Some Human Resource Management (HRM)’s problems.

Many organizations that I work for in the past, or even the ones at present, either in a role of  consultant, trainer or employee, every corner of the company often fills with employee’s complaints.

For example  heavy work load, favoritism, nepotism, managers’ bad behavior, un-knowledgeable manager, shortage of man power, or other various general management problem.  From much conversation I have with people, it is found that most employees in most organizations expect the HR manager or HR department to solve the above mentioned problem.   Sometimes, it is sad and almost unfair, that the HR manager is expected to do it all alone.

In the very past, the HR manager did more of an administrative job of simply hiring and firing.  But, with the growing society at present, every organization needs someone to look after the overall well being and the well-being of employees.   The HR manager must be brave to say right or wrong and how and who should tackle problems.  It is what I call “societal developmental expectation” towards the HR manager’s role.  And, the name itself as an “HR manager” or People Manager; is kind of obvious for that particular person as an HR manager to accommodate such duties.

In many environments, “Growth” comes with “Greed” and that result to conflicts, inequalities, favoritism, nepotism – I would say the overall organizational and people problem.  Thus, the HR manager is expected to create peace, to build team spirit within the organization, to instill company mission to employees, to develop competencies of employees, in concept, to bring all employees to achieve company goals, with an average wage and benefit just like other managers at the same level or even lower in some companies.

NONETHELESS, I do agree very much that every company should have such a person with such expectations, particularly at present society.  Since most people still expect the HR manager to fulfill such expectations, I am pleased to contribute the HRM development issue using such a societal belief as a foundation.

In my opinion as a former HR person, success or failure of HRM covers the following philosophies and practices:

-          Much successes and failures of HRM is from the top manager of an organization.

-          Much successes and failures of HRM is from the style of HR manager.

HRM’s problem can be viewed in many various aspects and angles, however, in this article, I wish to share a few points based on two aspects above:

-          Many top managers do not understand that company needs effective human resource management; therefore, they think everyone can be an HR manager.  Many companies end up having secretary or personal assistant of some managers promoted to be the HR manager.  OR often, someone who is incapable in his or her position is moved to be HR manager – this person is actually being moved from an average job to the most difficult job.

-          In consequence from the above, the HR manager himself / herself becomes a key factor to the problem.   Because, HR manager position needs certain or I would much expertise.  He or she cannot only be able to type documents, translate letters, speak second language, talk well, coordinates activities or is of friendly and helpful etc. etc.  An effective HR requires so much more well-rounded knowledge, skill and abilities to respond and tackle people problem.

-          The person, whom the top manager promotes to become HR manager, is mostly too young both in terms of life experience and age.  Surely, they are many young people are well respected in many careers but very few to be in HRM field.  Many top managers prefer a young and obedient HR manager, because he or she is easy to control.  If the top manager can control the HR manager, it almost means that the top manager controls the whole workforce’s well being together with the HR’s spending of the company.

The above does not mean that an in-experienced HR manger cannot be an effective HR manger, time will tell.  In contrary, often some very long extensive experienced person in HR field can be found as an ineffective HR manager.

I actually like to say anyone can be an ineffective HR manager, if they are un-qualified as follows:

-          “A yes person type” – Many HR managers who are afraid to lose their job will tend to say always “yes” to the top managers, and the result is that many employees are unsatisfied.  This happens because many top managers want more profit and many times they choose to cut down or over-reduce necessary expenses of HR’s spending budget. This type of HR manager does not wish to argue or even discuss with the top manager for others’ benefit.

-          “A don’t care type” – Many HR managers are not a committed human being:  he or she does not care of what happened within the organization.  He seems to be a positive person as nothing is a problem for them.  Or if the problem is presented, he or she just makes a few talks and forget about it.  He or she comes to work just to attend some important meetings and goes back home on time or even before.  Their work are to interview candidates, a few talks with people and sit in the meeting just to be seen.

-          “A talkative but no action type” – many of this type of HR managers love to make good and funny talk with employees.  They love employees’ activities, they showed their faces in most parties and they get along well with most employees through various happy situations.  Many of them enjoy training role too.   You can see them in almost every of company activities’ photos.  They mostly use their power and authority to please people and the love to pad around to make people feel good.   However, if the problem comes, you never see him or her anywhere.  When you require their help, they disappear in a professional way.  There is no real action from this particular type of HR manager and he or she mostly is very fortunate as they have very good and handy assistant to do all the work for them.

-          “A quiet and no action type” – this particular type of HR manager surely don’t speak much and as a matter of fact, many times they don’t have many ideas either.  They use their quietness and calm character to survive; therefore, they look kind of smart with very few words.  Particularly in Thailand or Asian environments, a quiet calm person mostly survives very well because they are viewed as a mature person and a deep thinker.  The only talk they do is with their senior managers with the door closed and nobody would ever know what they speak.  Mostly, in the view of their staff, they look almost close to a monk due to the mentioned character, and people around them are working so hard for them -for the monk, actually.

-          “A something too much type” – many experienced HR managers are too much into something they adore and believe, and that makes them ineffective for many HR needs. For example;  some of them love Dhama, they will speak all the times about Buddha’s guideline in orientation, official meeting or any informal meeting until employees are really bored about it.   Some are very much into certain system like balance scorecard, they will stamp and force on using the system without looking into its cons, only its pros.  Or if they used to be a former finance person, they will only focus on figures and budget, other things are totally out of their sight.  Or if they believe in recognition, they will excessively put forward many recognition programs till people don’t feel anything about it any longer.  If they believe in the power of IT, they would push for IT investment, every solution of life and work must come with IT and forget other important things that HR has to do.  If they believe in knowledge management, they will talk about it like crazy and again other things are still put on pending, etc. etc. etc.  HRM needs a lot of various angles of human touch abilities, but it is hard to find such a character in most HR managers.

There are much more examples to speak about.

All in all, HR manager must be a VERY well-rounded person to see things, to educate, to guide, to judge, to evaluate, to lead, to prevent problem, to solve challenges, to correct the situation, to drive changes, to recommend solution, to  finally bring people to achieve company goals on both micro and macro issues.  Especially in Hotels!! Right or wrong I am not certain, however, in my personal view, an effective HR manager should never have a fixed character when they work.  They must be diverse and 360 degree insightful enough in their knowledge, skill and abilities to respond to various types of organizational and people problems.

In my next articles, I will share some necessary and important HR functions with a good “style” of HR manager and a good “system” used, which will bring about organizational successes.

© Nate-tra Dhevabanchachai, General Manager, Salaya Pavilion Hotel and Training Center, Mahidol University International College (www.salayapavilion) and Honorary Director of Mai-BS (Thailand) Company Limited, a hotel and resort consulting and training company (http://mai-bs.com)