Interesting read. I never thought about these issues from an HR perspective.
In my experience of working in the corporate world, I had unfortunately found HR to bend to the wishes to senior management. I could understand they did so, for the reasons you mentioned. But this also meant that whether people speak up or not, or register their grievances was up to the personality of the top manager in one’s team. Not so much the work culture HR was supposed to build.
What is unfortunate is that in this confusion about where responsibility really lies, I have seen issues being deflected. Like when I raised concerns about a promotion I thought I deserved but didn’t get - my manager said his hands are tied because of HR’s policies, and the HR said they go by the manager’s feedback. Eventually I ended up leaving the company because my ego was hurt. 😅
The thing is, no matter how important we HR people want to pretend that we are, or to act as if we have all the power in the system, HR is only reflection of said system. Leadership is the one that gives or takes our freedom in acting. Sometimes they let us have it our way, many times they don’t. And we are the same people, same arguments are put on the table, but the players in different situations are different, and the players are what matters. We do not have power, especially not when people expect from us to fight battles without support from the other colleagues. Imagine how different your story would have been if your claim was supported by peers. But we never do that don’t we. That was your fight, not of the others that see everything but decide to remain quiet. Strength sometimes comes with numbers. And when the concern is raised by many different voices, leadership losses their reign. At least it’s what happened in the rare occasions when people actually spoke up, together. Everything is not doom and gloom, but many times I felt personally the injustice made on others yet my power to do anything was taken away by the same people :)
That can be a very conflicting situation to be in, I’m sorry. Thank you for sharing the human side of HR. It has widened my perspective.
As for peers, I couldn’t imagine them speaking up for me. Because even though we were ‘friends’, it was after all a competitive space. The company followed a bell curve policy. So only so many people could be promoted in a band, even if they all did different work. Unless you meant peers from other teams, people that one works with but are not reporting to the same manager. That might work!
Fact is every company is different in its own way. In your case peers might not be suitable to report anything. Yet I have seen departments where no such environment as yours was created and again people remained silent, just not to upset their boss. It’s a complex topic nevertheless and varies in different situations. Worry not though, some of us HR people do care for colleagues and do fight, no matter their own personal safety :)
Such a frustrating situation. What’s interesting to me is that the manager can directly blame HR for you not getting a promotion, whereas HR needs to be more vague about why it didn’t happen. When in reality, I can pretty much guarantee that it was your manager’s decision and they were too much of a coward to own it. I have never, ever seen an organization give HR the kind of power to directly decide on things like promotions. Build frameworks? Process? Provide guidance based on data? Yes. But the final decision doesn’t lie with HR. If it did, well, HR would be the most powerful entity in the organizational hierarchy, and would certainly get paid a hell of a lot more 😂
Exactly. The marriage allegory fits because HR is expected to hold things together and absorb the blame when they don’t. But no relationship survives on one person’s courage alone. HR can create process and structure, not honesty or shared responsibility. When others stay silent, that silence becomes part of the system, and HR is left managing the consequences. Thank you for engaging :)
It is a fascinating and oft-overlooked (or worse: diminished) division. I have inhabited the corporate world since 1991, when HR was generally referred to as Personnel, and it was still fairly common to smoke and drink in your office. For the next ten years, until approximately (sadly) 9/11, HR was a constant victim of cost-cutting and "shaving" because the division did not generate revenue.
Since that time there has been a growing correlation between strong HR engagement and productivity among revenue-producing divisions and creative output. That correlation is vastly more complex than "Happy/Supported Employee makes the company more efficient and profit-sustainable".
Human Resources are advancing into actual revenue power and calculation. I noted a qualified assessment of +12% revenue advantage directly attributed to Human Resource engagement in 2018.
When you touch double-digit impact, you have power. And you're in the room.
I admit I blamed HR many times, at least in my own head, and thought “Why did HR hire this toxic person?” But his behavior wasn’t the kind of behavior HR could have picked up during the hiring process. Still, it’s almost an unconscious habit to blame HR for everything. Sad but true.
That is another thing where we have very little power. In most of the cases final hiring decision is made by the hiring manager who is also present at the interview. I accept HR responsibility in providing quality profiling of the candidates. But again, hiring managers are just not interested in our opinion :)
At the level of a democratic society, this problem is addressed (with varying success) through the separation of powers. When the judiciary is independent from the executive branch, at least.
In companies, this is impossible. Strong labor unions can partially address the problem (one of the reasons I love Finland), but even that usually comes as a last stage, when nothing has been resolved internally.
So is this actually solvable at the organizational level? What would need to happen structurally, I guess, for the culture in an organization to change?
For people to start caring for other people :) Utopia, I know :) in my experience the worst situations happened whenever there were plenty of witnesses but they refused to speak from fear and believed that HR has the power to act in their name. But we don’t, we need evidence, statements, in order to bend leadership. Institutions can also help, but not in situations where decisions are legal just not ethical. Finally the economy in the country has its own impact. Labor market with lack of labor force tend to create companies that are providing fair conditions for the employees, it’s their selling strategy :) Multidimensional problem, hence the many corrective measures :)
Interesting read. I never thought about these issues from an HR perspective.
In my experience of working in the corporate world, I had unfortunately found HR to bend to the wishes to senior management. I could understand they did so, for the reasons you mentioned. But this also meant that whether people speak up or not, or register their grievances was up to the personality of the top manager in one’s team. Not so much the work culture HR was supposed to build.
What is unfortunate is that in this confusion about where responsibility really lies, I have seen issues being deflected. Like when I raised concerns about a promotion I thought I deserved but didn’t get - my manager said his hands are tied because of HR’s policies, and the HR said they go by the manager’s feedback. Eventually I ended up leaving the company because my ego was hurt. 😅
The thing is, no matter how important we HR people want to pretend that we are, or to act as if we have all the power in the system, HR is only reflection of said system. Leadership is the one that gives or takes our freedom in acting. Sometimes they let us have it our way, many times they don’t. And we are the same people, same arguments are put on the table, but the players in different situations are different, and the players are what matters. We do not have power, especially not when people expect from us to fight battles without support from the other colleagues. Imagine how different your story would have been if your claim was supported by peers. But we never do that don’t we. That was your fight, not of the others that see everything but decide to remain quiet. Strength sometimes comes with numbers. And when the concern is raised by many different voices, leadership losses their reign. At least it’s what happened in the rare occasions when people actually spoke up, together. Everything is not doom and gloom, but many times I felt personally the injustice made on others yet my power to do anything was taken away by the same people :)
That can be a very conflicting situation to be in, I’m sorry. Thank you for sharing the human side of HR. It has widened my perspective.
As for peers, I couldn’t imagine them speaking up for me. Because even though we were ‘friends’, it was after all a competitive space. The company followed a bell curve policy. So only so many people could be promoted in a band, even if they all did different work. Unless you meant peers from other teams, people that one works with but are not reporting to the same manager. That might work!
Fact is every company is different in its own way. In your case peers might not be suitable to report anything. Yet I have seen departments where no such environment as yours was created and again people remained silent, just not to upset their boss. It’s a complex topic nevertheless and varies in different situations. Worry not though, some of us HR people do care for colleagues and do fight, no matter their own personal safety :)
Thanks for this conversation! :)
The pleasure was all mine 💕💕💕
Such a frustrating situation. What’s interesting to me is that the manager can directly blame HR for you not getting a promotion, whereas HR needs to be more vague about why it didn’t happen. When in reality, I can pretty much guarantee that it was your manager’s decision and they were too much of a coward to own it. I have never, ever seen an organization give HR the kind of power to directly decide on things like promotions. Build frameworks? Process? Provide guidance based on data? Yes. But the final decision doesn’t lie with HR. If it did, well, HR would be the most powerful entity in the organizational hierarchy, and would certainly get paid a hell of a lot more 😂
I suspected so too. You’re right! Things would look a lot different if HR always had the final say 😊.
A worthy marriage allegory.
Exactly. The marriage allegory fits because HR is expected to hold things together and absorb the blame when they don’t. But no relationship survives on one person’s courage alone. HR can create process and structure, not honesty or shared responsibility. When others stay silent, that silence becomes part of the system, and HR is left managing the consequences. Thank you for engaging :)
It is a fascinating and oft-overlooked (or worse: diminished) division. I have inhabited the corporate world since 1991, when HR was generally referred to as Personnel, and it was still fairly common to smoke and drink in your office. For the next ten years, until approximately (sadly) 9/11, HR was a constant victim of cost-cutting and "shaving" because the division did not generate revenue.
Since that time there has been a growing correlation between strong HR engagement and productivity among revenue-producing divisions and creative output. That correlation is vastly more complex than "Happy/Supported Employee makes the company more efficient and profit-sustainable".
Human Resources are advancing into actual revenue power and calculation. I noted a qualified assessment of +12% revenue advantage directly attributed to Human Resource engagement in 2018.
When you touch double-digit impact, you have power. And you're in the room.
I admit I blamed HR many times, at least in my own head, and thought “Why did HR hire this toxic person?” But his behavior wasn’t the kind of behavior HR could have picked up during the hiring process. Still, it’s almost an unconscious habit to blame HR for everything. Sad but true.
That is another thing where we have very little power. In most of the cases final hiring decision is made by the hiring manager who is also present at the interview. I accept HR responsibility in providing quality profiling of the candidates. But again, hiring managers are just not interested in our opinion :)
At the level of a democratic society, this problem is addressed (with varying success) through the separation of powers. When the judiciary is independent from the executive branch, at least.
In companies, this is impossible. Strong labor unions can partially address the problem (one of the reasons I love Finland), but even that usually comes as a last stage, when nothing has been resolved internally.
So is this actually solvable at the organizational level? What would need to happen structurally, I guess, for the culture in an organization to change?
For people to start caring for other people :) Utopia, I know :) in my experience the worst situations happened whenever there were plenty of witnesses but they refused to speak from fear and believed that HR has the power to act in their name. But we don’t, we need evidence, statements, in order to bend leadership. Institutions can also help, but not in situations where decisions are legal just not ethical. Finally the economy in the country has its own impact. Labor market with lack of labor force tend to create companies that are providing fair conditions for the employees, it’s their selling strategy :) Multidimensional problem, hence the many corrective measures :)
Thanks for your reply, even though it’s not very encouraging :(
Naaaah, things will get better :) People are waking up!! and we also have Substack with all the wisdom and ideas on how to 💕