3 Major Liabilities for HR (and a solution)

According to recent studies, 98% of HR practitioners are burned out. In the field, we know that HR professionals are supporting their leaders, managers, employees, candidates, teams, and (barely) themselves in the face of unprecedented talent shortages and overwhelming compliance complexities.?With not much relief in sight, what can we do??

I see three areas that are serious liabilities for the HR field. I also believe they are self-inflicted injuries which we can reverse with some effort.

1. Lack of ability to secure the necessary resources to adequately support the function (resulting in HR spreading themselves too thin)

2. Lack of accountability for leaders and managers with respect to leading and managing people (resulting in HR taking on surrogate leadership and management roles)

3. Lack of self-care in the form of clear boundaries, the assertive communication of those boundaries and the (discipline, clarity, chutzpah, confidence, support....fill in appropriate word) to say 'No' (resulting in physical, mental and emotional damage to HR professionals)

I have 25 years in the HR field and have led significant organizational transformations at the executive level as VP of HR/Talent/Culture. My education is in management, motivation, communication and change leadership. I have experienced severe burnout myself. I have seen people suffer serious mental and physical health problems in an effort to 'not let people down'.

The thing that irks me (okay, maybe more than irks) is that other functions don't operate this way. Sure, maybe during a big launch, Marketing gets a little burnt. Maybe during a big audit, Finance becomes more edgy than usual. But no other function operates with such heavy liability year round, year in and year out.

The good news is we can develop HR practitioner skill in these areas. We can address all three of these liabilities by taking a page from other (more influential?) functions. We can develop the field in ways that sets a clear path to COO and CEO roles. How?

• By having a clear vision of success that's aligned with organizational success
• By knowing how to secure the buy-in of decision makers to support what we need to do the job without killing ourselves
• By feeling more confident in our ability to set boundaries and communicate expectations while still building credibility
• By translating "HR" speak into business speak to inspire accountability

If you'd like to learn more about how to further develop your or your HR team's skills in these areas, join me for my FREE webinar Motivation & Influence Masterclass: How to Overcome Resistance and Achieve True Alignment being held May 18, 2022 at 1PM Eastern. Register to get access to both the live and on-demand replay. You deserve a little relief.