Want to work as an HR manager? Don’t make these 3 mistakes
The role of an HR manager is as exciting and challenging as you want it to be. There is a range of profiles to choose from. All kinds of industries need HR managers, so we have a range of industry segments to choose from as well. If we undergo the right set of human resource management courses we are qualified for the role as well. But there are some serious mistakes one can make while in such a role or before joining it, that one needs to be aware of.
While HR Managers are increasingly playing significant roles in organizations, especially in core processes such as hiring, talent mapping, leveraging diversity and using technology for people practices, there are lacunae that exist. These are the ones that we need to be aware of and also address.
Here are the big 3 mistakes that you need to watch out for and avoid making, if you want to work as an HR manager.
- Biased behavior towards existing or potential employees – Your behavior towards current employees needs to be extremely objective and bias-free. You might know some of them well or may have worked in a cross-functional team with a few. It is likely that you like the working style of one business leader as against the other one. Irrespective of such instances, the important thing to remember as an HR Manager is that for you all employees are the same and that is what you should demonstrate through your actions. Similarly, potential employees also need to be treated in a non-discriminatory manner. So when you are hiring or training your team to hire, do ensure that there is a clear mandate and understanding about how to exclude biases. Similarly, when you are part of the talent management process and need to identify high potential talent in the organization, make sure that you realize and exclude your biases, and carry out the process in a fair manner. It is obvious that all human beings have some form of biases that are inherent to them. However, being aware of them and making a conscious effort to remove them from your decision making processes is the key.
- Lack of delegation skills – Every HR Manager needs to learn how to delegate and not micro-manage the tactical work. This is essential because many a times, the HR function is believed to be too operational and not strategic. That shift to strategic processes will only take place when the HR manager develops and leverages his or her delegation skills. That’s critical to the process of career growth, for those in HR. Alongside that, they need to learn how to reduce the degree of micro-management that they carry out. HR Managers need to work on removing the lack of this skill. This will link up to managing the time at work effectively as well. The bureaucratic processes that HR is typically required to manage can be done away with to free up their time for thinking about how to manage the people processes for sustainable and long term business growth.
- Non alignment with business leadership – This is a big cause for concern with respect to HR managers. Many organizations still believe that the HR Manager is not clear about the business goals, and tends to work in silos. Business leadership also thinks that the HR teams tend to work on people processes without linking them properly to business needs and requirements. Therefore making the mistake of being non-aligned to business and unaware of its needs is a big issue. It needs to be avoided at all costs by an HR Manager. HR Business Partner roles have been created in the recent past to address this mistake that many HR managers were making. It is critical therefore, to be aware that such non-alignment can result in making an HR manager redundant or unemployable. This kind of non-alignment could also lead to a culture of complacency within HR managers and result in non-performance too. It has serious repercussions that must be considered and worked upon.
There are some other aspects as well that HR Managers need to be aware of and actively avoid such as limiting their thought process, lack of innovation in people practices, inability to gauge the talent market and so on. But these 3 mistakes shared above are fundamentally the biggest ones that one needs to prioritize and overcome first. That is because the implications that arise from making these mistakes have a long-term damaging effect on your career, no matter which organization you as an HR Manager choose to be in. Working on the mistakes means acknowledging that they exist and have the power to affect the careers of HR Managers. Some ways of addressing these mistakes are by peer mentoring, being trained on diversity and inclusion, spending time and effort in understanding the business your organization has, knowing the strengths of your team members and so on.
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