THE HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT
THE HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT (BETTER KNOWN AS HR) can be one of your biggest allies when you are beginning your management career. The department can help you out in many of the areas that new managers are not familiar with, including hiring, coaching, training and development, employee assistance programs, benefits, wage and salary administration, discipline procedures, promotions, performance appraisals, dealing with difficult bosses, termination, and all the legalities involved in managing. It is a good idea for you to familiarize yourself with what your HR department or HR person can do for you. For your own success and the success of your team, you need to build a good working relationship with HR.
A MANAGER’S INVOLVEMENT IN HIRING
How much you will interact with HR when hiring depends on how much latitude you’re allowed in the selection process. In many companies, HR does the initial screening of prospective employees, but the final decision is left to the appropriate manager. The overall selection process is strengthened if the final choice is made at the departmental or operating level. If a manager had nothing to say about the person who was hired and is unhappy with the choice, the new employee is the victim of a difficult situation not of her creation. Fortunately, most companies allow the operating department to make the final selection from three to five qualified candidates.
Sometimes, their own bosses exclude first-time managers from the hiring process. While this exclusion may be well intentioned, it is a serious mistake. As we will address, hiring is one the most important responsibilities of a manager. The sooner a new manager can start to develop their hiring skills the better. The experienced manager should, at a very minimum, include the new manager in the process. And with some seasoning, he should allow that manager to select the people for whom she will be held accountable.
Managers have a far greater commitment to the success of selections they’ve made than they do to those who were selected for them and then assigned. The manager should not be able to think, “I never would have hired this dud.” There will be a temptation to think in those terms when the manager has been cut out of the process.
Although people working in HR consider themselves experts on selecting employees, it doesn’t matter who they think is the best qualified if the person is someone you don’t want. How you react to the recommendations of HR people is important. You must take their recommendations seriously. This assumes that through talks with you they fully understand what the job requires. If they don’t, it’s because you haven’t given them the information they need. They can’t be experts on every job in the company, even with access to all the job descriptions. You’re the expert on the jobs in your area of responsibility, and you ought to know what is required.
PROMOTION AND OTHER EMPLOYEE MATTERS
You’ll also become involved with the HR department in promotions. There will be a natural inclination to promote people from within your organization, for good reason. You are most familiar with them and their performances and they are most familiar with your operation.
When you need to look to other areas of the company for the staff you need, the people in HR will be in a position to help you. For example, they can show you the original data collected when the person was hired and most information acquired since. In most cases, they’ll consult with the department that employs the person you want to promote and get important information you might not have gotten on your own. Also, in some companies, the HR department administers employee benefit programs, so you might be going to HR on behalf of direct reports who are having difficulties with some aspect of the program.
If you haven’t managed people before, HR can be a strong resource for you. You can usually go there for advice and counsel on supervisory problems you have not encountered before. The HR department is also the usual repository for books and articles on the management of people.
In many companies, the HR department oversees the training program. It will serve you well to quickly get familiar with training options for both you and your people. Quality training can be a great advantage but only if you are aware of the options.
Since HR serves the entire company, you can often talk with someone there about “people problems” that you might be reluctant to discuss with your own superior. So, you can look to HR for assistance not only in selecting people but also in training and managing them.
As a resource for your own career development, the HR department can suggest courses and programs you can take to improve your managerial and technical skills. HR can also be consulted about promotional opportunities, and can help develop action plans with you for how you can achieve those promotions. Keep in mind that just as HR helps you identify candidates for promotions, it also does the same for other managers who may be interested in you.
Many organizations use the HR department as a place where employees can go with any problems they don’t wish to discuss with their own bosses. This can be a valuable service both to the employees and to the company. Hopefully, your HR department has been properly trained and educated in its function.
If at times you sense your HR department is not serving you well you will need to be cautious, diplomatic, and thorough. If you need to take issue with them tread lightly and make sure you have your facts straight. They will not like the suggestion that they are not doing an excellent job. You will need to have a well-prepared and tight case if you want to challenge them. By all means approach them with a collaborative as opposed to a confrontational tone.
If that approach does not work you will have to make a thoughtful assessment about the value of confronting them directly or escalating the issue. Be cautious and certain that the tension you will be creating is worth it to you in the long run. They can make your life difficult if they choose.
In short, HR will be able to assist you in your overall management job and with your personal agenda as well. To be highly regarded by a competent HR department is a great asset, so don’t be a stranger to that part of your organization.