We can be competent, caring professionals without being solemn, dour robots
Looking for a hot conversational topic when you’re stuck chatting with a bunch of HR professionals?
Whether you’re sitting with two of them at the train station or stuck at some in-house training session with your company’s entire HR team, here’s a surefire discussion starter: Ask them who they serve in their organization. In other words, whose needs are they there to meet or satisfy? The business? Leaders and managers? Employees?
I guarantee this exchange will be both captivating and heated. I’ve participated in informal roundtables with this as the topic du jour and enjoyed cocktail parties where the discussion on this subject was so tempestuous, we managed to barely escape just short of actual fisticuffs.
The answer, proffered by your average HR practitioner, to this seemingly basic question will vary based on any number of factors: The type and size of organization he has worked in as well as the sort of organization in which he was trained in the ways of HR.
The answer will be formulated depending on the HR professional’s previous mentors or bosses, and also the type of specific roles she has held in the human resources field. What was measured? What mattered? (Note: Contrary to popular opinion, what matters does not get measured nor does what gets measured… matter.)
The answer, as far as I’m concerned, is “HR serves everyone.” We serve the needs of the business. In accordance with laws, regulations, policies and the dictates and desires of our CEO or business owner, we serve, protect and defend.
We serve the needs of managers and leaders. We don’t cover up their shenanigans, of course, but neither do we bring them down and lay blame. Rather, we assist them in everything related to the management of their people/human capital/resources. We coach, guide and support them so they can focus on running the business.
We serve the needs of employees. We hold their hands, we answer their questions and we help them solve problems. We may, depending upon the need, talk to their mothers, spouses, priests or parole officers.
And when we do all this right, we are also serving the needs of those who are external to our organization — our candidates, our communities and our customers.
Here’s the deal — so often in human resources, we’ve tended to think of these things as mutually exclusive: “I can’t be an advocate for employees if my role is to protect the needs of the company” is something I’ve heard more than one HR practitioner say. Or “I need to maintain impartiality so I can’t be too friendly with employees.”
Both of which, of course, are utter crap. You can work in HR and be a competent and caring business professional without being a solemn and dour robot intent on spreading doom and gloom with every policy update.
You can serve others without being servile or subservient. It’s not the role of the HR lady to, bake muffins for birthdays and holidays, and take minutes at the weekly leadership meeting — but you can still be pleasant and kind.
The strategies and goals of the business inform what HR does but the how is what each of us as HR professionals determine once we realize who we serve. The how is the magic sauce.
This question “Who does HR serve?” is perhaps the most elemental aspect of human resources and goes well beyond a practitioner grasping the bodies of knowledge or being fully capable in the HR competencies. The answer lays the foundation for a person’s entire career in and around HR.
So, I wonder — how many human resources professionals are truly delivering to all?
Robin Schooling is an HR leader, strategist and advisor with senior-level experience in all areas of HR management. She is also an advisory board member for Blackbook HR and can be reached at [email protected] or (225) 931-5934 or visit robinschooling.com for more information.
