Does Nike’s HR Really Care About Its Employees?

Nike talks a big game about culture and empowerment, but when it comes to supporting employees, their HR/People Solutions team is a joke. Instead of advocating for employees, they seem more focused on protecting leadership.

Workplace complaints? Often ignored or handled inconsistently.
Toxic managers? They stick around while employees who speak up face subtle retaliation.
Work-life balance? HR promotes it, but in reality, burnout is the norm, and taking time off feels like a weakness.
Career growth? More about who you know than what you do.

Nike expects top performance from employees, but when it comes to fair treatment and real support, HR isn’t stepping up. If Nike really wants to be a leader, it needs to start by taking care of its people—not just its profits.

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@bn+1jkvb7xjj I believe her initials are LM. Investigations should run some discovery on her devices.

HR is there to protect the company from the workers, not the other way 'round.

you would be right. I heard stories of na marketing HRBP walks around with entitlement and ignoring employees

HR is a cost center, they aren’t generating profit. So you never invest or theoretically improve HR. If anything they can perform more with less.

HR was ineffective under DA, gutted under MM (after some moments of over investing, aka 2018, 2022.), and now TH acquires a team that the morale is down, most of the experienced or tenured Nike employees were RIF’d or eliminated (not all good, not all bad).

The problem with HR is they’re operating just like every other companies are. Self service, put it on the manager, and “we’re not getting involved.”

This created the problem that got MM eventually “retired”. You can only dump so much into Workday but the problem isn’t the system, it never really was. The problem is the lack of a clear focus on developing talent, giving a culture of belonging, and talent tracking capabilities.

My word advice to HRLT, understand the policies and their impacts. Correct, adjust. Update the system. Train the employees on the process.

The process has to be simple. Ie: Keep it simple stupid. We don’t need another PDF form to help us track our careers. It’s a conversation starter, mentorship, and job categories and catalogs.

So go invent, stop waiting for Amazon, or some tech company to develop the model. Build one for the culture of Nike.

HR can’t do anything when toxic leadership ignores the complaints.

Some really bad HRBPs all around — heard some stories of a Finance & Strategy HRBP threatening to terminate employees with legitimate grievances regarding their managers.

As someone that's in HR. It's so bureaucratic , sh-t can't get done.

No. Thread closed.

No, as a function HR does not care about people. They are there to protect the company from risk and to carry out administrative tasks related to employment.

On an individual level, sure there are probably some good people in HR who do care and genuinely want to improve the employee experience at Nike but at the end of the day they are there to carry out the VPs wishes.

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Does Nike’s HR Really Care About Its Employees?

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