Blog: Human Resources

What is scary about HR?

There are a number of scary things in the world and in business. In honor of Halloween week, below is a list of some of the scariest things about HR….

1. People are unpredictable. In any given situation that involves people, it may be difficult to predict a number of things about them. Managers and leaders are often puzzled by reactions, motivations and behaviors of people. Even though previous behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, people change. Their motivations change, their actions change and their reactions change. And this fear of the unpredictable actions and reactions can be the very cause of manager inaction. The next scariest thing in HR.

2. Manager inaction. Every action has a reaction. When the actions that occur in the workplace result in poor performance or creation of a toxic work environment an action is required. When a manager’s reaction is no action; the chance that the toxicity will continue to grow increases.  That toxicity will do damage. This type of toxicity is controllable. Even if you can’t predict people’s reactions or behaviors with 100% accuracy, you can control your choice to react.

3. Bad HR breeds toxicity. This could be the most scary. There are most likely a number of us that can relate. If you immediately pictured the name or face of a scary HR figure from your work life, you know what I mean. Good management needs good HR and good HR needs good management. This should be a relationship that you recognize and foster. You can’t have one without the other in my opinion. If you do, you will spend way too much putting out fires and not enough on true strategic  HR that will be impactful. We’ve heard it before, HR needs to speak the language of business. And we’ve said it before, managers need to follow our advice.  Find a way to do both and success will be a bit easier.

What can you add? What scares you?

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.