Experts agree HR roles are more difficult than ever before

Coming through the pandemic, it is no surprise that HR professionals felt increased pressure as they navigated through uneasy times.

HR Leader’s “How HR can lead during economic uncertainty” webcast, in partnership with HiBob, discussed how added pressure had been thrust upon HR departments in recent years and how businesses can support flustered employees.

Merideth Crowe, interim senior vice-president for global people and culture at Telix Pharmaceuticals, commented: “HR professionals, people and culture professionals, we are experiencing the market as well as trying to lead the business and lead our people through the market as well.”

“I’ll go back to that age-old quote we all have now, which is ‘put your own oxygen mask on first’. Have your people, have your rituals, have your own health and wellbeing at the front. You can’t pour from an empty cup.”

With this added worry, Ms Crowe said it’s important for leaders to support their HR staff.

“I think the other thing that we underappreciate sometimes as [people and culture] people is actually having a safe space and having a network for us, because I sort of feel like it’s very rare that our emotional needs or state is the most important in any given room,” she explained.

“If you’re having a difficult conversation or you’re in a difficult situation, you’ve got a people leader with you and you’ve got an employee with you, how that employee feels in that moment is going to be the most important.”

“The second-most important is how the manager feels and their experience and you going to debrief with them afterwards, your needs and your response to that situation very rarely gets any airtime outside of possibly your direct manager … having your network and your support network around you, I think it’s really important.”

Ms Crowe said that by creating a work environment where people feel comfortable to open up and express themselves, some of the stress brought about by increased pressure would be alleviated.

“Talking about those measures and actually understanding the workforce, it’s such a moving target. We used to say, ‘leave your personal life at home.’ Can you imagine saying to people, ‘oh no, you’re not allowed to talk about things that are going on at home in the workplace’,” she said.

Ms Crowe continued: “The expectations on HR and on managers and on the people leadership and the people engagement that employees expect from the workplace is so high. And keeping across all of those different needs and designing solutions and being proactive about being out in front of those needs is an ever-growing remit that we’ve been given as professionals ... It gives us huge power or satisfaction and engagement with people and that kind of ability to shepherd people through their experiences in the workplace is a real privilege …”

HiBob’s regional senior vice-president Damien Andreasen agreed that companies that encourage staff to “bring their whole selves to work” create a healthy environment. But it also adds pressure to HR departments, which is why more support may be necessary.

“All of a sudden you’re solving more social issues in businesses than traditionally we ever have had to. We need to account for and consider this, and we need to start understanding how to shape policy around it,” he said.

“There is a time and a place for policy and process, but also being able to check in with the individual and address each of those so they can also be productive and happy in their workplace. That’s an ever-increasing workload for HR professionals to tackle.”

One way to provide this needed support is to include HR in leadership decisions. With employee wellbeing being one of the most important factors in performance, organisations could benefit by including HR in strategy conversations.

“[HR teams need to have] a seat at the strategic table to steer the direction, and more and more businesses now realise that happy, productive employees mean higher attention, higher productivity, greater output, and ultimately easier to reach your goals for the business,” Mr Andreasen explained.

This webcast, in partnership with HiBob, when quoted above, was slightly edited for publishing purposes. The full audio conversation on 28 February can be found here.

Jack Campbell

Jack is the editor at HR Leader.