RadHR, based in the UK, is about practically applying anti-oppressive ideas to how social change organisations and workplaces organise internally. It offers alternatives to off-the-shelf HR policies and processes, which tend to replicate the very oppressions that our organisations strive to challenge.
RadHR is a place where groups organising for social change can:
share alternative policies and processes; learn from each other;
and collectively dismantle the inherent oppressions and inequalities of ‘work’ within capitalism.
Please note: Some RadHR policies will reference UK law. Check the legal situation where you are based to ensure you are complying with requirements.
Watch Video of Intro to Rad HR
Collaboration not ‘expertise’
RadHR aims to be a collaboration between any of us who are thinking about how to organise ourselves according to our values.
The team behind RadHR see our role as facilitating the sharing of wisdom between lots of groups and people. We’re starting from the perspective that none of us are ‘experts’ at the work of living our values—the answers need to come from all of us.
The value of RadHR lies in the community surrounding it—sharing procedures that have worked and not worked, feeding back on how others’ processes have worked for us and building and adapting new ways of organising together.
We hope sharing policies will spark new conversations—through the website and via events—about what it means to be radical in how we work and organise for change.
We imagine RadHR becoming a community for a range of groups, including:
Grassroots mutual aid and community groups
Small NGOs and voluntary sector organisations
Campaigning organisations
Workers’ coops
Unions
Direct action collectives
Arts organisations
By building on each others’ experiences, learning and understanding, we can figure out what it means to be social change organisations and employers that are truly working to live our values every day!
Principles
These are the principles we want to build this community from:
Anti-Oppressive
The world is already full of oppression. Our ways of organising—our policies, processes and practices—should be actively counteracting the white supremacy, patriarchy, classism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia experienced by many people in the wider world. As should the ways we engage with each other as a community across this site.
Radical
Oppression plays out on many levels: in wider society; in our group practices; and in our individual behaviours (often without us realising). This can make it really hard to challenge effectively—and sometimes even hard to see! In order to live our values, we need to be committed to push for change on all these levels, even—and especially—when doing so pits us against some of those dominant power structures, or forces us to challenge our own positions.
Collaborative
The question of how to really live our values is far too big for any of us to answer on our own! We need each other if we are going to figure out alternatives to the kinds of oppression that have dominated management / HR / organisational thinking for so long.
Transparent
To collaborate, we need to be able to share what we’ve got and what we’ve learned with others walking similar paths. There can be a vulnerability in sharing our learnings—especially when we’re not 100% sure of what we know (which we never can be with this sort of work)! RadHR aims to create spaces where we can build the trust needed to share effectively with one another.
Messy
Organising in ways that radically shift existing power structures and oppressions is never going to be neat and tidy. Or comfortable. If it is, we’re probably not changing that much. So instead of trying to avoid discomfort, uncertainty and untidiness, let’s embrace the mess!
Engage and Contribute
Access the community forum where people can sign up to RadHR, comment on things in the library and have wider discussions about what it means to implement radical policies and processes. Members of the community can also share their experiences in more detail on the blog page.
Access Policies, Guides and Templates
Search the RadHR Policy Bank and/or see the list below. See the RadHR website for the most up to date version as new resources are being continually added. One can also filter by different categories including Organisation type, structure, size and turnover.
Please note: Some RadHR policies will reference UK law. Check the legal situation where you are based to ensure you are complying with requirements.
