Do you think that you can recruit and retain the best talent by simply paying them more?
Do you think having a less restrictive approach to hiring and firing would fill vacancies quicker and get rid of bad appointments faster and generally be less distracting to operations ?
Do you think employees should leave their personal problems at the factory gates ?
Do you think employers who talk of the mental well-being of employees are just setting themselves up to be taken advantage of ?
Do you think the needs of the business take priority over the preferences of employees
as in hybrid working, four day weeks or work life balance?
If there are those in the organisation who would answer yes to all or some of these questions then they no doubt would consider HR a support service not a strategic function and would not be too concerned if it was outsourced. As long as they got the support they wanted. HR is commonly misunderstood and all too often undervalued.
Too some extent this is our fault for underselling ourselves in are eagerness to say we are here to help. Whilst we are increasingly at the top table in recognition that we do have a strategic function we do not have the same gravitas as finance or legal in the eyes of our operational colleagues.
The challenge is to demonstrate HR’s value to the organisation in balancing emotional intelligence with commercial acumen. To get the message across that
HR is not there to just to “fix” employee problems or enforce rules. It is a function that directly impacts business outcomes—retention, engagement, performance, and culture. Too often HR advice is dismissed in favour of short-term business decisions. Organisations that thrive are those that listen to their people professionals and act on their insights.
