One thing I have seen HR do: Manager has a really good employee and wants to pay them $X. They have the budget to do it, they think the employee is worth it (th

One thing I have seen HR do: Manager has a really good employee and wants to pay them $X. They have the budget to do it, they think the employee is worth it (they don't want to lose them), their own boss approves. But HR says "No, that is too much, we won't let you pay them that." An employee's own management has a much better idea of how much they are worth to the company than HR does. The folks in HR don't even understand what the employee actually does, or how they compare to their peers in the industry, all they have is meaningless tables of job title vs. salary range that they've purchased from some remuneration consulting firm.