Perceptions of HR

There is an excercise I like to facilitate with HR Leaders and their teams. I have delivered this exercise to audiences in both public and private sectors, in the UK and internationally, to group sizes ranging from 8 to 200, with graduates and Senior Leadership Teams, face to face and virtually - using Miro boards, and have consistently received the same results. Try it yourself........

On a flipchart or slide, have the following statement on display. 'When employees at (insert your company name) think of HR, what words or phrases do they use to describe it?' Give participants a number of post-it notes (or provide the link to the Miro board) and ask them to write down single words or short phrases, that they believe employees use to describe their experience of HR

How are you viewed by others?

Once all the post-its are on display and grouped into themes, clear patterns appear, these tend to be:

"The computer says no...!" "Administrative"

"The policy police" "Fluffy"

"Hire and fire" "Legal Advice"

"Bureaucratic - red tape" "Be careful what you say"

"Busy people" "This is HR's job"

Positive comments tend to group around:

"Helpful" "Supportive"

"Knowledgeable" "Fixers"

"Problem Solvers" "Experts in their field - HR"

Now here's the thing; rarely - if ever - do the post-it notes include:

"Enablers" "Strategic"

"Insightful" "Evidence-based"

"Thought-provoking" "Trusted-advisor"

"Business-savvy" 'Key stakeholder"

For me, the interesting aspect of this exercise, is that for the past 11 years the same themes appear, and it would seem that despite all the rhetoric around the role of HR in the changing place of work, the workplace and the workforce, HR's ability to present itself in an impactful and enabling manner has been limited. But why?

The responses on the post-it notes, are not true! They are merely a perception. Yet, when I ask HR Leaders and Practitioners: "What is it that you do so beautifully well to create and maintain these perceptions?" I am normally presented with blank faces, or the belief that HR is too busy to do the stuff they really want to do.

It is my belief, that is issue is on a number of levels. At its heart is a lack of capability around systems thinking at senior HR leadership levels, also this is not provided in most HRBP development offerings. When I worked for the CIPD, I used to regularly bring the phrase "People practices permeate" into conversations with HR Leaders. The point I was trying to get across was, due to the nature of businesses being 'people centric', an organisation's 'people practices' impact on all aspects of the business. From a HR perspective its leaders and business partners have to understand the scope of the impact of their people practices at the strategic, environmental, behavioral, capability and belief levels, across the workforce. In reality, HR still tends to operate from a 'silo' perspective and not fully understanding the interdependencies involved when driving 'people practices throughout the workplace and workforce.

People Practice Permeates

Secondly, too many HR functions are built on a 'stated' Ulrich model (the 3 legged stool - which is not actually an Ulrich model) developed from thinking from arround 30 years ago. Whilst, I am not saying HR Leaders should "throw the baby out with the bath water" there is a serious need to examine HR structures based on the requirements of the organisation, aligned to the digital transformation strategies being adopted.

In the UK, HR is very much under the spotlight from certain parts of the media - both mainstream and social - and whilst I disagree with much of the sentiments towards HR, by publications such as the Telegraph newspaper, there is a need for the function, its leaders and practitioners to examine their part in creating and maintaining the negative perceptions that have built up.

Adam Stanbury Director for Employer Solutions at CIPD, states that the time of HR being perceived as the 'gifted amateur' is over and we are now entering a time where HR leaders and practitioners must build their capability, their credibility and form communities of good-practice, shifting the focus from being perceived as transactional and reactive, towards being strategic and enabling.

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