How To Do Well in Employee Relations

I work in Employee Relations. It is the actual best job. Oh, you don't think so? You don't get meaning out of dealing with people problems? ... Yeah okay that's fair. LOL

If you're in HR, then ER is like Math Class - there are the nerds who think it's SO COOL and their protractors are worn out from use, and then there are the normal people who HAVE to do it and their protractors are spinning on their pencils.

Regardless of your attitude, success in ER has changed - it has evolved along with the HR function generally. Simply being a "firefighter" and terminating lots of people is not good enough anymore - you are expected to be as strategic, operational, and collaborative as evvvvvverybody else.

So allow me to give you a few pointers about how to do it well - whether you're the ER Nerd or in the fun, classy HRBP role ::raises pinky with tea cup:::

1.) Think of yourself as the "Guide" of the story, and NOT the Hero.

Mr. Miyagi. Yoda. Nick Fury. Hans from The Mighty Ducks. Gandalf. All were the wise "Guides" for their respective "Heroes". Could they have forced a solution if they wanted to? Sure. But they didn't, because that wasn't their role. If Hans had decided to coach the Ducks because Gordon Bombay was failing, then Gordon surely would have remained the bitter, unchanging lawyer he had become. No, Hans's role was to enable Gordon to teach the Ducks to fly! It was destiny!

So it is with ER in support of the business. The Business is the hero - you are not. You enable them to win... because it's their business. So, let go of your HR power trip - you are NOT an approval step! Teach your leaders, give them your insight, speak with authority, and give them principle-based advice... just like Mr. Miyagi. But at the end of the day, it's THEIR decision as to what they want to do. If you force them to do your will, yeah they might do it, but they'll do it begrudgingly and ineffectively... because they don't want to do it.

2.) Operationalize tough conversations.

The reason why most leaders don't want to engage in tough conversations with their team members is because they assume that the entire experience will be based in emotions, reality-TV style. And to be fair, there will be emotions, and it will be unpleasant. But good ER Pros know that emotions can become secondary to an effective, operationalized process, and then the experience becomes much less daunting for both sides.

"But people are not a process!" That is true, but people still respond better to order vs. chaos, and so your job is to make the ER transaction as orderly as possible. This is why I'm a big fan of templates for conversations, step-by-step guides to performance management, heavily scripted termination discussions, and writing out answers to anticipated pushback by the team member. I have no qualms with telling a manager to actually REVEAL that they are reading from a script, because they want to make sure that they get through all of the important information they have to share. This is not inhumane, it is actually MORE humane. It communicates to the hearer that their manager has been thoughtful intentional about their messaging.

Now, should the manager use their own style in their speech? Of course! This is the "human" part. But ER's role is to draw the "play pen" lines to ensure that the manager is confident and the process is made clear, and THEN enter the feelings into the equation.

3.) Ask 2-3 more questions than you think you need to.

There is no denying that a good ER Pro has good intuition - the ability to see what's "really going on" without someone telling you. We're really good at that. We're also really good at assuming that we know stuff and getting egotistical about it, which makes us look really stupid sometimes.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself - when you think you know what's going on, think of 2-3 more questions to ask to make sure you understand. Ask about a detail, more background, the manager's desire... anything. Be open-ended, such as, "Is there anything else you think I should know?" or, "What else could we be missing here?" or, "What else can you tell me about...?" You'll be shocked at how much you learn if you are intentional about additional inquiry. The hearer will appreciate your efforts to truly understand. And, if you were right all along... great!

4.) Be a positive member of your culture.

As it turns out, you are also a human being, and an employee of your company. This idea that ER folks need to be stuffy, robotic ghosts in an office somewhere is nonsense in my view. On the contrary, your effectiveness is only enhanced by your ability to be a real person and an active participant in your company's culture. For me, this means telling jokes, sharing actual interesting facts in the ice breakers (like my obsession with numbers divisible by 3), and being the "Literal Worst" (tm), i.e. trolling serious meetings with eye-rolling puns and dad jokes. Also, the occasional curse word.

Now, my things may not work for your culture - do what works for yours. Please do not interrupt a meeting about an upcoming training by asking "Can I include aliens in my slide?" if that will not be met well. Also, all of this advice applies to work-related things only - I generally recommend against being "friends" with coworkers outside of work. Finally, ensure that at the end of the day, you have no loyalties, because someday you may need to investigate or enable a termination for one of those folks.

Nevertheless, being "real" and putting your "ER Hat" aside shows your coworkers that you are NOT better than they are... you're in the struggle too. It will also put people at ease, which is so critical... because some day, those folks may call upon you to wear your "ER Hat" for them, and they'll want to know that they're speaking to someone who truly gets the employment experience.

5.) Become a data-driven function.

You are not special. Your headcount is not determined by "how swamped we are" nor how many "60-hour weeks" you've had. You want more resources, tools, and respect? Ask for it with the data to back it up.

This starts with good case management. In my opinion, a good ER case management system is the first investment you should make, as almost all of your critical metrics for your team will come out of that - number of cases, demographics of the employees you work with, time to complete a case, hours spent per case, etc.

For effective ER case management, I recommend HR Acuity. It is the best system out there as it is specifically designed for Employee Relations cases and all of the nuances within them. It has an excellent UI and reporting features, and the company provides great customer support. They even offer a free online community called "EmpowER" for ER professionals to connect and collaborate.

If you're not able to get a formal system, figure out a homegrown one, and showcase your case metrics as often as possible.

There are other metrics and data to utilize - attrition data, employee demographics, legal & compliance information... the list goes on. Showing that your wisdom is backed up by data and analytics is the key to team growth and helping leaders understand the criticality of the function.

Conclusion

Bottom line - if you want to be good in ER, then you're going to need to be more intentional than just showing up whenever there's a problem. Knowing your role (Guide, Not Hero), being operational and data-driven, intentionality in your quest to understand things, and being a real person are just a few of the ways to do it.

What am I missing?