There is a lot of talk going around the web these days about the challenges that human resource professionals face in their day-to-day roles. It is very easy for other parts of the business to look at HR and think that it’s a pretty cush job. HR doesn’t have to sell anything to keep the company afloat, doesn’t have to manage the finances to keep the business on track, doesn’t have to strategize about markets and where to expend the business or attract customers. On the surface it seems like it’s the organization that just keeps the employees in line, makes sure they have benefits and get paid on time, and processes a lot of paperwork for various things like hiring and firing the workforce. In fact I have had conversations with more than one CEO that basically told me, “just make sure everyone has benefits and gets paid on time.” That’s the perception and of course it is a gross mis-conception of what the universe of HR Services entails.
The original concept of HR, or ‘Personnel’ back in the day, was basically that it was the organization within a business that manages the human resources of the business. They are the “workforce management” team. Acquire and keep the workers happy, make sure they get along, keep them focused on the business, communicate the corporate messages to them, assess performance, manage headcount, and if necessary, let them go. Over time this has of course grown into so much more than that narrow charter to now include educating the workforce on policies and procedures, implementing training on everything from safety to anti-harassment, to recognizing and counter-acting against unconscious bias, and succession planning. HR is a partner to the business with headcount planning and budget management of that headcount, benefits have expanded from basic healthcare services to immigration, family planning, mental health, leaves, personal financial management, daycare, petcare, and almost any aspect of life that you can imagine would impact a workers ability to be effective in their work, free of distractions. HR is the catch all.
While HR offers all of these services on behalf of the business, it is also commonly thought of by the employee population, as the employee behavior watchdog of the business. If someone has a complaint about another worker, their manager, or anything else, take it to HR. HR will investigate and prosecute the perpetrator or offending party as necessary. Many employees function just fine in the workplace, but be wary of committing an “HR Violation” lest you feel the wrath of the HR Department. In fact, I have often said that the two most dreaded calls an employee never wants to get at their desk are from legal or HR. HR is both the cleaning house for all issues between the people in the business and also the housecleaner of all errant dirty laundry that may arise within the business. So that ultimately the business leadership sleeps at night knowing that HR is managing their human resources on so many levels.
For those reasons and more a new moniker was bestowed on many HR organizations within the last quarter century; People Operations. Somehow this new title softens the more clinical term of “human” to people, after all, we are all just people right? So in those organizations your people team does everything that HR does but in a kinder, softer, more down to earth way, than that old HR department. The original intent of the organization is still primarily seen as managing the people in the business through their work-life at the company. Not only does the leadership still think of these departments in that way, but so does the general employee population and in many cases so does the department itself, be it called personnel, HR, Or People Ops.
As my experience has grown over the years and as I have been fortunate to work for a number of companies that were the darling of the industry while I worked there, I have stored a lot of information into my mental backpack to take with me from role to role. I have done my best to leave the dysfunctional behind and take only the progressive, intuitive, developmental, growth oriented, and rewarding aspects of those experiences with me. What I would say is one of the most prescient ideas that I have formulated over this time, and one that I was lucky enough to implement when I was a VP of HR at a 300 person start-up, is that the premise that HR exists to manage the employee life-cycle is fundamentally incorrect.
It should not be HR’s charter to manage the Human Resources of the business. It is rather to provide Resources to the Humans in the business for them to manage themselves.
Further, it is the objective of HR to do everything possible to enable the employee population to be successful at their respectives roles that drive business forward.
In positioning my little HR department in that way and communicating that to the employees, they came to treat our team as partners in their work-life, as a trusted co-hort driving towards their career achievements. Not as policy police, or a team that would point out and process them through violations. Were there times when we needed to lean into a disciplinary action with an employee or two for issues that ran afoul of a harmonized work environment? Sure, but when we approached it from a place of partnership in their longer term success, it was well received and we even saw behavioral corrections for the better and we did not need to take more dramatic disciplinary action. Were there exceptions to that? Of course, it was not a perfect system, but it was one that built strong relationships that helped solidify a company culture and infrastructure that had a positive impact on nearly everyone in the business.
Another very critical element to that philosophy is the mind-set it puts an HR professional in as they approach their day to day workload. By simply starting each day with the mind-set of, “How am I going to help people today?” versus a mind-set of, “What problems am I going to face today in managing our workers?” The job invites the potential to be so much more rewarding.
Back to my experience as the head of HR for a small start-up I had a couple of critical elements to my office that really spoke to this way of thinking. The first was that my door was, unless in a meeting with someone in my office, always open with a welcome mat right outside my door. In this way I was rarely alone in my office and many of our employees knew that they had an open invitation to come in and chat or ask any questions at any time. And they did. Secondly I had a custom triangular table built by an aspiring furniture designer. This ensured that, when I met with any two other parties in my office, not any one of us was at the head of the table, we all were. And as trite as that sounds, it really did make a difference both when they entered my office and as we worked through whatever the issue was.
As some have written in those recent articles, HR or People Operations, can be one of the most challenging and grueling jobs in the corporate world from the top spot in the executive suite to the day-to-day grind at the entry levels. However, with the right mindset and a focus on what we can offer and do for those who drive the business, sales, and profits. It can also be the most personally rewarding job in the business.
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