You often hear: HR is easy work. For certain personality types, it can be so glamorous that they start to abuse their position. These are some of the many very common stereotypes you may encounter as an HR professional. However, with the right tools and strategies, you can overcome these stereotypes in the perception of your department and convince your colleagues that your main goal is to take care of the needs of the people in your organization and strive for collective success.
Why are there so many negative stereotypes in the perception of HR departments?
As with all other stereotypes, those about HR are based on negative personal observations. The bad experiences people have with HR often shape their negative attitudes. Here are some examples of what these negative stereotypes can look like:
HR is a corporate dragon
HR professionals have a dual role: to protect the organization from employee problems and to protect employees from unhealthy, unsafe and unpleasant experiences on the job. Ideally, these two mandates overlap at the point at which protecting employees strengthens the organization itself.
However, if the protection of the organisation comes to the fore, some employees will start to see the company negatively and their main opponent in this struggle will naturally be the HR department. If the situation escalates into a heated argument, it is usually seen by employees as a fight between ordinary and reasonable workers and heartless HR managers.
The HR people are incompetent
There are a number of anecdotes on the subject: 'Why would someone with real talent want to waste their career in HR when they can become an expert on government rules and regulations or be a coach or senior manager.' Many people see HR as a place where it's simply not possible to excel. Another typical stereotype is the perception of HR people as technically backward: "Dealing with HR people is like dealing with cave dwellers."
These stereotypes grow mainly out of the bureaucratic processes with which some HR departments are burdened. However, this is now a thing of the past; today, most organisations recognise HR as an important strategic partner with a major impact on employee performance and satisfaction.
HR managers are incompetent or dry
Are you familiar with the British sitcom "The Office", which chronicles events in the office of a paper company? The boss is an incompetent joker and around him revolve lazy or inefficient employees. One of these minor characters is the HR manager Jim, a serious drought, who always does what his boss tells him to do in the end. This is another typical role that employees often attribute to HR managers.
How to overcome stereotypes?
Negative stereotypes affect the perception of HR department performance whether they are true or not. If you, as an HR professional, want to get management and employees on your side, focus more on helping them understand the benefits of good HR, don't cling so much to the rules.
Emphasize company values, not regulations
An HR manager may be able to list a hundred reasons why a particular action is dangerous from a compliance perspective, but employees may still doubt his words. At this point, it's important to get the company's values, vision and mission statement right. This will help HR managers in building a positive compliance culture.
Collaborate with managers
Most employees rarely communicate with the HR department, but they meet with their managers and supervisors on a daily basis. The HR department can systematically guide the organization of their communication and help create a good culture within the company. But it is up to the managers and employees themselves to actively build this culture. Developing clear and consistent communication between the HR department and managers helps ensure that employees in your company have the correct information communicated in the right way and in a timely manner.
Use the right tools
Modern technology will help the HR department ensure that employees see HR as a capable, competent department that contributes positively to the company's goals. Technology solutions include moving formerly paper-based work online, as well as making it easier to manage vacation and time off, offer e-learning training, or communicate more quickly and flexibly within the company through shared calendars. Try HR software in your company that can automate all these activities and become the natural right hand of every HR manager.
Pinya HR is the software that helps you overcome stereotypes and make your HR department a strategic partner to all employees.
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