Improving relations between HR and line managers
HR Magazine published an article today commenting on research done by the management consultancy firm, Hay Group. The research tells us that half of line managers that took part in the study felt that HR did not give them the appropriate support they needed to be good managers. There were various reasons for this but the one reason in particular that struck us at Honeydew as very simple to solve was this:
68% of HR Directors found that up to one third of their time was spent answering day-to-day questions from line managers. Within that, 48% of line managers thought that HR were too slow in responding to these requests and 41% of them would rather ‘Google’ the answer than ask HR.
So surely, the answer is simple! That the information that line managers need on a day to day basis, is published somewhere and easily accessible (such as the company intranet or even as a file for each manager to save to their desktop) and that the more complex cases be referred straight to HR as opposed to a line manager trying to deal with something that they perhaps do not have the time or resources to deal with themselves.
Somewhere along the line, clear boundaries and referral processes need to be set to allow both line managers and HR to know when a case should be dealt with by the other party. As an example, all employees off work or struggling with depression, stress or back problems should be referred straight to HR to begin an occupational health route. Or even from an informative point of view, if a manager needs to relay information on sick pay or holiday entitlement (as an example), they know they can get this information with the click of a button or exactly who to ask, and how long to expect before an answer is given.
Honeydew’s Engage absence and attendance management platform can ensure that line managers and HR alike have all the informative resources they need at the click of a button as well as being guided through the relevant managerial procedures by the Engage software. So there you have it, Honeydew’s solution to an age old business relationship problem – improving relations between HR and line managers (and many others too!) To learn more about Engage, join us in a FREE webinar on Dec 4th GMT at 16:00pm, just get in touch for details.