Managing Negative Attitudes: How Do You Handle Criticism of HR from Other Departments?

My name is Prakash. I would like to know how to manage junior employees in other departments. Members of all departments have a negative attitude and often make derogatory comments about HR activities.

In our company, there are 8 departments, each with a Head of Department (HOD). Under each HOD, there are 3 to 4 members working. When finalizing company rules and discipline, we conduct meetings with the HOD. Only after the HOD finalizes the rules, we establish them as per management decision.

Despite setting these rules, some members (staff) engage in inappropriate activities such as making negative comments about HR activities, including canteen rules. When reported to the HOD, they fail to take proper action. The HOD justifies this by saying that the members are productive and warns against disrupting their work. The HOD maintains a good relationship with the staff, making it challenging to address the issue.

As an HR professional, it is difficult to enforce discipline and maintain a positive work environment. Additionally, the top management consists of individuals from another country, with no Indian representative like a General Manager (GM) to address these concerns.

Please advise on how to handle these situations and resolve the matter effectively.

Thank you.

Firstly, the role of HR is not to control other people. HR is expected to provide the organization with valuable human resources to meet the business needs of the company.

Role of an HR Manager

Your role as an HR manager is to strengthen employer-employee relationships. The key to success as an HR manager is healthy interaction with all employees.

HR's Role in Statutory Compliances

Having said this, I would like to add that HR also has a role in statutory compliances. For other rules, there are legal documents such as Standing Orders and company policies. Company policies are decided in consultation with all HODs from 8 departments. The rules need to be displayed and made known to all employees.

Handling Gossip and Employee Interaction

While a certain amount of gossip always exists even in the best organizations, it needs to be ignored. Go out of your office and interact. When employees come with queries, give them full attention and quick resolution as per law/policy. Once the workers/employees see an even application of rules and a friendly approach, things will get better. Troublemakers can be monitored, and evidence can be gathered for action in line with policy.

Dealing with Higher Management

If your higher management is uncooperative, then things will always be difficult. Keep the higher management informed of developments on behavior, latecomers, and people missing from the work spot. They will be able to understand why there is a downtrend or lower quality, and when the bottom line is affected, the top management will be on your side for corrective actions.

Balancing Role of HR

You have to play a balancing, watchful, and interactive role so that HODs can see that your department is hands-on in its role with employees and functions as a key player in many legal compliances. Until the HODs are convinced that some employees need to be disciplined, your job is challenging as you cannot unilaterally take actions. Be patient and persistent in your role; your contribution will be noticed and rewarded.

Dear Prakash, Let me thank you at the outset for your second post giving details. Queries such as your post lack details, and our responses will be based on our perceptions of the situation. NathRao has given you excellent advice. I wonder whether your perception of the role of HR, as expressed by you ("How to control juniors of other departments"), may have contributed to the situation. Controlling juniors of other departments is the task of the respective HODs. Nathrao has rightly suggested that you should "Get out of the office and interact". We are not sure whether you do that already or whether you have read about the benefits of "Walking around". If you do not know, kindly read and digest material at How Does Human Resources Become Visible in the Workplace? | Business & Entrepreneurship - azcentral.com

Regards

Hi, once again, thank you for your reply. The points you mentioned—walking around and interacting with employees—are already being implemented. However, some junior shopfloor staff are receiving incorrect guidance from their senior staff and HOD, particularly the production HOD. The production HOD consistently gives misguided directives, undermining the efforts of HR in engaging with employees. He discourages support for HR and pressures for additional demands. The challenge arises when HR intends to address employee issues, as the production HOD is informed beforehand and divulges this information to the employees.

Enhancing Shopfloor Communication

How can we enhance the situation on the shopfloor and address these concerns effectively?

Nathrao has given very good and practical advice. Call for a joint meeting with all HODs and share with them how discipline is related to productivity. Tell them you are trying to help them and you are seeking their support for the same. Do not take any action in the first instance. Talk to them, then verbally warn them, and then send an email to them cc'd with HOD.

Also, do not forget to reward good behavior. Come up with programs like anyone coming to the office on time daily, anyone not taking any unauthorized leave to be rewarded. Display their names on the notice board. This will help improve discipline.

As NathRao indicated, there will always be some gossip within the company about HR. You have to ignore it as long as it does not affect the decorum of the company.

Managing Office Gossip

Sometimes you can restrict these gossips by reminding the office/factory rules. Remember, even HODs come under HR policies when it comes to company rules. If you can "control" (per se) HODs, then you do not need to control junior employees.

Though the source and reason for the gossip can be at any level (junior staff or HOD or even management), you cannot "control" it. What you can control is to take candid feedback from this gossip and work out your strategies and rethink the rules.

Mediating Employee Dissatisfaction

Sometimes, the rules (even approved by management) are outright stupid. If you really think so in this case, then you can be a mediator between employee dissatisfaction and management requirements to suggest more practical rules. This will be a win-win situation if you can establish this connection.

Handling Increased Demands

Another point you have mentioned is about "more demands." There are always more demands. Since some HODs cannot ask directly for them due to their position, they use juniors to forward these. To overcome this, delegate the share of responsibility to enforce related policies to the HOD by increasing their daily involvement. For example, ask HODs to take action on defaulter employees instead of HR gathering this data and taking action. This way, they cannot contradict their policies, and gossips will reduce/stop reaching you.

Remember, everybody works for the organization in different ways. It is not the responsibility of other department technical staff to "care for" the HR rules, but it is the responsibility of HR to manage the health of the organization with such employees... :-)

Best Regards,
Amod Bobade.

Dear Prakash,

Please provide more details of the situation. For example, what do you mean by "doing wrong things and giving wrong direction" and "forcing more demands"?

Thank you.

Employee Appreciation and Engagement Strategies

Thank you for your reply. As suggested by you, if anyone is doing well, they need to be appreciated and rewarded. These practices are already in place. We hold monthly meetings where we give awards for kaizens, the best 5S line, and the best production line, along with small games. Additionally, we organize an annual trip, and for employees who have completed more than 3 or 5 years, we provide money and a certificate as a token of appreciation, along with monthly birthday celebrations. We regularly engage in various activities to ensure employee satisfaction, but it seems like we can never quite meet all their expectations. Employees often make demands and complaints.

Challenges in Manual Work Environment

In our company, all work is done manually as we do not have automation. Employees take advantage of this situation. When it comes to recruiting the right individuals, their demands are high, and there is no guarantee that they will stay long-term due to the effects of globalization and the abundance of job opportunities. Even minor issues from management or HR can lead employees to start looking for a new job due to ego problems.

Given this challenging situation, how should we proceed? Could you please provide more information on how to handle these issues effectively?

Regards

Organizational Culture Challenges

The problem is with organizational culture. How profitable is the company?

Change in these circumstances cannot be achieved merely by the activities of HR. One will need the active involvement of top brass and HODs to bring about change in culture. Changing the existing entrenched culture is very difficult, especially if the company is doing financially well.

In your place, I would try to start moving out of the office and meeting people as well as HODs. Try to subtly suggest changes—first in small things and see the effect. Winning the hearts and minds of people is the most important thing you, as an HR person, can try to achieve. Keep your activities as HR transparent and approachable.

If you want to make a change or introduce change, people must be able to understand why it is needed—the normal answer is, "this is how things happen here, and we are happy with the status quo." So your first difficult task is mostly cognitive in nature—make at least some key people sensitized to the need for change.

Highlight threats from competition or market forces which necessitate that the organization has to face and have to change for the sake of competition. This aspect could function as a tipping point, making the top brass feel the need to change culture.

An HR manager facing such a situation will need to use both cunning and persuasion to try to induce change. Not every employee will be the whining and complaining type—try to build channels with such people. Try to convert the mind of the influential HOD in the direction of a change in culture.

It is a difficult task and will require a lot of patience, skill, and persuasive skills. Try your best; you will learn a lot which will be useful in your life as an HR person. Best of luck.

Your query still lacks information. For example, have these employees been with the company for a long time and the others are new? Is the canteen very clean, and are there no issues with cleanliness? Is the food good? I have been to a few canteens in India during my visits and have found that some were not clean and there were flies. I wonder whether you are trying to find fault with the "messengers"?