In Defense of HR

Before anything else let me start by saying that you won't "hear me" moan about the term "HR" here. We don't need me to repeat it, obviously referring to humans as "resources" is insanely bad but here we are and the polemics on the term won't move us further and movement is what we all so desperately need, so we need to pick our battles and ignore that bit for now.

HR has one of the absolute toughest jobs there is. Few departments of any enterprise have had to live through more upheaval while being entrusted with bigger a job than Human Resources. While over my career I have often been super critical of us collectively when it comes to the job we have done in the realm of HR namely around helping people feel respected, seen and heard, valued and happy at work, the blame for our present status quo lies squarely with the ever-changing demands of the world of work, in particular when it comes to technology.?

We haven’t exactly collectively done well and there’s a lot of HumanDebt? (the equivalent of tech debt for humans - all of the programs, intentions, initiatives and new changes that have been implemented to better the lives of employees but have either not succeeded or not have been completed and their lack of completion adds to the overall value of the debt we have towards our employees) and that’s undeniable but what isn’t under question is the good intentions behind everything.

Whether we have delivered on that D&I initiative or not, whether we have brushed tension or toxicity under the carpet, whether we have remained silent when we should have said something or covered a mistake, whatever we may be guilty of, we are certainly not guilty of having intentionally not delivered on anything because if there’s one thing that’s absolutely true or each and every HR professional is that their heart is in the right place. Whether new “woke HR” or old school and overwhelmed, everyone genuinely wishes for the absolute best for their colleagues and works pretty tirelessly to make it happen so when it doesn’t, when it falls by the wayside or even goes wrong, it is not only demoralising but absolutely never the intention.??

It is this heart being invested in their colleagues that makes HumanDebt even harder to take for the HR professional. Most times they aren’t even the architects of any of that debt and it is all legacy from previous colleagues and teams and their previous good intentions, they are often parachuted inside existing active fires which are typically process, regulation, admin of hiring and firing connected,?or, worst still, in organisations who have non-active volcanoes worth of secret fires of discontent and toxicity gaining momentum beneath the surface such as burnout and active disengagement and they have to not only fly the plane but change its engine midair as well. And the engine needs a genuine swap. For the older model to be yanked out, the new ones to be fitted and then the switch to be made and the old one to be disposed of. It’s not a switch most feel empowered to do at all and even if they introduce the new one they’ll keep the old engine running “just to be sure” and that doesn’t work, it takes way too much power and expenditure to superfluously keep both running.

In this metaphor, the engines that need replacement midair are chiefly those connected to the ways of work and how, the new engine that runs on creating a focus on outcomes, flexibility, intelligent choices about work and a greater focus on human nature, behaviours and emotions is only going to work if we genuinely replace and throw out the old command and control engine that ran on mistrust and lack of empathy.?

In other words, post-pandemic, as if HR did not have enough on their plate, their greatest challenge has yet materialised. The need and nature of remote work and the questions it ought to throw for organisations who want to get the new world of work right should result in some deep, important, long overdue debates.

Simply diving into a new HR policy around how this new type of office interaction will look like and putting new rules and regulations in place for the sake of having appeared to have moved the needle would be bankrupt and of no real value and yet some places have done just that. It has happened often in the absence of dialogue and debate and those policies will never stand the test of time or do anything to avoid stocking the other brewing fires of discontent.?

Many HR professionals were all but pushed into creating those policies when they knew in those amazing hearts of theirs that there’s a bigger task - that of remaining open to explore and discuss these very important topics still to be done. That there should have been ample opportunity for all to have expressed everything they felt they needed to about their lives, their work/life balance, for them to explore what type of interactions, time and space do they have and what is it that they need for solitary, attentive, individual work as compared to the group, creative, innovative work. One is characterised by a need for greater focus and solitude, the other by the need for incessant communication, ideas and emotions flowing freely and whether the two types need physicality at all or not.?

They also know that this would have been the natural and needed opportunity to further examine individual, team and company level purpose and impact and re-explore what truly matters to people. The “why” that has such magical qualities to carry us all through moments of difficulty, doubt or lack of emotional investment – the reason why we do it all, not only the company level one but the individual, personal one, the one we connect with the most to get us through the hard times, that can never be spoken about too much, in particular not after the immense trauma we all just traversed and that opportunity should not have been lost.?

Finally, they know that if instead of this exploration they have jumped right into some artificially mandated policy or, -worst still- are part of one of the tone-deaf companies that are jeopardising their future in business by insisting all return to their pre-pandemic desks-, it will not end well. That adding this much more to the body of the HumanDebt may well eventually prove fatal.?

We can’t afford to dither, to take our eye off the ball or not land these incidental pandemic wins. Not landing them would only take being nonchalant about the magnitude of the change in the workplace or callous about the delivery of the human message which is finally seen as the most important element that it has always been.?

HR is genuinely the last bastion to help preserve this new start we are just about to firmly and forever have in place in the workplace where flexibility, focus on outcomes, an obsession with the team, its wellbeing and the human work that needs to happen are finally becoming more important than ever. We need HR to be the guardians of this flexibility and of this focus on humanity. To allow work to land where it is comfortable and gleefully being done by our people who feel valued and seen. Let them be their best and give people the tools they need to do some of the human work themselves and the freedom and empowerment to do it in order to watch them soar and over-perform.??

?If HR is where the heart is, HR has to be where flexibility and humanity are being guarded and nourished without fail. We all need it.

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“Nothing other than sustained, habitual, EQed people work at the team level aka “the human work” done BY THE TEAM will improve any organisation’s level of Psychological Safety and therefore drop their levels of HumanDebt?.”

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