Does Your HR Department Have Too Much Influence? Here's How to Tell, and How to Fix It. This case study will teach you what to look for and how to ensure your business is being steered by the collective management team, not the HR department acting in isolation.
By George Deeb Edited by Jessica Thomas
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
We love our human resources departments. They do a lot of good inside a business. They recruit, train and onboard employees. They set up benefit plans. They create a strong company culture. But I've worked with a lot of human resources managers who have crossed the line from supporting the business to dictating the direction of the business.
As the CEO, you need to ensure you know when it's happening and do your best to keep your business running the way you want it to.
An HR case study: A single veto can topple the entire apple cart
I once worked with a client on setting a new organizational chart structure in the marketing department and recruiting a few new employees to fill holes. The company also had a bit of a power struggle and culture clash going on between a few of the department heads, which needed fixing. My role as the interim CMO was to fix that issue and put the company onto the proper course and growth trajectory as dictated by its business plan.
When I finalized the organization chart for the marketing department structure that I saw as the ideal solution to hitting the company's goals and growth objectives, it ruffled a few feathers among the current middle managers in the department, as it would have meant giving up some control over departments they were currently overseeing. But that was part of this company's problem: The middle managers were inexperienced and doing way too many tasks in one role. The new structure would lighten their loads and make the company more efficient and focused. The middle managers proceeded to defend their turf and ran to the HR department for support.
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The new organizational structure would also result in a change of reporting assignments, with people potentially getting a new boss in the process. Those middle managers also didn't want to change who they were being managed by. Again, those staff members went running to the HR department for help.
We were also recruiting new team members — ones who could help move the company's culture in a direction that was more BIZ Experiencesial and nimble than its current structure. Again those same middle managers felt threatened by the new people. So what did they do? Again, they went to HR.
Now comes the guts of this post. When I presented this organizational and hiring plan to the company's CEO, he was 100% in alignment and gave me the green light to proceed with implementing it. But when I went to the head of the HR department to help me implement the restructuring and hiring, I was met with pushback. She had taken all the complaints of the middle managers, layered in her own opinions (as many of those middle managers were her personal friends) and proceeded to try to squash the agreed-upon plan.
The CEO was not one for conflict, so he backed down from the original direction and let the HR department change the plan. The restructuring never happened, the candidates were not hired and the culture of the department was never fixed. This ruffled the feathers of the strong employees whom I did not want to leave the company.
I couldn't believe what had happened: A few disgruntled middle managers who were not happy with the new plan toppled it via an HR department head who was basically given a "veto vote" on the company's high-level plans and direction. And the CEO just let it happen?
You can guess what happened from there. Half the marketing department — the strong employees — all left for new jobs. The company's revenues dropped around 33% in the process as its smartest employees left and new ideas to grow revenue were not implemented.
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What this means for your business
To the CEOs who might be saying, "this sounds familiar," you have to remember a few important things. First of all, the strategic plan is the strategic plan, and if you have a smart leadership team implementing that plan, you need to let the plan run its course — you don't change direction on the whims and opinions of a single "veto voter" midstream.
The HR team needs to know that they are there to support the business in executing its plans — they don't get to dictate direction. Yes, their opinions need to be heard, but if they get outvoted by the opinions of the collective management team, they need to back down. And if your HR department manager does not subscribe to that model, they need to be replaced by someone willing to march to the beat of the company drum, not their own.
This post is not intended to bash all human resources departments or managers, as most are very good. But this post was simply inspired by the one bad apple manager who was allowed to dictate the company's direction based on her agenda. If you think your bad apples are going to spoil your bushel (or worse yet, impede your business plan), don't let it happen. Have conviction in your plan, and make sure all managers are beating to the same drum.
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