Gaining Organizational Credibility

The situation: You are the recently named Director of Human Resources for a major business, previously you have been a member of the HR Team as a Senior Manager for the past 7 years so you have a good understanding of the company and the HR organization.

The previous HR Director was recently let go by the company, he had on-going issues in dealing with senior leadership and had been unable to meet the needs of business unit managers and employees.   His approach has greatly damaged the credibility of the HR function with the majority of the workforce.

You have assessed your team and although there are two individuals who need some development, overall you believe you have a strong HR team that you can build on.

You have strong evidence and realize that your greatest immediate challenge is to develop and gain the credibility of not only senior leadership but of all leaders and employees within the business.

Your Assignment: Given what you know, what will be your plan going forward to gain credibility by not only Senior Leadership but also with the business units and employees across the company?  Provide a meaningful and realistic summary of what you will do moving forward.

          The HR Director has an important role. They not only serve as the individual responsible for developing and executing the department's objectives and strategies but also as the unofficial internal public relations person for their entire job function. Reviewing this scenario and understanding with solid evidence that the most significant immediate challenge is to earn back credibility at all levels within the organization, I would focus on stakeholder management. 

            I would communicate with my team before working with internal stakeholders outside the HR Department. This action should not take too long but is an essential first step. I would organize a department meeting with two goals: to assist in stabilizing a strong HR team- mitigating any turnover concerns, and to fact-find.

            Within the meeting, I would reinforce my positive views of the team and share that I need help bringing our department to its next evolutionary level. I would express that some folks have lost trust in the department due to previous leadership, but that will not be a permanent belief. I would next ask if anyone knows of a specific scenario where a stakeholder in a different department voiced concern about HR. I would encourage my employees to share it within the meeting or provide that detail privately- wherever it makes them most comfortable. The reason for this is to equip myself before going out and speaking with folks external to the department.

            With this additional intelligence, I would begin to work with business unit leadership. I would ask them how HR can benefit their department and express that the core competency of my department will be to simplify complexity for them. I would acknowledge the previous shortcomings of the department and not defend or hide from them. Beyond the initial meeting, I would follow up and ask to attend business unit meetings as an observer. I would not use this time to give guidance but instead, learn and grow trust from the line manager and their staff. The goal with the staff is to let them see that HR is engaged and interested in supporting them. I would complete this across all business units once and be beside the respective HR Business Partner. This would serve as training for the HRBP to see what support they need to provide their leaders and individual contributors- reinforcing that we exist to simplify complexity. 

            While some might believe that you should start from the top and work down, as it relates to earning back credibility, you need to begin at the level of the issues and then report back up to the top. This hands-on learning experience and feedback from "the bottom" will only help senior leadership understand the exact effort, and sincerity, that HR is putting into the organization. I would come to them with feedback and a report of what we've been doing, and then seek their input and be the liaison between any strategies they wish to implement while reinforcing the needs of the stakeholders across the organization. 

            Final Note: I would offer development opportunities for those two HR Professionals when appropriate. If the specific skills they need to acquire conflict with their abilities to execute the strategy outlined above, I would get them that development opportunity sooner.