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Organisations get the HR that they deserve - Guest Article by Phil Marsland

Last night I was eating goat and talking HR.  Mention of both stirs certain emotions and both leave a certain taste in the mouth – and it’s not all good.  More about the goat burger later, but for now let’s talk HR, just like myself and Mark Gilroy, MD of a psychometric and training business were doing a few hours ago.

As soon as someone says “HR” you get a reaction.  An emotional, experiential, baggage filled reaction.  For some, it’s about the sour taste in the mouth that their HR close encounters left them with.  For others, this will be about positive people-centric contributions to organisations, but I suspect that this is not for many.  Most think of the HR police or the out of touch department or the necessary evil, costing not contributing.  Often getting in the way. The polar opposite of Feel Good Inc.  So how did the well-intentioned Workers Welfare founded by Joseph Rowntree get here? How did HR become an unappealing badge?

Talk with Mark swirled around HR, psychology and neuroscience, and about how not enough has been done to help leaders and their organisations to really understand people and how to get the best out of them.  We talk about how HR has fallen for latest fads, and surveys and displayed knee jerk reactions every time they hear the phrase “best practice”, lumbering organisations with process, complexity and box filling, type casting rubbish about Gen X, or such like.  We talk about work and workplaces being where people should thrive and grow and contribute and achieve and be recognised and rewarded.

These are fresh insights from our careers and from challenging our own thinking.

Personally, I didn’t always think like this.  I was quite literally the HR Police! My career started in prison – the right side of the bars – in a classic “personnel role” – keeping records, processing payments, chasing sick notes, doing disciplinaries, telling people that they can’t do things – thrilling stuff huh?!  Then I discovered HR. And I studied, gained CIPD qualifications, accreditation and progressed into different roles in the public and private sectors. I thought that I was doing good. I enjoyed the HR badge.

But gradually I started to notice a few things. Little things. Like work colleagues changing the tone of the conversation when I arrived, actually saying “Shhh, HR’s here now”. The same work colleagues saying “I’ve got an HR issue, what are you going to do about it?”. Saying things before interviews like “You’re better at asking questions, so you can do that”. By accident, I had become the HR cliché and I hated it.

So I started to challenge this. Challenge the roles of leaders and managers. Started to challenge employees being in receive mode most of the time.  This led me to a different way of thinking – to challenge the purpose of HR, and therefore what it does.

Now I believe that HR should help to grow great leaders and managers and then get out of their way.  That they should tear up policies and procedures that no-one reads, or that are there to police the 1%, or those that simply waste time and get in the way.  That they should create the climate of honest adult conversations, through being less HR and more partners in their organisations, through trusting and empowering people to figure things out for themselves.

This isn’t for everybody though.  For some in the HR profession this challenges their very identity and boy will they resist and hang onto their power.  For some who are leading organisations what I talk about is literally the opposite of what they want their HR functions to do.

So much like last night’s goat burger, not everyone will agree with me, but every organisation will surely get the HR that they deserve.

If you want to read more of Phil’s blogs on the world of work, here’s the link: https://www.bluetreeconsulting.net/blog

 

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn

Phil’s experience is in the private and public sectors, spanning the Prison Service, Meat Hygiene Service (at the time of BSE), Group 4, Portakabin Limited and now his own Consultancy. ​Sectors include manufacturing, engineering, sales/construction contracting, IT solutions, consumer products, local government, an independent school, government contracts and the Home Office.

​Phil is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development which accredits his strategic level experience and impact.  He also previously achieved a Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel and Development. ​With Institute of Leadership and Management Level 7 qualifications in Strategic Leadership and Executive Coaching and Mentoring, he is also accredited to use several psychometric and evaluation tools including TMSDI Team Management Profile and Leadership Behaviours Profile, OPQ 32, Korn Ferry Ability and Personality tests and Hay Job Evaluation.

​He holds an English Honours degree from Loughborough University and has recently rediscovered his passion for writing.  You can find his blogs and articles on this site, LinkedIn and in a series of 6 articles publications in The Yorkshire Times. ​He is passionate about not only helping people to thrive and grow but to be more resilient and self-aware and to lead happier more fulfilling lives.

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