HR as a utility player - helpful or harmful?

I'm always amazed at how many HR professionals are still viewed as the default by their business leaders to plan company parties and other events that they put into the employee engagement/morale category.  And I'm even more shocked at how many HR leaders actually take it on.

Now, I understand in small businesses and start-ups we all need to be flexible and often wear many hats, but let's be clear about what happens when HR starts to play such a utility role in the organization:  It diminishes our value and affects our peers' perceptions of us and the important role we play in HR.

Whenever we're asked to perform duties outside of our HR responsibilities, we must tread carefully.  I know it's tempting to be a team player and jump right in, but it's also important to recognize the longer-term effects of our actions. When HR plays this ‘utility’ role, we become more of a task-taker and not sought out for our valuable perspectives on critical employee and business strategy.

So you might be wondering, if it’s not HR, who is responsible for employee engagement and morale?  I’m so glad you asked!  The short answer is it’s primarily the direct manager who is responsible for ensuring their employees are engaged and morale is at an acceptable level.  Often HR is cited as being responsible, but we’re actually key partners in the process, educating and preparing managers for this incredibly important aspect of their role.  We understand best practices, can help generate ideas, identify hot spots, etc., but at the end of the day the responsibility lies squarely with the employee’s direct manager to take action.  This is why being in management is so hard!

Now, if you, as the manager, determine a team-building event or a fun/social off-site is a good way to engage your team, that’s awesome!  Depending on the size of your organization, you can either lean on your executive/administrative assistant, office manager, and/or members of your own team to design and coordinate such an event. In my experience, the best events are put together by a small committee of employees on the direct team where the workload can be distributed across several people, while allowing for strong representation of what the employees really want.

HR is better positioned to help leaders with meeting facilitation or providing input to developing an off-site agenda that helps you achieve your desired outcomes.

Now, if you are an HR leader that finds yourself often asked to play the role of party-planner or take on other tasks outside of the scope of your role, what do you do?

Don’t make assumptions and seek to educate.  Often, business leaders don’t really understand what else HR has on our plates or where we can bring the most value, unless they experience it first-hand. Don’t assume that leaders have experienced a strong functioning HR leader or team before, as many have not.  Take the time to give them concrete examples of where you can add the most value and share more appropriate resources where they might be able to find the support they’re looking for.

Find opportunities to showcase your value. This often comes up in the type and level of conversation you engage in with leaders. If you employ a more consultative-approach in your conversations with leaders will realize that you’re a great sounding board and source of information, rather than someone who they can assign tasks to (that often belong squarely in their organization).

What do I mean by “consultative approach”? Often you’re asking questions to seek to fully understand their concern or desired outcome before offering ideas, advice or, better yet, helping them to discover their next best step. It’s this ideation versus the implementation where your true value lies.  The more often they experience this in conversation with you, the more you will be sought-after for it and they will feel more confident moving forward. 

Be direct.  If you sense the conversation going in the direction of you getting assigned a slew of action items that are more relevant for the business leaders to complete, the best approach is to be direct about your role and what you will and won’t take on. I like to redirect to where the work truly belongs.  Sometimes this can be awkward because the person who really needs to be doing the work is the person across the table from you.

You can politely remind the leader about the role they play and why he/she is in the best position to complete the work. You can offer to support them if they’re concerned about their own readiness or capability, but be careful to clearly articulate ownership.  Utilizing a RACI chart on larger projects can really help to clarify roles and responsibilities.

Responsible: person who performs an activity or does the work.

Accountable: person who is ultimately accountable and has Yes/No/Veto.

Consulted: person that needs to provide input/feedback and contribute to the activity.

Informed: person that needs to know of the decision or action.

 At the end of the day, HR is a support function and we shouldn’t confuse it with managing other leaders’ teams for them.  DO NOT let them abdicate their role to you for all the things they’d rather not deal with.

I think you’ll find that the more consistent you are in your approach and push back appropriately, you’ll be more respected for the consultative role you play and you’ll find that you’re doing more of the work you love.

Do you struggle with articulating your role and the value you provide with business leaders in your organization?

I’m here to help HR leaders like you thrive at work and at home.  Let’s connect.