What do you think of the sentiment "HR is not your friend, HR works for the company," and how do you navigate this mindset amongst employees?

This statement is myopic thinking, if you look at HR as just the interaction you have when you are exiting the company, it may seem this statement is true, however, HR is much more than that.  For starters, you begin your career at a company because Talent Acquisition (HR) brought you into the organization, you get paid because payroll (HR) process your checks, you receive benefits because benefits (HR), you are trained and grow your career because of L&D (HR) and HR Business Partners ensure there is a healthy work environment where you can do your best work and grow.  As with most things in the corporate world, you need to learn how to leverage the resources available to you as a professional.  Human resources main role is to create a safe environment where you are able to do the best work to advance the company's mission.   Knowing how to leverage these resources will make the difference of an "OK" career at a company or a fruitful career where you advance and learn.  

Hi, in the end everybody works for the same company and everybody has their own expertise to deliver on the company strategy. However, HR is often put in the middle between managers and employees and seen as the police that needs to solve issues. We are expected to design policies, rules and guidelines for people to follow or consult in case of doubt so people have a framework to follow (and of course not everybody likes a policy or parts of a policy but we have to avoid anarchy ;-) )  but it is the manager who has to hold his/her people accountable when not complying and who is accountable to solve conflicts. Don't send people to HR and pass on the hot potato, take accountability and ownership. It is obvious that good managers have good relationships with HR as it is a true business partnering situation which employees pick up. If managers always have HR solve their issues, people will not like HR as this is when the 'compliance police' is coming in. I think the time has come that we rename Human Resources to something that clearly indicates the business value we bring for all employees on all levels, not just resources.

I would say it's not a sentiment but a factual statement (depending on your company.) HR often does not create policies for the betterment of employees but rather are crafted based on mandates from the board, stockholders, CEO, and/or legal. I developed a framework that uses design thinking to craft work policies so that people that they affect better understand the "why" behind them and it freaked the stakeholders out and they rebuffed the fact that employees have any input into said policies. I work with peers daily that know the policies that they are being told to implement will hurt productivity, engagement, and retention just deliver the message, shrug their shoulders, and hope they are not in the next round of layoffs.