Lately, I have been writing a lot about managing employee and executive performance.* Today, I came across an article in People Management magazine that got me thinking about a different kind of performance management—performance management for the HR function.

In “Obtaining Customer Feedback on HR—Who Dares Wins,” Peter Reilly and Wendy Hirsh of the U.K.’s Institute for Employment Studies (IES) write that when it comes to managing the performance of the HR function, many organizations omit internal customer feedback from the process.

Really? I decided to consult APQC’s benchmarking database to see what it says about this subject and found that APQC’s data paints a similar picture. Less than half of organizations in the database collect HR customer satisfaction information from employees.

According to Reilly and Hirsh, some HR functions fear negative feedback; while others think asking for input would establish unrealistic expectations for future performance. But these authors also write that when HR asks for employee feedback on its performance, the insights are often useful.

What do you think: Should HR solicit internal customer feedback? What have been your experiences?

*See APQC’s new content collections—Managing Employee Performance and Managing Executive Performance.