Dispel the Myth “HR only takes care of the company”
4 minute read
I often hear people say, “Well you know, HR is only there to protect the company.” And to me, this is like hearing nails on a chalkboard. But I know this is a common perception. I have heard it directly from HR professionals, from friends in other professions, on television, even from my own family. However, I call BS, and here’s why:
If HR takes care of the employees, it doesn’t need to protect the company.
As an HR professional, I am truly in my profession to help foster the best environment for employees to be their authentic selves at work, to be challenged, to learn and grow, and to produce their best work. I believe an HR department that creates this culture is really looking out for the company they work for, because research has shown that supported employees produce the best work.
According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, positive work cultures are more productive than negative ones. They point to three reasons this is the case:
Stress costs employers more in health insurance costs.
Negative work cultures cause disengagement, which leads to less productivity, absenteeism, workers comp claims, and more things which are all costly for employers.
Negative work cultures lead to higher turnover, which can cost at least 20% of an employees salary in terms of rehiring and training.
One specific example in the article are studies by the Queens School of Business and by the Gallup Organization that state that “disengaged workers had 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents, and 60% more errors and defects. In organizations with low employee engagement scores, they experienced 18% lower productivity, 16% lower profitability, 37% lower job growth, and 65% lower share price over time.” In addition, businesses with highly engaged employees received 100% more job applications.
As an HR Department then the question becomes, how do we fix a disengaged, negative work culture?
Survey your employees: there are so many ways to do this, but I recommend you use a combination of a robust engagement survey, frequent pulse surveys, and stay interviews.
Challenge your leaders: if HR isn’t challenging their leadership to support and protect their employees — arguably the company’s greatest assets — I would say, they aren’t doing their job.
Follow through: this is an important one that often gets missed. If I have a stay interview with an employee who was disengaged, my favorite thing to ask them is, “In a perfect world, if you could have any solution, what would it be?” You’d be surprised how often the employee has a great idea. However, sometimes even when that idea is presented to their manager, it doesn’t get implemented. As HR we need to follow-up and ensure we continue to support those employees who are really struggling.
I believe Human Resources can and should be a resource for reinventing what it means to develop a workplace culture. So to all my HR friends out there, let’s go change the way we work and change the world.
