Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Proactive approach to HR is good for business

by Personnel Today 10 Aug 2004
by Personnel Today 10 Aug 2004

I have been speaking with two friends about HR over the past couple of weeks
– a senior profit-and-loss manager with a large, US-based, brand name in
consumer and business goods; and a key functional leader in North
America for a European household brand name.

Both of these guys frequently call me to ask HR questions – not about tax
laws in Belgium
or about retirement schemes in Singapore,
but about broader HR issues in their areas.

Then it occurred to me that both of their employers enjoy solid reputations
as having good HR departments and policies. So why were they calling me to
discuss their HR issues?

I posed this back to them, and was disturbed with the similarity of the
answers.

They each have designated local HR ‘go-to’ people, and HR functions at a
corporate headquarters. But they only hear from HR when it wants to give them a
new policy or procedure. Their HR ‘go-to’ people only transmit.

When my friends do ring their local HR with a query, they can’t get an
answer that doesn’t include fitting them into a policy document. Local HR
doesn’t seem to be able to conjure up solution.

When they call corporate, they are immediately referred either to a specific
policy document, or back to the HR person who couldn’t respond in the first
instance.

Neither do they hear from their HR people on a proactive basis. They never
get a ‘how are things going?’ call, or one that asks ‘what’s new in the
business?‘. They can forget
the call that might say ‘I saw the second quarter figures, and I think HR can
help with x’. HR is part of their problem, not part of their solutions.

There’s a crime being committed here, and as a profession we must hunt down
the criminals and stop them.

We have an obligation to our businesses to not only engage our line managers
on an exceptional basis, but rather in a continual dialogue about the things
that HR can do to support the business.

There is a requirement that HR must become more focused on the enterprise
and it’s myriad nuances,
rather than on HR itself. Simple expertise in HR is required, but no longer
sufficient.

Our line managers rarely need ‘in-the-box’ solutions. If we’ve done the
right things in development, they should be able to solve most issues
themselves.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

It’s the unusual issues that allow HR to show its abilities. Are you showing
yours? Do your line managers call you with their issues, or are they calling
strangers? If so, why? HR
management is about relationships.

Lance Richards, GPHR, Senior director
of international HR for Kelly Services and adviser to SHRM

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Most UK firms guilty of sex discrimination
next post
TUC pre-empts Olympics with anti-sweatshop campaign

You may also like

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders receive 400% pay rise

4 Jul 2025

FCA to extend misconduct rules beyond banks

2 Jul 2025

‘Decisive action’ needed to boost workers’ pensions

2 Jul 2025

Business leaders’ drop in confidence impacts headcount

2 Jul 2025

Why we need to rethink soft skills in...

1 Jul 2025

Five misconceptions about hiring refugees

20 Jun 2025

Forward features list 2025 – submitting content to...

23 Nov 2024

Features list 2021 – submitting content to Personnel...

1 Sep 2020

Large firms have no plans to bring all...

26 Aug 2020

A typical work-from-home lunch: crisps

24 Aug 2020

  • Empower and engage for the future: A revolution in talent development (webinar) WEBINAR | As organisations strive...Read more
  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+