How to Resolve Conflicts Between the HR and Employees?

Despite being an essential part of organisations, the human resources department does not get the appreciation it deserves. However, we must remember that the HR department makes our work much more engaged and productive to yield successful company results.
Yet, we wonder why employees hate HR? The constant struggle between employees and HR can be due to multiple causes, none of which are directly related to their work. Their responsibilities include minimising employee issues, streamlining payroll costs and maintaining objectivity in the corporate world.

We must encourage honest, open and unbiased conversations with the human resource professionals, considering the recommendations they make.

What are the issues between HR professionals and employees?

What could be the reason behind employees resenting the HR department? How could the company transform this perception?

Each employee brings tremendous potential, which the HR department sometimes neglects. If you belong to the HR department, here is why your employees are not warming up to you:

• Inaccessibility

HR professionals and employees do not interact with each other which hampers communication. Due to this, there is always a significant lack of trust between them, especially when employees submit company reviews and assessments.

This leads to a limited engagement, communication gap between the employees and the HR. Also, the HR department does not plan annual employee reviews that promote growth opportunities and feedback but focuses on the protocol.

• Intimidation

The HR can formally communicate with employees to perform an assignment, often threatening dire consequences. Due to this, employees believe that HR is a company-centric department and only cares about the organisation.

• Policies

The HR department is always stuck between management values and employee’s wishes, which could be a thankless task. They are often criticised due to their adherence to company policies, and this could be by the management and employees.

They demand too much paperwork and documentation for everything, which only strains the relationship. In times of need, they give excuses and policy demands, shifting the focus away from the employee’s concern.

• Lack of passion

Human resources are often rumoured to be inhumane, as they constantly look for less-expensive resources to replace current ones without protocol. In these cases, employees wish to be considered ‘human’ and not a profit and loss statement.

• Incompetence

Employees often say that the HR department cannot help them when they want clarification on policies, which breaks their trust in them. They do not have direct and straightforward queries for the employees’ concern, which frustrates the employee and lowers their morale and productivity.

Employees believe that the HR department unnecessarily complicates issues due to lack of capability and expertise, which tarnishes their reputation.

• Unrealistic and stubborn

The management and employees often feel that HR is overly concerned about the practice and policy execution, affecting the daily work routine. They are too focused on matters such as wearing identification cards or following a dress code over resolving real-time issues.

Employees accuse HR employees of enforcing discipline in the name of ‘decorum’ instead of streamlining their policies for an ever-increasing, modern and productive workforce.

• Biased and involved in office politics

A significant reason why employees hate HR is that they do not acknowledge the employees as they strive to impress the management and get promoted. They are insensitive, political and biased when conducting employee matters.

They do not allow the employee to grow but force them to work that only benefits the company. As a result, employees suffer from poor performance, low drive, poor communication and frustration.

How to incorporate impactful strategies for the workforce?

As an HR professional, it is often challenging to balance employees and the management. They have their jobs to retain and cannot risk going against their employers every time. However, one can recognise and remedy the system’s shortcomings to work towards a single goal.

We have mentioned five strategies that the HR personnel can implement in the company, strengthening their relationships with colleagues, employee and management. In turn, they would gain the respect that they deserve and promote employee development.

• Employees should be your priority

Human resources should be an employee-oriented decision to promote, often distorted by too much paperwork and too many policies.

As mentioned above, human resource professionals can use technology to connect better with the team, reduce performance anxiety, improve accessibility and promote communication. Also, hold monthly sessions to understand team concerns and perform remedies accordingly.

• Communicate

Be it an MNC, SME, or even a startup, it is common to think that the HR department is consumed in its best interests, not the employees. Therefore, communicate with the team about ongoing issues and possible solutions.

This would build transparent and healthy communication between the groups so that they work together, gain the trust of each other and remove discomfort.

• Simplify the job description

Let’s face it; employees do not like too much documentation and paperwork involved. Now that we have HR software deployed across industries, HR managers can use the same to conduct business and increase supervision efficiently.

Examples include attendance management systems, payroll software and review management systems. These would take on the more mechanical and repetitive tasks, making way for more engaging tasks and enabling leaders to receive employee feedback.

• Improve HR competencies

The management must develop the HR’s responsibilities so that they can effectively work towards the employees’ benefits yet be approved by the directors. Employees must be regularly trained.

External consultants must be invited to handle specialised issues, risk and reward systems as per performance reviews and key performance indicators (KPIs) and performance management to review employee performance and appraisals.

• Educate and participate

If you are working with a startup or an SME, involve the employees in specific evaluative and decision-making tasks. This would boost their trust in HR as their problems would be resolved, which is often neglected by the management.

The HR department must have a crystal clear onboarding process to keep the new hires informed, adopt training programmes to improve learning and promote healthier relationships.

• Have an agenda in place

To resolve company issues, the HR department must set the correct agenda to rebuild the distorted trust between them and the employees. They must recognise current practices in the organisation by speaking to the employees and using their judgment.

Once done, they must prioritise these issues accordingly, take action and execute these tasks from a short-term and long-term perspective.

At BetterPlace, we understand that being an HR professional is not the most detailed job description globally, as the entire company dynamics depend on your decisions. Now that you know why employees hate HR, bring these strategies into practice with our expertise and guidance.