The Wall Street Journal carries a fascinating story about private firms that are deciding to eliminate their human resources department. It’s a move designed for more efficiency and an expectation that employees will resolve their own issues and be more responsible for themselves.

Companies seeking flat management structures and more accountability for employees are frequently taking aim at human resources. Executives say the traditional HR department—which claims dominion over everything from hiring and firing to maintaining workplace diversity—stifles innovation and bogs down businesses with inefficient policies and processes. At the same time, a booming HR software industry has made it easier than ever to automate or outsource personnel-related functions such as payroll and benefits administration.

Here’s how one company is handling things.

Interpersonal issues must be handled differently when HR isn’t around to mediate. Klick Health, a Toronto-based marketing agency focused on health care, has forgone a human-resources department in favor of two “concierges,” employees with customer-service backgrounds whose job is to create what CEO Leerom Segal calls a “frictionless” work experience for employees.

To be sure, this innovation and efficiency doesn’t come without the potential for legal peril, which many times is the result of the massive regulatory scheme imposed on industry by all levels of government.

Isn’t it interesting that while private industry seeks to change and innovate and look for new ways to handle issues, government simply adds more regulations and people.