How to: promote HR internally

HR gets a bad press – not in the pages of Personnel Today, of course, but internally. Mention HR and people get jumpy. They automatically wonder 'What have I done?' and start asking themselves whether they really are indispensable. They think of redundancies, disciplinaries and erstwhile colleagues being marched out of the building, paltry possessions stuffed into a cardboard box. Or they may be thinking of the other perception of HR – a fluffy team, far removed from income generation and strategy, waiting to comfort the distraught, box of tissues at the ready.

Essential networking

Lee Smith, chairman of CIPR Inside, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations' internal communications group, points out that HR is fighting hard to be seen as professional and strategic in its outlook. Smith stresses the need for HR to work with corporate communications, and to use their expertise to help "shift employee perceptions of HR from apathy to advocacy".

Networking is essential. The need to operate in a secure and confidential environment means that most HR departments are shut off from the rest of their colleagues, which is potentially very damaging. Not only does it cut off HR from what the rest of the company is saying and doing, but it makes them appear inaccessible. This can only serve to reinforce HR's image of being there only for when things go wrong.

HR practitioners talk a lot about being good with people, but need to create more opportunities to prove it. Get out there and talk to people – show them you're human. Find out if they're happy at work, and what they expect from the company. Tell them what you do. Make them understand the scope of HR.

You will, of course, meet resistance – there will always be people who equate doing a good job and adding value to generating pounds and pence – so convince them that staff couldn't do their jobs without the backing of a good HR team.

Be user-friendly

Work with other head office teams. Corporate communications should be your best friend - use their expertise when you have announcements to make. Regardless of whether the news is good or bad, they can help you communicate it effectively and with sensitivity.

Ask them about the timing of announcements – don't issue a statement about redundancies the day after the annual report is published with news of the directors' bonuses in all their gory detail. Use corporate communications to help you translate HR and pensions terms into user-friendly English that won't have staff reaching for the dictionaries.

Organise events where you can showcase HR's work. Demonstrate your worth in real (preferably financial) terms – tell the sceptics and disbelievers "We saved £XX,000 last year by replacing external training with in-house courses" or "We saved £XX,000 by renegotiating benefits packages".

Listen to staff

Get together with other central functions, such as IT, finance, estates and corporate communications, to stage a day to teach staff about your work. You may well find that their poor perception of HR is simply down to lack of information – chances are they'll be surprised, and impressed, by the scope of the HR remit.

Your staff should be vocal and involved. If your senior executives address the staff, HR needs to be there in the front row, ready to answer HR-related questions. Whether or not the HR director sits on the board, they should be seen as a figure of authority, someone who plays a major part in the organisation's decision-making processes.

Above all, ensure that staff throughout the company know how great a role your team has to play – and how well you can play it.