Stay In Your Lane, HR!

If you’re in HR, you may have heard someone say this to you in your career- “Stay in your lane, HR.” If you’ve been fortunate enough to never have it said to you, I’m sure you known someone who wanted to say it to you. It’s unfortunately common: for non-HR professionals to think that the HR function gets too involved in matters that don’t pertain to them.

As the HR function has evolved over the years, the scope of the people department has evolved as well. HR is no longer the administration department in the corner policing who does and doesn’t get fired and processing payroll. They are a strategic, people-centric arm of the business that makes sure the best assets of the company, the people, are functioning on all cylinders.

So, what does this mean? This equates to HR showing up in spaces they may never have before. 

Let’s look at a hypothetical example.  To survive, COMPANY X knows it needs to strengthen its online presence rapidly. 

Old School HR- Tell us who is getting hired and we will process the paperwork.

Modern Day HR- HR leaders work with operations leaders to understand what skill sets are needed to be successful in this space.  Do we have that skill set on our existing team?  What does the external market look like for talent of this caliber? How do we attract the best talent for this work? What does the compliance landscape look like for tech and online employment?  Do our existing compensation programs support attracting such talent? What development do we have to provide leaders of this function to best lead this unique talent base?  What change management needs to happen within the organization to make sure we adopt it as quickly as possible? And this is only scratching the surface.

Looks different, doesn’t it?

Modern day HR helps provide people solutions to business problems. I like to say that HR acts as a ‘People Solutions Architect.’ They analyze problems and create plans and solutions that focus on the talent to overcome said problems.

When we use this lens to look at HR, we realize that ALL lanes are open to HR: the new product line, the financials of the company, the new policy being adopted, trouble with the sales team not meeting their goals, and so on... There are very few things that don't touch the people-world.

I was having a conversation with a colleague the other day and we were talking about this very concept of being told to 'stay in our lanes.' 

Her response was incredible: “In HR, it’s my freeway.” 

Such a powerful way to describe where HR should be and where it’s headed.

However, there is a caution to other HR pros who adopt this mentality. While it is the absolute best way to look at the function of HR, if executed poorly it has the potential to ruin the credibility of the department and make adopting the concept even more difficult. If you are going to be in lanes you don’t usually venture into, make sure you have an effective voice and are ready to roll up your sleeves with the others.

As A.I. increases in companies, and traditional HR transactions can easily be automated, I encourage HR professionals to venture into this ‘modern day HR’ space quickly.

*puts turn signal on*