybe blogging about what they do is a creative outlet, a way to blow off some steam, and write about all the things that they wish they could say at work but can’t. Pretty funny stuff too. Go figure.
Personally, I have a lot of respect for the HR function. I did my own HR stint for 18 months (didn’t like it, and wasn’t very good at it). A good HR manager should be a leader’s right hand person, a trusted confidant, helping the leader develop and implement the most important people elements of their business strategy. Yes, I know, there still are a lot of old school, rule-monger evil Catbert HR types out there, but most of them are just hard working, dedicated grunts, doing the best they can in an often thankless job.

So here’s my tribute to my fellow HR bloggers. Below is a sampling of some of the best HR blogs I’ve found. Check them out, and take your local HR person out for a cup of coffee (or a stiff martini) – they deserve it!

1. I’ll start with “HR Wench”. http://hrwench.blogspot.com/. You gotta love the name and her profile picture. Here’s a quote from a recent post: “I recall the time a couple years ago when I interviewed a male candidate in full drag. The resume was great. The phone screen was great. Even the interview was great. But the drag was done so poorly I couldn't help but think he was doing some sort of social experiment or that I might be on candid camera.”

2. Or how about, “Evil HR Lady”: http://evilhrlady.blogspot.com/. Kind of an advice column for HR type questions. Very insightful and funny.

3. The Angry HR Exec (is there a trend here?): http://www.hrprogr.com/Blog/. His profiles states: “The Angry HR Exec has been hiring, firing and fulminating for over 30 years. The only thing he's happy about is that he dropped out of engineering school.”

4. There’s Guerrilla HR”: http://guerillahr.blogspot.com/

5. And “HR Lori”: http://hrlori.com/, all about California HR issues

6. “HR Thoughts”: http://hrmanager.squarespace.com/, written by an HR Director at a medical center

7. “The HR Capitalist”: http://www.hrcapitalist.com/, written by an HR VP for a software company

8. How about “Gruntled Employees”: http://www.gruntledemployees.com/gruntled_employees/, written by an HR attorney on how to keep your employees “gruntled”

9. “Your HR Guy”: http://www.yourhrguy.com/,

10. And finally, Laurie Ruettimann’s “Team Building is for Suckers: http://laurieruettimann.com/, - an HR blog with a cynical edge, written by a full time HR blogger and punk rocker.

This is just a small sample, check out any of their blogrolls for many, many more.