Human Resources: Is HR Out of Control?
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Once known as “personnel”, Human Resources seems to have become a real centre of power in modern business. No longer just handing out payslips or organising the Christmas party, HR now shapes company culture, influences major decisions and – some say – acts as a kind of corporate police force and judiciary. The profession has doubled in size over the past two decades and grown in authority. How did it rise so fast and what does its growing influence mean for the workplace? Evan Davis and guests discuss how HR seemingly took control of the corporate agenda and ask whether company bosses have delegated too much power to a profession that comes with its own code of values and priorities.
Guests: Neil Morrison, HR Director, Severn Trent Nicole Whittaker, Associate Director of HR Consultancy, Peninsula Pamela Dow, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Civic Future
Production team: Presenter: Evan Davis Producer: Sally Abrahams Production Co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge Sound: Pat Sissons and Duncan Hannant Editor: Matt Willis
Transcript
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| 0:54.9 | Hello, welcome to the program. |
| 0:56.8 | Now, in the modern corporation, the HR department, human resources, |
| 1:00.8 | what used to be known as personnel, seems to have become a real centre of power. |
| 1:06.4 | Long gone are the days where HR simply handed out pay slips or booked the Christmas party. It now |
| 1:12.5 | typically involves itself in pretty well every big corporate decision. It often sees its business |
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