The author of the "Why We Hate HR" article in Fast Company magazine defends many of his arguments in the piece but wishes he could rewrite his comment that "HR people aren't the sharpest tacks in the box."

Keith Hammonds, executive editor of Fast Company and author of the piece, discussed the article in an online interview with Jay Whitehead, publisher of HRO Today .

In the article, Hammonds wrote that "HR people are, for most practical purposes, neither strategic nor leaders."

His opinion remains the same today, but he admitted that some HR folks are strategic and are leaders. However, he argued that too few HR people think strategically about business issues and too few truly understand their organization's business, including its customers, competition, strengths, and weaknesses. Hammonds said more HR people need to gain credibility as leaders in the business beyond just the HR function.

In a poll conducted during the interview, Whitehead asked listeners how true is the perception that HR people fail to think strategically about business issues. Thirty-one percent of respondents said it was very true and 60 percent said it was somewhat true.

In the August 2005 article, Hammonds wrote that "HR should be joined to business strategy at the hip. Instead, most organizations have ghettoized themselves literally to the brink of obsolescence."

During the interview, Hammonds defended that argument by saying that the reason why companies are outsourcing HR functions is that basic administrative functions can be done just as well for less cost outside the organization. Therefore, HR must ingrain itself into the fabric of business strategy, he said.

Hammonds said another mistake HR makes is to resort to bureaucracy. He said while some rules are necessary, others are unnecessary and discourage creativity.

To become more strategic, HR people should read a lot of business publications, become experts in their company's financial reports and otherwise improve business intelligence, and develop relationships with other departments such as the chief financial officer, he said.

He added HR must move beyond measuring efficiency to measuring the value HR brings to the organization. HR should use metrics that demonstrate that value, he said.

The online interview was sponsored by Ultimate Software, a provider of workforce management applications.