The Hindu Business Line : The gripes about HR

The human resources (HR) team has a critical role to play in every organisation. It is most often responsible for hiring, compensation, training, performance management and a host of other employee-related issues. There are, however, several areas of concern that employees have with the HR teams in their companies. Here are some of the common complaints employees voice against their HR teams and our recommendations to HR stakeholders to overcome these complaints:

Concern 1: Transparency in communicating the organisation’s expectations of the employee: “Employees hate it when HR comes across as a puppet of the management, hired only to issue instructions. So there is a definite lack of transparency in their actions. Most HR departments seem to be doing a formality and are not really into their jobs. It is difficult to even share your views with the HR department for fear of the consequences,” says Sumit, a professional with a leading entertainment brand.

Recommendation to HR : If this concern is directed at the time when candidates are interviewed, we would ask what responsibility potential employees have in asking the right questions. We would expect potential employees to come armed with a list of questions which HR should be in a position to answer. In the event it is is not able to answer the questions immediately, it should get back to the prospective employee with the answers.

If, on the other hand, this concern is directed towards mediation between a manager and his employee, then confidentiality should be required and demanded of HR. There is no excuse for not communicating expectations clearly, concisely and in a timely manner.

Concern 2: Handling exit interviews: “HR personnel have no idea about the wealth of information that is available at their fingertips. Information gleaned from exit interviews is not about sour grapes, but about collecting factual data which should shape future HR strategy and policy,” says Mithali, a senior manager with a leading telecommunications company.

Recommendation to HR: Organisations need to factor in the costs of decreased productivity, investment lost in training and development, loss of revenue for key sales or management executives, administrative set-up, equipment purchase, recruitment costs, the new employee’s induction into the business culture, management downtime in interviewing candidates, legal fees and payout commitments. There is a lot more to staff turnover costs than meets the eye, which is why it is so important to recruit the right candidate first-off and then do what you can to keep them challenged and satisfied. When an individual leaves an organisation there is a story to be told — the exit interview is an opportunity to create a storyboard.

Retention issues are the number one executive concern, so it follows that any and all input must be given serious consideration; exit interviews are simply another valuable way of collecting data.

Concern 3: Failing to understand the business challenges: HR professionals do not view themselves as playing a strategic role, which in itself creates the aura that HR is driving administration and not the strategy of the organisation. “They bother more about hiring than internal employee development. I think they need to remember that it is the current employee’s performance that actually reflects on organisations and their performance,” says Jaspreet, a marketing manager with a retail organisation.

Recommendation to HR: The role of HR is to provide assistance and guidance with the execution of the company’s mission, values and ethics, while ensuring that the right people are in the right job at the right time. Unless and until we adopt the view that HR contributes to business results, nothing will change. The HR systems utilised are just some of the tools that can be used to provide factual data to support HR’s contributions.

If HR is aligned with strategy and held accountable for business results, it will be able to enhance its value within the organisation while improving its ability to execute and deliver on business results. And this, of course, is based on the premise that the leadership of the organisation views HR as a contributing business partner.

Concern 4: Lack of responsiveness: “Whenever there is a concern, they always ask for paper work and the turnaround time is so long that most employees get frustrated before any resolution is reached,” says Nisha, an operations manager with a BPO.

Recommendation to HR: We have advised many HR groups we work with to treat their operation like a futures market, betting on what the future would look like, what their roles would be and how they could prepare for this and begin to plan, prepare and influence.

We are troubled when we hear only recruitment being talked about when referring to HR — it so much more; it is a massive business process and recruitment is just a sub-process along with many others. Every time organisations consider making a change that impacts a sub-process, they must look at the impact on each and every sub-process within.

HR needs to understand they it is a service department with customers just like all operational groups. By not responding to clients in a timely manner, it would, in fact, be failing to meet service needs. One can’t help but consider outsourcing HR and perhaps this is one of the many reasons organisations today are considering this option. Having said that, all HR personnel must consider the WIIFM (What’s in it for me) question and, perhaps, the quick and easy answer is ‘I have a job’ and that job is servicing the internal customer.

Concern 5: Lack of empowerment to take quick decisions: “I often get the feeling that HR personnel just think ‘we have it covered’” says Digvijay, a branch manager with a private bank.

Recommendation to HR: This could be a case of HR not being empowered to take decisions or of HR being unwilling to accept decision-making accountability. In both the events, this is more of a leadership issue. If decision-making is not pushed down in an organisation, empowerment never occurs.

As the saying goes “The fish always rots from the top.” HR should have the support of the board room to become a best-in-class internal service provider. So if the HR teams have to create magic within, the bosses in the corner offices need to engage and empower.

(The writers are Managing Partners of WCH Training Solutions, a New Delhi-based training and consulting firm.)

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