Let me start by saying that this blog is not going to be for the faint of heart or the hypersensitive types. I plan to hit readers square between the eye, but before I say much else, I want to go on record as saying that I love working in human resources. I have loved it for almost 27 years. With that said, HR folks are not winning any popularity contests and I’ve never seen a bumper sticker that reads “Honk if you think your HR Manager is COOL!”.
In my experience, what brings on the hate of human resources is all the gray, emotional, and sometimes subjective space that exists between HR teams and the rest of the staff. What lies in that space is where serious HR leaders earn their stripes and there is no better example of this than a good ‘ole performance counseling session. The classic situation is that an employee is not meeting expectations and HR must step in and “fix it”. Of course, it never fails…last week you were at a team building event with this person and now you’re about to issue them a formal warning or even terminate them. In all my years, I have never walked into a counseling session and had it go exactly as I planned, and I’ve never left one the same as I went in.
As a former employer, I had a young salesman that was eager to prove his worth. Unfortunately, in his attempts to do so, he crossed paths with the wrong guy in sales. The eager novice answered the senior salesman’s phone and proceeded to close a deal. Rather than get rewarded for showing initiative and producing results, I had to pull him into a conference room to educate him on how to be successful without upsetting the delicate balance that exists on a trading floor. Simply put, he did not care and that was abundantly clear as he spewed profanities at me and told me I would regret talking to him. In an instant, I had gone from respected colleague to evil HR person (insert your favorite Dilbert cartoon). Thanks to the quick action of the company security team, the now former employee was safely escorted out of the building and my day ended with an uneventful hour packing up his desk. This is an extreme (albeit not rare) example of how quickly the pendulum can swing from HR love to HR hate. Employees generally want HR to just be the fun people all the time. Please make sure everyone gets paid on time, ensure we have great health benefits and throw an awesome holiday party, but do not make me get “in my feelings” by telling me that my performance is not up to your expectations.
Employee Communications Summary of Best Practices.
Here’s the deal. Human resources is simply not a cut and dry gig because there will never be a policy or law to guide every move made. All of our days are filled with interactions with people, and you will not always be liked. To my human resources colleagues out there, I say just embrace your reality! You want to be a resource to humans (it is in the job title even!). For those folks that have chosen other career paths, know that your HR people are there for you…quite literally! It takes everyone to carry the torch of corporate culture and create an environment where all employees thrive. That’s not always going to be an easy task, but your Human Resources teams are in it for the win! I encourage you to cut them some slack because they have to accept that as HR people, they will likely never be the most popular person in the building.
After all, we all know that the marketing team is the always the fun bunch and the salespeople win all the awards. At the end of the day, Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men said it best as he proclaimed “…you WANT me on that wall…you NEED me on that wall…” March on my fearless HR friends and remember that you are NOT an army of one.