HR's job, I would say, is to keep employment relationships in a state that maximizes shareholder value.
That includes recruiting, compensation fairness, firing of negative-impact personnel, and legal risk reduction. It doesn't align them always with employees, or always with management.
It also means that good employees (who would deliver high value to the company if in a better managerial context) should be protected against bad managers. That's something HR rarely has the courage to do in most companies, but at Google, they don't even try.
That includes recruiting, compensation fairness, firing of negative-impact personnel, and legal risk reduction. It doesn't align them always with employees, or always with management.
It also means that good employees (who would deliver high value to the company if in a better managerial context) should be protected against bad managers. That's something HR rarely has the courage to do in most companies, but at Google, they don't even try.