The SHRM scandal is everywhere right now, and it’s hard to ignore. Because if there’s one organisation that absolutely cannot afford to get HR SO wrong, it’s the one that built its entire identity on teaching everyone else how to do it right.
Yet somehow, here we are.
SHRM, the global ‘gold standard’ for all things HR, just lost a US$11.5 million racial discrimination and retaliation lawsuit. The HR world is watching this like, ‘Wait…the HR authority did what?’
A former employee raised a discrimination concern. Instead of investigating it properly, the organisation allegedly drafted their termination paperwork before the investigation was even done. If that happened inside a regular company, SHRM would turn it into a case study on poor practice. But when it happens inside SHRM? Suddenly the rules seem flexible.
It’s so ironic it hurts. Yeah, people get things wrong. But this was so badly done it just leaves you wondering how long they’ve been getting away with this for.
And the timing makes it even worse. Because this comes right after SHRM made a series of decisions that already had people questioning their direction.
Removing ‘Equity’ from their DEI messaging. Inviting anti-DEI voices into their conferences. Acting like the shifting political climate mattered more than holding the line on values.
It’s all built up to this moment where the HR community is looking at each other like, “is this really the organisation that’s supposed to be guiding us?”
Credibility and authority is the real issue here. HR as a profession relies on trust. We’re the people who should protect fairness, build culture, and manage risk. So when the biggest HR organisation in the world can’t model the basics, it doesn’t just damage their reputation. It damages the reputation of our entire industry.
If SHRM can’t demonstrate equity, due process, or ethical leadership inside its own backyard, why should we trust the frameworks they publish? Why should any organisation believe they’re the authority on how workplaces should run?
This verdict has exposed so much more than a mistake. It exposes a pattern. A leadership direction that feels disconnected from what it’s supposed to be.
What HR professionals want right now isn’t perfection. It’s accountability. Ownership. A signal that the people at the top understand the weight of their role and the responsibility that comes with shaping the global HR landscape.
But instead, we’ve seen silence, defensiveness, and a refusal to acknowledge just how deeply this impacts the industry.
SHRM’s leadership has lost the room, they need to get out, leave, right now, it’s the end of you and me.
No but seriously, when the people you’re supposed to represent no longer trust you, the only real leadership move left is stepping aside.
It’s been a farce for years really. HR professionals are building their standards from the ground up, not waiting for a legacy institution to tell them what is or isn’t the right thing to do.
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