How Can My Friend Handle Her GM Withholding Crucial HR Information for Six Months?

Hi Friends,

I have a problem that my friend is facing. She is working in an IT company in the HR department and is handling it alone. She reports to the GM - Operations. Just before receiving the appraisal results, she had gone out of town. The company conducts annual appraisals in April/May each year. She had completed the performance appraisal cycle, met individuals, and conducted RAs. She was awaiting final figure approval when she was away, and the increment letters along with the designation changes were distributed to the employees.

Upon her return, she asked her GM for the revised employee sheet to update the employee master. Despite knowing this, her GM delayed providing it, promising to give it later. She reminded him again after some days, but he still did not provide the information. When an employee approached her to inquire about a possible designation change, she couldn't provide the information as her GM had not shared it with her. She had to tell the employee that she would inform him later due to being busy. After the employee's query, she approached her GM, who then confirmed the change. She also asked for other employees' designation changes, but her GM kept delaying providing the information, despite reminders.

In another incident, a bank requested salary bracket details for housing loan purposes. Since she didn't have the exact incremented salary details, she asked her GM for them. Surprisingly, he instructed her to add 10% to 15% to the previous salary figures and provide that information. She is perplexed as to why he is withholding information that she, as an HR professional, should have access to. On several occasions when she sought salary information, he avoided the topic by diverting the discussion. It has been nearly six months, and he still hasn't shared the necessary information with her.

I would appreciate your advice on how my friend can address this issue effectively.

Regards,
Julie

Hi Julie,

This is rather strange. Was your friend handling the salaries prior to the appraisals as well? In some companies, if there is only one HR person, and he/she is at a junior level, salary details are not given to him/her.

But if your friend was handling the salaries earlier too, then what she can do is:

- Since her boss told her to 'add 10% to 15% of salary,' ask her to prepare salaries of all the employees similarly and send that Excel sheet to her boss for approval.
- I assume the employees would need to sign the duplicate copy of the increment letters and give it to the HR department. Ask her to collect these copies from the employees for filing and take information from that.

If these don't work, then as a last option, ask your friend to write a formal email to her boss requesting the appraisal info and send reminders every week.

If the boss genuinely has been busy or has forgotten to give the details, this should help. Else, he has some other issues, which your friend can know only by directly asking him.

Hi Deepthi,

Yes, my friend was handling the salaries right from the beginning. She has been with the company for nearly 3 years now, and this is what she is facing from the GM suddenly. I told her to speak to him directly and see what he says. I shall keep you posted on this. Thanks a lot for your response.

Julie

You can get all the required revised information from the Payroll Person. Please confirm how they are processing salaries.

Hi Julie,

To know the salary structure of the employees is not at all a right of an HR personnel. Somewhat it is a prime responsibility of an HR personnel to keep all the personal records of the employees with respect to salary components, address, nominees, PF numbers, ESI numbers, etc. Since we are in the staffing function, we must know the CTC of the employees, and in fact, we are generating the offer/appointment letter/appraisal letter, etc. So, of course, one HR should know the salary of the employees.

Again, salary/wage muster and muster roll of the employees are maintained by the payroll team. They must have the salary details of the employees. However, all the employees, for their queries regarding salary, loans, advances, etc., generally come to the HR desk, and HR is responsible for resolving those queries.

In the case of your friend, as per my knowledge, her boss is so adamant not to share all this info with her. This is really a very bad management practice. Since her boss is a GM of operations, she can't fight with him to get all this info. So, it would be better for your friend to handle all these things diplomatically. Ask her to communicate with her boss through official mail only, and she should keep all these documents in the mail, which would help her in the future.

One more thing, ask your friend not to involve more regarding salary. Rather, she should involve more in employee relations, employee engagement, and employee development. For instance, her boss would realize one day his mistake and his invasion of the responsibilities of other employees.

Good luck,
Sidharth

Hi Friends,

I have a problem that my friend is facing. She is working in an IT company in the HR department and is handling the same; she is the only one in the HR department, reporting to the GM of operations. It so happened that she had gone out of station just before receiving the appraisal results; they have annual appraisals in April/May every year. She had completed all the performance appraisal cycles, meeting individuals, RA, etc., and was awaiting only the final figure approval, which took place in her absence, and the increment letters along with the designation change were distributed to the employees.

On her return, she asked her GM for the revised sheet of employees so that she can update the same in the employee master at the same time. Having full knowledge of the same, her GM told her that he would give it to her after some days. For which she did not object and reminded him once again after some days. But he did not give it; he just said that he would be giving it but did not. It so happened that one of the employees came to her to find out if his designation was changed or not, and she did not have the information readily because her GM had not shared it with her. She had to tell the employee that she will let him know the info after some time as she is a little busy. She had to go to her GM, tell him that so and so has asked for the info, then he told her yes, his designation has changed. She asked him if at all any other employees' design also changed, if so, to give the info, the GM said he would give it but again did not, even after repeated reminders.

Yet another incident happened; one of the banks wanted to offer a housing loan, and they wanted to have some details regarding the salary bracket the employees are falling into. Since my friend did not have the exact incremented salary details, she asked her GM for the same, and to that, you know what he said, "you add 10% to 15% salary to the previous one and give them the same." She is not able to understand why he is not giving her the information when she, as an HR, has the full right to know the same. Not only this, on a number of occasions, whenever she went for information on salary, he did not give it but avoided it by diving into another topic for discussion. It's been nearly six months, and he has not yet shared the info with her.

I would request you to kindly give your good advice so that my friend can tackle this problem without much hassle.

Regards,
Julie

Hello,

As you have mentioned in your post that it has been almost six months of this issue, I wonder how they are processing the salaries. In the absence of your friend, hasn't the management communicated to the employees about the appraisal anytime in any means? What is the reason all the employees are not getting together and coming to the HR division for clarification or to resign, as that is very natural and expected to happen.

If you find out the answers to all the above questions, you will have the solution to this matter.

Probably the GM (Ops) is new and wants to take charge of the HR department, which in a way isn't wrong. But having said that, he must make sure he defines the role and responsibility for your friend so that she can work more efficiently.

Your friend should have a meeting and if required involve other heads of department in the meeting, where her role and responsibilities are redefined, and all concerned are aware of the changes made.

Dear Julie,

Having gone through your cited issue, the following is suggested from my personal point of view.

1. The designation of the person and his/her job profile give a detailed picture that whether the person is entitled to have the info as being discussed.

2. Secondly, the organizational structure and reporting pattern lay down certain norms and working relationships.

3. However, if other employees are approaching your friend to give and share related details, then she seems to be holding a responsible position which demands that she is entitled to know the details.

4. In the current scenario, let her document it in writing with CC to all concerned higher-ups, etc., regarding the issue in question and wait for their response.

5. Mere frustration and emotions do not solve the issue. One has to have patience and avail the laid-down channels of communication to address grievances if any.

6. Notwithstanding the above, the culture of the organization and working style of persons lay different patterns.

7. If the organization is a professional one, then there should not be an issue like the one your friend is facing.

Thanks,
S. Amarnath

Hi,

As you mentioned that your friend is the only person in HR involved in the salary process, and it has been ongoing for the last 6 months, how has the salary preparation been managed during this period? Is there another division within the organization responsible for salary preparation? Was your friend not previously involved in the salary-making process?

Additionally, is there an employee in the organization whom your friend can consult regarding what occurred when she was on leave? Alternatively, she can politely inquire with the GM operations about the same.

Thanks & Regards,
Bharti

Hi Friends,

I would like to thank everybody for their responses on the issues. As I had told my friend to have a chat with her GM, she did the same. From the discussion, the GM was hiding the info due to some other concern. Anyways, she had a chat with the GM and the CTO, and at last, she was able to get the information to her desktop. Though the environment with her GM has changed a little bit. And yes, the payroll is being handled by the accounts personnel it seems, and this guy is like a chamcha to the GM, so she could not get the details from him earlier. Anyway, the problem is fixed now.

Thanks a lot again for the responses.

Regards,
Julie

Dear Ms. Julie,

I think your friend's boss is feeling insecure or threatened, or trying to maintain confidentiality; it could be anything. As rightly said by Mr. Sidharth, let her/him focus on other things. Any query that comes up in the future regarding salary should be forwarded through email to her/his GM, instead of going and requesting repeatedly.

Rajesh.

Though this issue has already been resolved, we, as HR fraternity members, must delve deep to understand why information was restricted and not shared with the relevant stakeholder. I see below reasons for this:

1. Either the GM or the Management has doubts on the values of the individual in terms of ensuring confidentiality of the information, or they would have seen the person leaking out information to people and not maintaining confidentiality.
2. GM or the Management wants to define a framework of restricting compensation-related information at a certain level and doesn't find the existing person at the level where such information access should be allowed.
3. GM or Management is still living in a conservative/traditional thought process of restricting information and not cascading it to relevant stakeholders.

Thanks.
Best wishes,
Rajiv Naithani