Why managers can’t do what HR wants

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I only know a couple of HR jokes, none of which are publishable here.   There is a good HR joke out there, and I don’t know the set up, but I know the punchline- it’s the HR person saying ‘we are here to help’.  It might involve a comparison to the tax department.

HR has a reputation as a compliance department.  I talk about HR’s role as internal police elsewhere, and it’s not something we can (or should) shake off.  But we also can help, in fact need to be able to help if we are doing our jobs well.  I will talk about how to help, but first we need to really understand the managers we are trying to help.  Because most of your job is helping managers, and if you’ve not aligned your thinking to helping them, perhaps start here, because it’s very important.

The spinning plate metaphor

Perhaps the best metaphor for the complexity of management was metaphor that a Health and Safety Manager used in a teaching session.  He set up five plates spinning on sticks, and handed them to a manager and told her to keep them going.  The plates were labelled production, quality, people, H&S, and cost. He then stood to one side and gave her a running commentary on the H&S plate, scolding her when that plate wobbled. 

There are a number of ideas and lessons that could be extracted from the metaphor- tools, systems and delegation are some of the ideas that can be explored.  But for our purpose let put ourselves on the sideline, looking at the people plate. 

It’s easy to sit on a sideline of a manager and identify their errors, how it’s their job and why it’s their fault not yours when things wobble.  But we need to recognize both a) they have other tasks and responsibilities to juggle, and b) people aren’t going to be a high priority.  Yes people are important, but we will always lose to H&S and production (or service delivery- your metrics will vary), and often can fall below quality or cost.  Poor employee engagement can’t hurt customers as well as poor quality.

Remember you are on the sideline, providing commentary, but you are just one of 5 voices talking at that manager; Finance is watching their costs, their manager is watching their output, H&S is watching their safety, and the Quality team checking the quality of their product.  Don’t be surprised if you’re not heard or prioritized.

Someone has to make the sandwiches

A few years back, a friend of mine was promoted into the manager role of social services organisation- providing care to the community.  It was a very supportive organisation heavily focused on looking after its employees and that was very much her ethos too.  But after a year in the role, she came to a realization that every café owner knows- someone has to make the sandwiches, and if the sandwich maker can’t do it that day for whatever reason, someone else has to, or else there won’t be sandwiches to be sold.

The manager has to balance people needs with output requirements, within the budget.  It's easy for HR to advocate for the outcomes that will keep people happy, because HR doesn’t have to find someone else to make the sandwiches, and it’s not HR’s budget to manage. 

Here to help- How to be more than a compliance department

If you want to get an idea of how you fit into the picture, have a look at your peers- H&S, finance, operations and quality.  How do they treat the managers you all support?  Then remember that you’re area of specialization- people- is the most complex, but least urgent.  This means if you just take a compliance mindset (it’s your job, you do it and I’ll tell you if it’s right) you’re just another voice in their ear.  The more you can help, the more you’ll get done. 

To give examples of this- if recruitment was left to managers to screen candidates, organize interviews, and take references, it won’t happen, or it won’t happen well, and not because they don’t want to, but because time is scarce.  If you leave it managers to write their own disciplinary letters, problem behaviours won’t be addressed through proper processes.  

Obviously this does depend on relative resourcing between you and then, and you may be stretched thinner than them, but most of the time, if you want it managers to do things right, doing what you can for them (up to, but short of the actual decision), will go a long way to it actually happening.

So what should you do for them?

Give them:

• help, not just rules and constraints.

• Options, with pros and cons.

• Advice, not an audit.

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