Gaynor the Explainer
How to make your organisation love HR
You don’t have to look too hard on the web to find a story about why HR is the most disliked function in business. Most of them are drivel, of course – but we can’t deny that we’re not winning any popularity contests.
In a game of Shag Marry Kill in which the subjects were HR, Katie Hopkins and Adolf Hitler, I’m not entirely sure we’d even make it to the bedroom.
But there is a way in which every HR department can raise its reputation quickly and cost-effectively in pretty well any work environment.
Got your attention? Then I’ll explain.
Pretty well every HR article I read/conference I attend/conversation I have with a peer is about the same thing, and has been for years.
Basically, it’s how HR can dump a lot of the ‘basic’ stuff (usually through some technology solution) in order to concentrate on ‘strategy’.
That’s fine. I’m not arguing against HR’s strategic remit, or suggesting that raising our aspirations in terms of focus isn’t good for organisations, HR departments and the professionals working within them.
But it sure as heck isn’t making us popular:
The less we transact (horrible verb, but there you go) with the people of the business, the more suspicious they become of what we do.
After all, much of this strategy stuff isn’t for the benefit of the organisation, but for the people who run it, who don’t always have the employees’ best interest at heart. (C’mon. Don’t pretend you disagree.)
We end up with a workforce that no longer understands what we do, thinks we have ideas above our stations, and resents itself for ever thinking that HR was designed to make it happier, safer and more in control.
So what we do is this: we do something good and obvious for the employees.
It needn’t be a huge something, like revolutionising L&D, re-training the entire management population or painting over that nasty peach colour that Marketing imposed on the toilets after that brand refresh.
No. Take a look at a list of things people hate in the workplace. (You might even know what’s hated in your own workplace, if you’ve done the right surveys or – even better – have the time and inclination to walk the floor every week or so.)
You’ll find bugbears such as insufficient water filters, unnecessary adherence to traditional working hours, uninspiring break rooms, printers that don’t work, not enough plants, microwaves not being cleaned after use and colleagues audibly chewing gum at their desks. (OK. That last one might just be me.)
These might not be HR issues. That doesn’t matter.
Pick one and sort it out. Be a bit unilateral if that’s what it takes. (No-one ever disliked someone who bypassed bureaucracy for the common good.) Do it quickly, do it well, and when you’ve done it, tell people what you’ve done.
There might be extra brownie points in it if you can draw a line of sight between your action and the people/organisational strategy, but I wouldn’t worry about making that a condition of the change.
Ah. I can see what you’re thinking. Aren’t we in danger of committing a strategic faux pas here, making HR look local and transactional, returning us to some pre-Ulrich era in which HR was practically indistinguishable from the WI?
No, I don’t think we are. Not if you also have the strategy in the bag and know how to deliver it. Not if you also are implementing a tech solution to the administration remit that is decent and doesn’t reduce users to tears.
But what you are doing is saying to the organisation: we care about you, we are useful at doing stuff that works to your advantage, we still care to operate at ground-level when doing so makes a difference, we are competent and effectual managers and, yes – we are still here.
The first intervention you make will result in people liking you. When you’ve done the third, they’ll be panting over you and wanting your babies. Honest they will. I’ve seen it happen.
Anyway, let me know what you think. I’m prepared for some ire on this one, but I’ll be sticking to my guns.
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