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BEC : HR -George

Hello there, it’s George back with you and I’ve got a commentary - comment --a lot of comments about Human Resources.

You know when I was a manager in a large company, IBM to be exact, there were two departments that I really hated to have to deal with, one of them was the Legal Department, the other one was the Human Resources Department and it’s probably because they were both about the same.

Both departments, both organizations, were ruled by policies, practices and procedures and, of course, both had certain programs. That’s tough as a manager because I was focusing on accomplishing the goals of my organization, the goals of my department, my division, my region, whatever it happened to be, and having to deal with some practices and procedures was very, very difficult.

Now the policy side of Human Resources is usually pretty straightforward, petty clear.

Most everybody in the company knows and understands that here are specific rules on certain things as they relate to employee intervention or behavior and how to deal with employees. I mean there are certain things that are just very clear in the policy, particularly I guess in the benefit side of things.

Most of the benefits with a company are pretty clear. How much time you get off, how many vacation days you get, how many holidays you get, what national holidays you’re allowed to take, how much personal time, how much sick time. Those are pretty straightforward, pretty clear. You know as a manager and an employee how much time you’re going to get off.

Another one is your benefits, your medical benefits. Petty much people know what their medical benefits are based on whatever their insurance program is. For example, they know how much they’re going to have to pay every month toward their medical insurance and they know how much the company is paying for their medical insurance.

So that’s pretty clear, pretty clear.

Company Assistance - Some companies have different kinds of assistance programs.

Some of it may be medical, for handicapped employees or for certain kinds of mental illness. There are assistance programs for drug and alcohol addiction in a lot of companies nowadays, assistance for elderly care, your fathers, mothers, grandfathers, whatever. So those are pretty clear too.

Training - It’s pretty clear what the company is going to provide in the way of training from the Human Resources standpoint. You’re going to get some kind of an orientation and a package with all of this information about the policies, procedures, practices and programs of the company. With the big companies it’s a day-long process where you sit there and hear about all this stuff and get ready to embark on your career. As I mentioned in our conversation, there are some employee development-type programs that are conducted by Human Resources. Quite frankly, I never found them to be very effective, but hey, they still do it.

Then there are company policies which have to adhere to the legal policies, which we mentioned in the conversation. Here’s where in the United States certainly we’re talking about wages, hours and working conditions. Those are the three critical factors. In fact, those are the three critical factors that if a union was trying to be represented within a company or they got themselves represented that a union can negotiate with a company, object to or have a strike over and those are all legal issues.

Hours - Basically, what that means is that people are only allowed … Well, in the United States, let me use the United States, a 40-hour work week is a normal work week. If somebody who is not in management or not a higher-level employee paid on a salary basis, if they’re paid on an hourly basis if they work over 40 hours then they’re entitled to what is called overtime. They’re working over the minimum time of 40 hours. So they work an hour of overtime and the pay legally has to be one and a half times their hourly wage. So if they’re making $10 an hour and they work 41 hours, well that extra hour that they work they’re going to get paid $15 an hour for that. That’s a legal situation.

Working Conditions - That one can get a little vague, but that is a safety issue. Proper ventilation, proper space between the aisles and desks, electrical hazards that are not exposed, adequate space and an evacuation plan to get people out the exits in case of a fire or any other emergency, those things are usually policies that are monitored through the Human Resources Department.

Now, where the Human Resources Department fails for me is when they try to get into some of these other things that have to do with managing people or have to do with being an employee. We’ve alluded to or talked about already the hiring process. Human Resource people are not the people that hire. They’re not the ones that know what the job is, what the requirements are, what the demands are and what the manager really wants. Sure, they may have a sheet in front of them that says this is a job description and this is a manager and oh, I know him or her so I have an idea what they’re like.

That doesn’t work.

The person doing the hiring in a company, and I hope you are working for that company, is the manager, the direct line manager. What I mean by a line manager is that’s the person who an employee reports directly to. They’re the ones that are responsible for their direction, their compensation, all of those kinds of things.

Another one I never liked to get HR people involved in was when you want to fire somebody, because as soon as you get into this firing business you start falling into these practices and procedures. Another nice word for practices and procedures is ‘guidelines’. Well, guess what? No two people are alike. No two managers are alike. So the guidelines, as I say, they’re guidelines for a reason because every situation isn’t the same.

As a manager, quite frankly, I was not about to go to the Human Resource people and ask for advice and counsel on how to hire somebody or whether I should fire somebody.

So I would usually do it and I usually did it the right way and then I’d go tell them. A little bit risky, but it worked.

Recognition Programs and Promotions - Those are another thing that Human Resources doesn’t have any business in. Sure, I know there are guidelines for both of those, but they’re not the ones giving the awards. I am as the manager.

One other I guess I forgot in the policy section is Conditions of Employment. Those aren’t practices and procedures. Those are usually hard, concrete, solid rules, which mean our hours of employment are 8:30 to 5:15 Monday through Friday. If you’re not here you’re tardy. You’re late. If you don’t report why you don’t come in then you’re quite likely going to get fired.

I grant you, I’ve been talking from the management side here. Let me switch over and give you a few thoughts on the employee side. As I said earlier, you’re reporting to a manager. That manager is the one who holds your destiny, at least for this point in time.

That’s the one that you have to please. That’s the one whose objectives you have to meet and whose personality you have to deal with.

If you’ve got an issue or a problem with your manager, go to your manager. Don’t go out to the Human Resources people, go to your manager. If you can’t resolve it, go to your manager’s manager. That’s how you resolve problems in real life. You don’t go to a third party like the Human Resources group. In other words, bottom line, if you don’t know, ask your manager. If you’re a manager and a manager doesn’t know, then maybe you can check with HR, but then go ahead and go back to the employee and do what you know is right.

So that’s my thoughts on this subject. Until we get around to another one, good day for now.

The End.