What is HR support? An interview with Rob Birley

What is HR?

Thanks to programmes like The Office, Human Resources has become renowned as widely disliked people intent on ruining anything remotely fun. The Office’s Toby Flenderson is one of the only characters to end up unfulfilled – supposedly the curse of HR. Let us tell you why these assumptions are grossly untrue. We might be biased but our 5 star reviews and rapidly growing team say otherwise. Read on to find out how our HR support can help you.

1. Why do you think businesses need HR support?

Human Resources is a massive discipline. Many call centre HR organisations present it as a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ function but it’s much more than that. I read a survey a couple of years ago that said 70% of UK managers haven’t been trained how to manage a team. We expect good Engineers or good Accountants to suddenly become great team managers overnight. Being good at your discipline doesn’t make you a great people manager. We can help identify the right people to manage teams and then train them to do so.

We also face a difficult recruitment market in the UK where it’s hard to stand out in the war for talent. HR can help a business to define roles, recruit against the essential criteria and then set them up for success by pulling a comprehensive induction plan together.

Moreover, in the last 2 years the pandemic has shown the need for good quality HR advice in the face of an ever changing pandemic. With so many changes in the legal environment, it is easy to make mistakes if you don’t have HR support. All these reasons and more make HR an essential function for businesses.

2. How does not having HR disadvantage a company?

For all the reasons listed in Q1, HR is needed by businesses. Yes you can train managers without having HR and yes you can recruit new employees. But can you do it effectively when you’ve got so many other hats to wear? And keeping up with the ever changing landscape of Employment Law is a job in itself. Done well, HR can really boost your employee engagement. If people genuinely are your greatest asset, why not invest in some support for them?

3. How would you define the role of HR?

First of all, what HR isn’t – the company police. We shouldn’t be there to tell people what to do and what not to do. It should be integral in helping to define organisational culture and ensuring everything aligns to that culture – recruitment, induction, employee benefits and so on.  There must be an element of helping to define the dos and don’ts but that’s not the primary function of HR.

4. What do you think people assume HR is? And do you agree/disagree with the assumptions?

HR tend to be known as the killjoys of a company, looking for any reason to remove anything that is good about working there. Or worse still, it can be regarded as irrelevant and a cost centre. And you know what, I’ve worked in some HR departments that operate in that way. However, anyone who has experienced good HR knows how integral to the business it can be. If we can help you get more successful hires, happy and engaged employees and therefore a great customer reputation then why not invest in HR?

5. Any other thoughts you’d like to add?

To get the best HR for your business, you need to decide what you want it to look like. If you just want someone there to dig you out of a hole then call centre HR will always be the most cost effective means of achieving that. However, you will have to do it yourself and will end up implementing your own processes based on their guidance. But there is another option. You could engage an outsourced HR Manager. It may be more expensive to do so but if you choose a local HR consultant like Cornerstone Resources, they will get to know your business over the longer term. That way they can recommend initiatives rather than you having to do all the thinking yourself. If you do so, it could pay for itself and more over the medium term.