Because HR people are natives of HR culture and only have second hand knowledge of what “engineering culture” or “finance culture” or $WHATEVER culture is, much less what makes a good/healthy/productive engineering or finance or $WHATEVER culture.

I will also add that, while there are a few very talented HR people (and the good ones are freakishly good), most folks in the HR field ended up there rather than sought it out. They are not collectively the most talented or ambitious group of people, and the field often attracts ideologues who sometimes have dysfunctional perceptions of the world we live in.

Culture comes from leadership and leaders. When this doesn’t happen, you get all sorts of organizational issues. HR are not leaders. Culture isn’t productive and clicks per hour research or something you can suss out from forced company fun sessions.

This is a root of an issue in corporate America where management (and it’s offshoots like HR) is considered the mindset, and really it’s about leadership.

Leaders set culture, build companies, grow visions. Managers execute that. Some managers can actually lead. HR supports it. When people hate working at places, it’s always back to a lack of leadership in some way.