HR Management, HR Strategy, Training

Great HR Trains Great HR

We recently shared an article about why employees don’t like HR. Unfortunately, the article we shared is sadly just one of many articles. Articles about why employees don’t like HR, can’t trust HR, why HR is not your friend, and that HR just treats employees as assets.

As an HR professional who loves her job, these are always difficult to read. However, I also can’t disagree with a number of them.

This is why we established our company mission to be “To change the way you think about HR.”

One of the main complaints that employees seem to have about HR is “whose side are they on?” Employees say you can’t trust HR because HR is only on the company’s side. It’s easy to understand why people think that way, and it is true that HR’s main job is to mitigate risk for the company. However, done properly, this should all weigh in the employees’ favor. When done properly, companies really can’t thrive without HR. Let me repeat that, when done properly, companies really CAN’T thrive without HR.

HR sits firmly in the middle of having to meet the needs of the employees while still helping the company get the product out the door. If the product doesn’t get out the door timely and efficiently and with good profit margin, then there are no jobs or benefits for employees. If the employees’ needs are not met and they are not in an environment that is safe, respectful, equitable, empathetic, and flexible, then there will be no employees to get the product out the door.

This is a pretty big job. Unfortunately, there are too many people in these roles that simply do not have the skills. Through no fault of their own, perhaps they have been put in this role because there is no one else to handle the HR function.

Often, the problem starts first not with who is in the HR department, but who put them there. Why are so many HR departments not staffed with trained and talented people who want to be in the role? This is typically because the company leadership does not recognize the big picture significance of HR, so any combination of the following happens:

• An administrator who has been very successful in managing payroll and benefits is put in charge of HR.
• The company’s best “people person” manager or administrator is made responsible for HR.
• HR responsibilities are distributed among all the managers, making everyone responsible but no one accountable and no one in charge.
• HR is put into place (maybe even Great HR!) but leadership does not support them by giving them the resources and authority to get things done. This forces HR to manage all the employees in the organization without any direct managerial oversight – a bit of managing by ambiguous authority. If leadership has not set HR up with managers and employees as truly being an authority, then HR is seen as weak and ineffectual.
• HR is put into place (again, maybe even Great HR!) but leadership does not take HR’s advisement or follow recommendations. Employees quickly learn this and realize that there’s no point in going to HR because HR can’t actually get anything done.

So, is all hopeless for HR?

Not at all. There are still a lot of companies out there, large, and small, that are doing it right. For those companies that are struggling, it’s time to review what’s working and what’s not, and to listen to your employees and managers. The truth is that most organizations have not done much to review their HR practices and policies as long as they were getting the job done. It’s time for some HR Success 101 training for leadership, managers, and HR staff.

How do you evaluate the success of HR? Certainly, there are a number of metrics to be reviewed, but you can’t stop there. While retention rate, cost per hire, and revenue per employee are all important numbers that leadership wants to see, there’s a lot more to review. Employee satisfaction can be measured in metrics, but you must have the data behind the metrics to know how to bring about change. It’s critical to understand the why when you have a less than successful HR program.

An HR success assessment would help HR departments and leadership understand the why and sort through the metrics and processes to determine what is effective and isn’t effective as well as what isn’t being done at all. From there, an implementation plan can be put into place to fill in the gaps, provide training for the HR team, and determine how leadership can step in to help HR be successful.

Can you train Great HR?

Assuming you are starting with someone who understands the why and has the want to, you CAN train great HR. Or, rather, Great HR can train Great HR.

April 18, 2024

Paula Agee, VP of Human Resources and Chief People Officer