Open Editor's Digest for free
Rula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The writer is the author of How to Be a Better Leader and is a visiting professor at Bayes Business School, City, University of London
They are supposed to act as the bridge between senior leaders and employees, but they often end up receiving criticism from both. They specialize in human resources. And they are not happy.
Several recent surveys indicate high levels of burnout and unhappiness within the profession. One doesn't have to look far to see why. As administrative jobs go, HR is perhaps the most ungrateful.
Employees often see this as the voice of their boss, who is working against their interests. Bosses rarely think it's a good thing for HR to get involved. Last year, a headline in a British newspaper declared that HR professionals are “choking the economy.”
Rob Brenner, professor of organizational psychology at Queen Mary University, understands some of the criticisms of the HR profession. Sometimes, it may be justified. He says problems arise when fads or weak ideas are spread without thinking.
“People make fun of HR and management because they're constantly being asked to do things, and five years later they're told to do the opposite, and then five years later they're asked to do the opposite again,” he says. “If you keep telling us to do things and none of them work, we'll start to think you don't know what you're doing. Which seems like a perfectly reasonable conclusion.”
HR failures are complex. Even apparently good ideas are often given too much weight, or may be adopted without adequate consideration of the context. For example, employee engagement seems like a reasonable goal, Brenner says. But is this meaningfully – and clearly – linked to “anything important to the company”?
Another risk is that useful concepts are not properly understood, even by HR professionals themselves. For example, recent research by consulting firm Behave asked HR managers what “psychological safety” meant. About 44% defined it as “an environment where employees feel safe and protected.” Another 22 percent believe it means employees “bring their whole selves to work.” Only 16 percent correctly identified it as “an environment in which employees balance comfort and discomfort in order to take well-calculated risks.”
So how can HR strengthen its deteriorating reputation? A good place to start is to focus on the most effective interventions that will be appreciated and noticed by the organization. “The question is: What is the business problem? What is the business issue? And what can HR do to help solve that problem?” says Brenner.
A report by the Corporate Research Forum on Evidence-Based HR provides more detail on how to move forward. The report warns against fads, or simply copying what others are doing, and calls for action based on data and multiple expert sources.
It has convincing examples. When French defense group Thales wanted to improve its employee retention, it found that its traditional approach – financial incentives – was not working. The Directors called on stakeholders, professional expertise and academics to create a new assessment tool to measure and develop intrinsic motivation. It worked.
When British transport group First Bus wanted to improve the appalling attrition rate of its bus drivers, it carefully studied internal survey evidence. The changes were made based on findings that drivers were feeling unappreciated and stressed. The company replaced the cumbersome performance management process with 20-minute follow-up conversations. It moved issues related to customer complaints away from executives, improving their relationship with drivers. Some basic changes have been made in the 'cleaner' – paint depots, new uniforms and toilets, free tea and coffee. Employee morale and turnover improved.
This may all sound as dangerous as common sense. But the continued bad talk about HR stems in part from a perception that its contribution to the workplace often lacks this kind of basic practicality. A new study published in the Journal of Industrial Relations finds that many well-being and flexibility initiatives at work — training or apps, for example — fail to make employees feel any healthier. What might work? Improving job design and work organization. But interventions rarely rely on multiple sources of good evidence.
When managers use ChatGPT to produce performance reviews, it's time for HR to wise up. But this is not all bad news for the profession. One of the fastest growing jobs in the UK, according to LinkedIn? Chief People's Officer.
