2. Employees are a company’s greatest assets.
That’s why businesses hire HR professionals to
take care of employee needs, manage benefits
and deal with any staff problems or concerns.
Usually, HR staffers do a great job, but
occasionally, they may display poor judgment,
such as sharing private employee information
or failing to follow up on complaints.
HR professionals may fall into the following
bad habits from time to time. By identifying
these detrimental behaviors, you can hopefully
work to eradicate them from your organization.
3. Gossip
HR staffers have access to a large amount of
sensitive information, such as employee
salaries, medical details and performance
reviews. Water cooler gossip on these subjects
can not only hurt feelings, but also lead to legal
action over privacy concerns. Imagine the
uncomfortable situation that could arise if an
employee’s co-workers learned that he or she
was misusing the company’s medical
insurance package. Try to keep a tight grip on
gossip by clearly spelling out the
consequences of loose lips to the entire HR
staff.
4. Unintended leaks of private
information
Willfully spreading gossip is one thing,
but there’s also the danger of
unintentionally leaking information by
talking loudly in close quarters, using the
speakerphone during private discussions
and forwarding emails containing
sensitive information.
5. Failing to deliver clear salary,
benefits and job information
HR professionals are on the front lines of
acclimating new employees, so when
they drop the ball on delivering pertinent
job-related information, it can spell
trouble down the road. Employees may
be confused about their benefits and job
expectations, which can be harmful for
both the employees and their managers.
6. Weak hiring practices
Failing to perform a thorough analysis of
a job and its requirements can lead to
bad hires, which can cost a company
serious money. Make sure that each
open position is thoroughly researched
and that managers provide input as to
what skills are required in order for the
new hire to succeed.
7. Forgetting to follow up
HR staffers are often inundated with
requests for benefits changes, procedure
documentation and training, among other
tasks. With so many responsibilities, it’s
easy to lose track of individual employee
requests and complaints or forget to
follow up with interviewees who didn’t get
a job. However, all of these seemingly
small tasks can be very important to
employees and potential hires and
should be prioritized.
8. Lack of recognition and rewards
Your company has laid out myriad rules
and procedures, but what about the
rewards? Employees need to be
recognized for a job well done, so work
with managers to set up a reward system
if there is not one in place already.
9. Not creating clear and thorough
policies
Perhaps your company has a reward
system but lacks clear policies. Without
public – and better yet, published –
procedures in place, HR professionals
face many more questions and
misunderstandings than they otherwise
might.
10. Too many rules
Is your team busy writing up policies and
procedures for every possible
contingency? Too many rules can make
employees feel restricted and can also
stifle creative solutions and suggestions.
11. Failing to confront rule breakers and
unproductive employees
While it’s important to have some basic procedural
and behavioral policies in place, they are of little
use if uninformed. Take evaluations and reported
complaints seriously and follow up with employees
who habitually cross the line.
12. Playing referee
If there’s a problem between an employee and
a manager or a dispute between two
employees, the ideal solution is for them to
resolve it themselves. HR professionals can
help facilitate communications, but they should
not attempt to play referee between the two
sides. If the parties cannot resolve their
differences among themselves, sit everyone
down together to help resolve the issue.
13. Not trusting employees
An atmosphere of suspicion can make
individual employees and entire teams
nervous, and eventually, they will stop
trusting the company. Therefore, HR
staffers should avoid excessive
monitoring.
14. Not applying policies to your own
team
HR departments spend most of their time
making sure that the needs of employees
and managers are met, but they
sometimes forget to follow their own
policies, especially when it comes to
reviews.
15. Delivering bad news via email
Working in HR is not always fun, since you
sometimes may have to lay off employees or
deliver other bad news. As uncomfortable as
this situation may be, make sure that you talk
to the affected employees in person so that you
can show empathy and answer any questions
that they might have. This will also foster an
atmosphere of transparency, which can help
create a mutually respectful environment
between HR and other departments.
16. Playing favorites
It may be tempting to put someone you
personally like on the top of the pile for a
promotion or new position, but favors such as
these are unfair to other candidates. Also, if
your biases ever become common company
knowledge, your professional reputation will
very likely be at risk. In addition it is utmost
important to maintain integrity of highest
standards. Accepting favors from others like
vendors and soliciting for favors is also an
equally bad and tarnishes the image.
17. Excessive or inappropriate joking
Whether you like it or not, the fact of the
matter is that HR professionals are seen
as role models for how other employees
should behave. Making an off-color joke
or dallying excessively can dilute the HR
department’s image.
18. Once HR professionals know what habits
they should avoid, they can focus on their
core responsibilities and their own
personal strengths. After all, if each
member of the HR department
concentrates on doing what he or she
does best, the entire company wins.
