With roots in religious and Celtic festivals, Halloween is traditionally a time when the boundaries between the living and the dead are thought to thin and blur.
As such, as the nights draw in this is a time when the people management function of old is remembered, a time when it was purely an admin function, when looking after people just meant looking after the paperwork… Or a time to remember workplace practices now consigned to the grave. A time without an Equality Act, an Equal Pay Act, a Health and Safety at Work Act?
What would be the HR Horrors of today..?
Retention - When you realise you’ve put in considerable effort to train someone and they up and leave on you. At a time when talent, skills and knowledge are at a premium you’re trying to tread a fine line between paying over the odds for talent and not having the talent you need. Moreover, how are you dealing with the paradox of replacing early career positions with AI, effectively keeping a younger generation of workers out of your business when they’re the ones who probably know best how to implement and use AI…
The answer: Effective workforce planning.
Employment tribunals - The UK’s Employment Rights Act has doubled the time over which tribunal claims can be brought. Down’t count your chickens and make sure you keep hold of all the paperwork, evidence and anything else you have to hand. Record keeping is at a premium now and employee communications must be clear and timely.
The answer: Understand the Employment Rights Act as its various sections come into force.
AI - The technology the never sleeps. You’re in line to implement this across the organisation but everyone has some idea or other of what it should be used for and who should use it. While HR is primarily about people it’s beginning to feel like it demands a statutory level of IT know-how. Bottom line is that you can’t just let the technology run itself, you need safeguards and a human in the mix to ensure the results make sense and nothing goes rogue. At least it won’t take your job, right? Right?
The answer: Get to grips with AI and judge what it can best do for your business.
Another business initiative - Just when you think you’re on top of everything, when you think you know what’s coming at you during your working day and what the strategy for the business will be, along comes another change and challenge. Today’s workplace need to be agile and ready for anything, better still, HR can be leading the way on strategy, shaping and creating business rather than implementing the ideas of others.
The answer: Make HR a business leading function.
Your own burnout - You spend all you time looking after everyone else, offering a health and wellbeing programme that will keep everyone on their feet. Your business offers something for all four pillars of wellbeing but at the end of the day you need to look after yourself too.
The answer: Create the ideal wellbeing support resource for everyone.
