I have heard this too many times: "Here comes HR. Something bad is about to happen."
Simply put, HR walks into workspaces and people worry about their jobs. In an effort to gain respect for our profession, I wonder if we've allowed ourselves to assume a role that is absolutely wrong for what we really want to achieve — trust.
Termination of an employee is a significant risk to the organization, even if all the proper steps are taken and the conversation is honest and accurate. HR is charged with managing the risk and, by golly, if we’re going to assume the risk, we are going to manage it. After all, it is our opportunity to grab a little power in the organization.
The performance and disciplinary process in organizations is cumbersome. If leaders were proactive about setting performance expectations, giving regular and clear feedback, and providing ample warning when the end is near, they would own the process and HR could go back to being a trusted advisor to leadership.
Do we in HR really want to allow ourselves to jeopardize the very trust we are trying to gain by micro-managing leaders in the performance and discipline process?
Many HR professionals have already turned this role back to managers. Some develop management skills, while others trust their managers to carry out disciplinary meetings without HR. Some still point the terminated employees back to HR to collect their ID, keys, cards, and get all of the appropriate forms signed.
But here is the challenge in that — at least from my perspective. HR should be trusted by leaders and by employees. By putting them in the position of being associated with terminating employees, we damage their reputation and put trust at risk.
Is there a better way? I have a couple thoughts:
- HR should actively coach leaders in how to discuss performance and termination with their employees. When I say actively coach, I mean role play and pretend to be the employee and allow the manager to practice to the point where both have confidence that the manager will communicate clearly and not put the organization at risk.
- If there is a difficult situation anticipated, have the next level manager participate rather than HR. This gives the next level manager insight into how the manager communicates and manages the organizational risk. It also keeps HR out of the "evil HR" role.
- Provide a checklist to the manager for terminated employees, so that they collect the employee's ID, keys and completed forms.
Allowing HR to distance themselves from the actual employee meetings may help in preserving a reputation of trust. Visiting business units for positive reasons is also a great way to avoid being seen as "the terminator."
Those are my thoughts. I would love to hear yours.
관련 리소스
더 많은 정보를 원하시나요? 제품, 고객 사례 및 최신 산업에 대한 인사이트에 대해 더 알아보십시오.
데이터시트
고객 및 파트너와의 탄탄한 관계 구축
업무 환경이 빠르게 변화하는 현실에서 귀사는 역동적이고 적응력이 뛰어나야 합니다. 중요한 외부 이해 당사자와 탄탄한 관계를 형성하려면 전보다 훨씬 조직적으로 요구에 부응할 수 있어야 합니다. 유연성과 고유함을 갖춰 귀사의 비즈니스에 맞게 구축이 가능한 Cornerstone Extended Enterprise 는 귀사의 성장에 맞게 확장할 수 있으며, 외부 고객에게 충분한 정보를 제공하여 최신 오퍼링을 채택할 확률을 높여드립니다.
