Make HR human once again
Marcela Munoz Baez is the Head of People & Administration for FibreCoat.
In the past, it was not uncommon for companies to refer to themselves as a family. Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s co-founder, said in a letter from 2014 that “we are a Family.” In an internal video of 2019, Miguel McKelvey, WeWork’s co-founder, said: “This is a Family.” Facebook employees were encouraged to view the company as a ‘home’ for them and their co-workers as family, particularly before the IPO.
As these companies and others soon learned, companies are not families. Families can be messy. Lines are blurred and bad behaviour is tolerated because of love. We assume that we will be forgiven in families if we make a mistake. This is not the kind of environment that a high-performing, healthy company requires. There is room for forgiveness and warmth. On a fundamental basis, however, it is completely different.
Most companies, who once thought themselves to be like families, have now re-evaluated their approach. The frameworks, policies, and automation came in. Data and metrics replaced qualitative and difficult to measure things. Even HR was affected. This is true almost everywhere. This approach is prone to going too far in the People function. It’s not helpful to make people feel like they’re data points or machines. HR risks losing sight of the real purpose, which is to connect people.
As I see it the role of HR is to help employees understand and connect to the organisational vision. It’s to help them find meaning in their jobs and to contribute to the business as trusted and empowered adults. It translates to a healthier, happier workplace which leads to more creativity and productivity. Everyone wins. Many companies have become dependent on long onboarding processes and layers of bureaucracy. Although processes have their place, they tend not to inspire much trust. Nobody wants to be a cog or data point in a machine. Nobody wants to be made to feel like they have justification for every action they take. Our motivation begins to fade when there is no clarity in communication or the feeling that we are trusted and can act according to our own judgment.
This is because I’m not from a background in business. My career began as a social work in Colombia. It was challenging but also important, urgent and most importantly, deeply human. As I took on my first People and Culture position, I discovered that the principles that guided our social work were still applicable: If you trust people, respect them, and put connection in the forefront, they will flourish. These are the most important things.
FibreCoat – where I am now the Head of People – can’t be perfect. We do our best to treat people with respect. We allow employees to take full responsibility for their time, projects, and spending. We don’t need to approve any expenses, no matter how big or small. We believe our employees are responsible adults, who will, when allowed to make their own decisions, take responsibility for them and make good choices that align with the best interests of the company. This method has helped us save a lot of time, and made our decision-making process more efficient. We are proud of our culture, which is characterized by high-performing and responsible individuals working toward a common goal in the way that they feel best.
Trust is the key concept. This is one of those small words that mean a lot. We feel respected and seen when we are trusted. And we will often live up to that trust, motivated by our belief that others have faith in our judgment. When we do not feel trusted by others, it is as if they think we are children who require care or bad people that need to be controlled in order to behave well. Trust is often seen as something that you have to earn. In my experience, I’ve found the opposite to be true. You can trust someone if they are trustworthy.
It’s an exciting time. We’re witnessing some incredible technological advancements. We’re using AI, automation and analytics to improve the effectiveness of our human resource professionals. HR must remain focused on the most important thing, and that is people. The name is the clue. We are not compliance officers but translators and connectors who build bridges and safeguard meaning and motivation at work. We will all spend a large part of our lives working. We must make this place human.
The original version of this article Make HR Human Again! appeared first on HR News.
