Over at the HRCapitalist blog, Kris Dunn asked the question, "Why Don't We Coach Employees More Than We Do?" This is a great question and to quote Dunn, "confrontation sucks."
Human Resources/
HR Laws & Admin
If you ask a number of people what is HR's number one priority or responsibility, you'll most likely get a number of different responses based on who is answering the question even if two of those asked are in the same position. People are egocentric by nature. They tend to view things from their own experiences and needs. Below are a few examples
In a previous post, I discussed some common misconceptions with illegal workplace behavior. With all the misconceptions that some behavior is illegal and with all the sexual harassment training that is provided, it should be easy to figure out that the following behavior is illegal:
“Hey, I got an HR question for you.” This is a statement I hear often. In most cases it either involves a scenario description followed by, “Is that legal?” In my experience, most of the scenarios I hear come from bad workplace conduct, behavior or policy and are not illegal. A recent blog post by Donna Bellman breaks down the top ten employment laws that you think exist that don’t.
With all the business change that has occurred over the past few years, there is no question that the HR Department would need to keep up. It is likely that in nearly every organization there has been an emphasis on analysis of what is working and not working in all areas of the business. The trouble for HR is that sometimes, it's hard to measure in true financial and business terms especially when the HR programs are working and things are going well in the organization. It seems that when the HR programs are working, someone else can always take the credit. But when HR is bad, it seems that it is easier for the organization to tie their failures to financial measures.
The above quote by Bersin is in response to a two year global study released by Bersin & Associates that examined HR effectiveness in organizations. The study further found that the effectiveness of HR has a significant impact on the performance of the organization. The old model of the HR as administrator is not effective and according to the study,
If you are an HR professional, you have most likely had a few tough conversations with employees. Early in my career, my supervisor would always call on the days when I had to have a particularly difficult conversation with an employee. He would always start the conversation with “tough day.”