I think, like almost every other problem, it's a matter of [not] getting the right people for the job. The HR employees I've interacted with have, almost to a T, been completely process-bound and extremely hesitant to take any kind of initiative or show independent thought. They aren't problem solvers, they're process followers. Even when the process is causing unnecessary problems, they follow it unless directed otherwise. The result is the suck you're describing.<p>I think the reason is fairly simple, although the solution might not be. Folks who have strong soft skills but lack critical thinking ability aren't going to flock to engineering or finance, for example. Even if they made it in the door, they wouldn't last. These people might work in sales, but sales seems to select for a certain ambition and ruthlessness that many people just don't have. If you look at the pool that's left, there just aren't a lot of qualities left that would add value apart from following a process, and in that case, those employees will only be as valuable as the process lets them. So what you get is sucky process (because the company doesn't want to expose itself to lawsuits or get taken advantage of) and sucky employees who don't know when or how to circumvent the process when it becomes counterproductive. Add those together, and you get an HR department that functions very badly and, at best, adds a kind of cynical WTF entertainment value to the employees it's supposed to help.