The Hats of HR- Part 3: the builder.
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We talk a lot about the different types of roles that HR plays in the organisation. In other sections, we talk about the negatives, the role of HR as arbitrator, as Judge, as employee champion against injustice, as disciplinarian. In this section, we get to talk about the good stuff- you have your good people in place, now how can we seize upon the opportunities to make them great?
Read here and here for the other hats of HR.
Read here for how growing a strong team can be a strategic advantage.
Knowing their history
One thing HR knows, that few people in the organisation know, is employee’s history prior to starting with the organisation. For other people within an organisation, an employee’s career starts and ends with their time within the organisation, but HR, due to its involvement in the recruitment process, has a full picture. This plays out of a few different ways.
Firstly, HR knows what skills and experience they had prior to commencement. They could have worked at a more senior level, may have worked with different products or services that the organisation is looking to diversify into.
Secondly, HR knows their plans and aspirations. Many people have a rough career plan, with interests in promotion, expanding their knowledge and getting into certain work. Someone don’t.
Bolters and Stayers
I tend to roughly categorise employees into two types:
Bolters are those looking to grow as quick and as fast as they can, because they believe (rightly or wrongly) that they are capable of higher level work.
Stayers are less keen, more comfortable continuing at the level.
A good workforce has a balance of both- too many of either results either too many leaving due to lack of opportunities, or not enough seeking to grow within the organisation.
Read here for how bolters can expect more money, here
HR as an opportunity connector
Ideally when opportunities for growth arise, they are advertised and interviewed for formally. This should be best practice at all times, and only deviated from where necessary, because (as discussed elsewhere) people don’t begrudge not getting an opportunity they apply for, but they do begrudge never getting the opportunity to apply.
In addition to pushing for formal internal advertising, HR can also act as a conduit for people’s prior skills, knowledge and career aspirations to be shared across managers. Often people in other areas of the business have an interest in diversifying into other areas, but only HR is aware of this, so it can be our role to bridge these gaps and build these connections.
Read here for how HR can be a talent hoarder.
HR as a career coach
Sometimes employees want to talk to you. Not often, but it does happen. Sometimes they want to know how to grow their career, both within the organisation or in general, and we are well placed to help them with this. Typically I will have a conversation like this every 3-4 months.
You do need to be a little careful of capture on this, to be cautious if whether they are asking for advice or ingratiating themselves to you. Because just as we want managers to promote employees based on merit not friendship, we need to be careful we don’t end up advocating someone just because we like them.
Read here for how to build your base.
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It’s easy to think of the tasks that HR performs for the organisation, but what’s the big picture? what does HR do? Understanding the part HR plays in the big picture of the organisational machine helps us understand why we what we do, so that we can see why it’s important to do, and how we could do it better.