Human Resources: to trust or fear your local department?

As a corporate communicator,  I’ve written countless pieces of messaging that explain the going-ons of human resources departments, and have spent a good amount of time preaching the benefits of trusting HR with questions or concerns – what is generally called an “open door policy.” 

I have always believed that the HR department is worthy of this trust, however, a recent conversation I had with a HR professional led me to question this belief. I couldn’t quite put these doubts into words until a friend sent me an article that talked about HR and the issue of confidentiality. The article, titled “Can an Internal Coach or HR Pro Be Trusted With Your Secrets?,” raises the question of whether an internal HR professional can truly be a reliable confidant if they are also expected to help make decisions about promotions or firings.

The writer, Jennifer McClure, was a former internal HR coach and she expresses surprise and sadness over this lack of trust. She says HR staff are unfairly ”thrown under the bus” when it comes to confidentiality and credibility. As an internal coach, she was frustrated that her employees didn’t trust her to help because of her position within the company — even though she did understand the concern.

Should this distrust really surprise anybody, though? If you look back at the history of HR, you will find that the field was created by management at large companies to increase the productivity of staff who were negatively responding to a post-industrial revolution working environment. At the time of origin, the employers had little concern over employee’s mental health and more concern about their physical ability to produce a product, so HR became the mediator. Over the years, HR evolved as a way to enforce labor laws and ethical standards produced by the federal government, and today, has the added responsibility of ensuring employee engagement and satisfaction as a way to produce maximum business potential for management.

Since HR has these divided loyalties, Jason Seiden – in response to McClure’s article — argues that not all HR professionals are a danger to their employees, but that they need to be more clear about their dual roles since they are perceived to hold great power within the organization. He proposes that before having a conversation with an employee, the HR professional should say something like, “Remember, I have a dual role here. I have an obligation to the company, and I also have information that I can’t share back with you; please keep that in mind.”

There is no doubt that this is a controversial subject — McClure’s article prompted a bevy or emotional comments — and I have personally been forced to confront this issue recently. In my opinion, a bit more honesty, like the statement that Seiden proposes, would go a long way to build more credibility for HR professionals. 

I am interested in knowing what you think: Is trust an issue when it comes to HR? Is it just a well-known fact that you should stay away from that area or do you think HR professionals provide a critical support for employees?

Too old or just too young to understand?

My mother, a 30+ year educator with a vast amount of experience, was recently discussing her decision to stop teaching college classes with me. One of the reasons she decided to stop was her lack of knowledge when it came to new technology. She has years and years of proven success and experience with students, schools and school districts, but she recognized that she couldn’t teach about the rapidly changing technological world.  

My immediate reaction was ‘what a loss for these students.’ Through her experiences, my mom could teach these students skills you just can’t find on the Internet.

As I thought about this more, I realized my own lack of understanding when it comes to my aging co-workers. In my opinion, it would be a great honor to work and learn from my parents, but for some reason that feeling has never transferred to some of my co-workers who are about the same age.

I started reading up on the topic of the aging workforce and was surprised to find a study done by Louisiana State University that found older workers – those 55 or older — may not pick-up on changes in the office as quickly, but they are much more willing and devoted to making change work within the office.

That made me think of my dad’s recent move onto Facebook. He had no idea what he was doing and I probably spent days explaining how everything works, but he was, and still is, more determined to understand how it worked – and use it appropriately — than many of my 20-something aged friends.

So, the next time you struggle when working with an older employee consider these tips from Forbes:

1. Appreciate that your motivation for work may be different. Younger workers are generally on a path for promotions or increased salary, but many older workers are already financially stable, so their motivation for working is self-satisfaction.

2. Communicate: Each generation communicates differently. In general, older workers would prefer to talk more often in person and on a more consistent basis. You both have to communicate to find the best way to work together.

3. Respect experience: After decades in the workforce the chances are they know and thing or two about successful business. Sure they may not know everything about the project, but they can probably share some valuable lessons from past experience.