The line between what managers are responsible for and what HR is responsible for can often become blurred. This happens when managers don’t understand the role of HR vs. their management responsibilities or when HR takes over and takes on the role of hands-on management for others. This can lead to a toxic culture developing.
When managers don’t fully take on people management, issues remain unaddressed. They get bigger, people become more unhappy and it’s more costly (in time and money) to resolve.
The impact on the culture is huge: people who need support don’t get the right support early enough, leading to whole teams becoming demotivated and resentful. If bad behaviour isn’t challenged quickly enough, trust disappears. It doesn’t take long before your people disengage.
How does this happen?
Managers may expect HR to take on a lot more than it should, especially if the management elements of the role aren’t well defined or if they’ve not had enough management development training.
On the other hand, as HR Professionals we are usually good at dealing with interpersonal stuff. That’s what brings us into an HR role. We want to resolve problems quickly and it may seem easier to simply step in and sort it out ourselves.
Signs that HR is too involved in day-to-day people management
It may not be obvious that the root of the problems lie in roles and responsibilities. The big thing that senior leaders often notice first is high stress levels and high workloads.
It’s easy to assume that the stress or even the workload itself is the problem, but you need to find out what is causing an excessive workload or stress, otherwise no amount of effort and budget you invest will resolve the problem.
Here are some signs that your managers need to take a more active role in managing their people:
- A manager brings many small grievances against one individual to HR (“now they’ve done this, now they’ve done that”)
- Managers show favouritism (which often creates further problems within the team)
- HR managers are regularly pulled into things that could be dealt with in 121s
- When a manager reports a problem, they haven’t spoken to the individual first
- Employees are coming to HR with issues they should be raising with their manager
- The HR team isn’t getting time to focus on strategic work
How do we empower managers to take on more responsibility?
In every organisation I’ve ever worked with on this, I take a coaching approach.
What your managers need is coaching to take on the parts of the role they’re not picking up. It may seem quicker to step in and deal with difficult situations for them, but they really need to learn how to have those conversations. It takes a little longer at first, but you’re investing in their long-term development.
I also know, having been an HR manager myself, that sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Once you’re in a situation where you (and maybe your team) are being pulled into management tasks, especially when the whole organisation expects you to do this, stepping back seems impossible.
Bringing in an external consultant can give you that necessary breathing space. I work with Senior Leaders and HR to help them adopt a coaching approach and create the positive change the organisation really needs.
If you could do with a sounding board for finding a better solution, I can help – I’m always happy to talk. Call me on 07880 776756 or email me on jacqui@yourpeoplepotential.co.uk
