与人力资源部门打交道，要注意这六大忌讳

很多雇员将人力资源部门看作是“恐怖的监管”团队，甚至有着刻板的官员做派，但人力资源部门实际得到的肯定要远低于其应得的赞赏。

位于新泽西州费尔菲尔德的人力资源咨询公司Red Clover的一位咨询师凯利·奇米诺说：“我们负责策略和增长，帮助处理涨薪、公司构架、团队建设、汇报关系、确立职责范围，并确保员工能够获得最佳信息。”

如今，人力资源团队比以往任何时候都更依赖于数据，他们正在采用新的平台和工具来帮助机构，并将其雇员、福利和文化转化为竞争优势。人力资源的另外一个使命就是制定具有说服力的企业文化。毕竟，罗致恒富公司（Robert Half）在2018年的一份报告中指出，在发现公司文化与自身不够匹配的情况下，三分之一的求职者会拒绝为该公司工作。

然而，人手不足仍是人力资源团队所要面对的现实。在今年的人力资源高管调查《让人力资源领导者感到寝食难安的问题》中，一半以上（51%）的受调对象称，他们没有足够的人手来合理地处理人力资源相关工作，这个数字较2018年增长了5%。

奇米诺称，为了能够有效地开展工作，并为公司提供策略，做出重要贡献，已然人手不足的人力资源团队需要杜绝低效并消除干扰，因此可以想象，某某员工第三次丢失其健康保险文件是多么让人头疼的事情。

其实与人力资源部门打交道很简单，最好的方式就是避免以下六大忌讳，看完后可别吃惊。

错过截止日期或丢失文件

有可能人力资源部门已经通过不同方式多次告知其雇员，公司的开放报名日期是什么时候，何时需要选择参加新项目，或应在何时回复参加公司的招待会。位于纽约州艾尔米拉的人力资源咨询公司Burr Consulting的创始人马修·布尔表示，当你错过这些日期或遗失了基本文件时，所有相关人员都会很头疼。

他说：“如果你必须为某些人打印两次或三次表格，这真的是一件令人沮丧的事情。”所以，请尽量使用自动化的方案，比如登录福利门户网站来下载表格，并将重要的截止日期标注在日历上。

忽略员工手册

不管是在线的电子版还是放置于办公室活页夹中厚厚的纸质文件，员工手册并非只是无用的规定集合。奇米诺指出，它可以帮助雇员解答很多常见问题，甚至可以从中发现意想不到的政策或福利。在拿起电话询问人力资源部门有关政策或福利方面的问题之前，不妨先看看手册。她说：“通常，人们会发现答案就在自己身边。”

不重视会面

如果你确实需要与人力资源部门面谈，那么要像对待其他会议那样郑重对待与人力资源部门的会面。雇员通常不把人力专员的时间当回事，往往会迟到或在最后一刻取消会面。奇米诺说，遵守会议约定并按时参加“会让我感到你是认真的，很在意和珍惜我们共同的时间，也希望事情得到解决。”

反对变化

位于英国的特许人事和发展学会（Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development）的研究员苏·安德鲁斯表示，当雇员比较古板，而且拒绝接受新的工作方式时，冲突可能会接踵而至。有时候，即便这种变化出自于管理层的要求，而且已经发生，但雇员依然会拒绝。

安德鲁斯说：“有时候，员工对于某些事情有一些抵触情绪，而且会觉得‘为什么改变的人要是我？’，而不是退后一步思考‘整个公司的形势，为什么公司会进行这类调整？’”她还指出，如果人们选择后一种方式的话，就会理解这类变化并非是无的放矢。

不向公司汇报伤情或事故

布尔说，如果雇员未能在工作期间汇报这类事情，“他们会为公司和受伤雇员带来更多的问题”。如果危险局面引发了事故或伤情，那么就必须立即进行纠正。布尔称，公司在应对工伤或事故方面可能有其自身的规定或要求。立即汇报还有助于个人获得及时治疗，并预防因为耽误医疗或其他应有的关注而使伤情或局势恶化。

让人力资源部门过早介入

人力资源团队对于纠纷调解来说有着异常重要的作用。然而，在你尝试自行解决纠纷局面之前，通常先不要惊动人力资源部门。

安德鲁斯说：“从我的经验来看，人力资源团队最大的抱怨在于，雇员们在尝试通过非正式渠道解决问题之前就经常将问题正式移交人力资源部门。问题在于，一旦人力资源介入之后，整个事件就会变得更正式，而且原本可能很容易解决的问题将变得更复杂。”她指出，在这种情况下，纠纷所涉雇员之间的矛盾可能会进一步恶化。

当然，有一些事件必须直接交由人力资源部门处理，例如员工的上级存在不当行为。在这种情况下，应该尽快上报。然而，对于一些不那么严重的事件，不妨尝试一对一地解决分歧，或利用上级的帮助，此举能够避免事态的升级。

要想与这支以雇员为中心的团队建立良好的关系，有一条指导原则十分适用：像对待其他任何同事一样明智地使用人力资源团队的时间和资源。此外还有一个小建议，就是别再丢失自己的文件。（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林

While many employees look at Human Resources as the “scary oversight” team or perhaps even paper-pushers, HR departments get much less credit than what they deserve.

“We handle strategy and growth. We help with salary increases, comp structures, banding, reporting lines, creating job descriptions, and making sure that you have the best information available to you,” says Kylie Cimmino, a consultant with Fairfield, New Jersey-based HR consulting firm Red Clover.

More data-driven than ever, HR teams are adopting new platforms and tools to help the organization use its employees, benefits, and culture as a competitive advantage. HR is also tasked with crafting a compelling culture. After all, a 2018 report from Robert Half found that one-third of candidates would turn down a job if the company wasn’t a good cultural fit.

But HR teams tend to be understaffed. More than half (51 percent) of respondents to this year's Human Resources Executive’s survey “What’s Keeping HR Leaders Up at Night?” said they didn’t have enough staff to appropriately handle their workload —a 5 percent jump over 2018.

To be able to do their jobs effectively and to bring their strategic and critical contributions to the company, already understaffed HR teams need to streamline inefficiencies and eliminate distractions, says Cimmino –so, yes, Bob losing his health insurance paperwork for the third time really doesn’t help anyone.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the best way to deal with HR is remembering 6 things you need to avoid doing:

Missing deadlines or losing paperwork

Chances are that you were told multiple times and through several different methods when your company’s open enrollment period is, when you needed to opt in to a new program, or when to RSVP to the company retreat. And when you miss those deadlines or lose basic paperwork, you create headaches for all involved, says Matthew Burr, founder of Elmira, New York based HR consulting firm Burr Consulting.

“If you’ve got to print out forms two or three times for someone, that becomes a frustration,” he says. When possible, use automated options, such as benefits portals, to download forms and note important deadlines on your calendar.

Ignoring the employee handbook

Whether it’s online or housed in a thick binder in your office, the employee handbook isn’t just a useless collection of rules. Many routine questions can be answered by first consulting the handbook, and you may even find out about policies or benefits that you didn’t realize you had, Cimmino says. Before you pick up the phone to ask HR a question about policies or benefits, consult your handbook. "You’ll often find that you had the answer all along," she says.

Blowing off meetings

If you do need face time with HR, take the meeting as seriously as you would any other. Employees often treat HR members’ time loosely, running late to meetings or cancelling them at the last minute. That’s as disruptive for the HR team as anyone else. Keeping meetings and being on time “makes me see that you’re serious and you care, and you're valuing your time and mine and you want to get things handled,” Cimmino says.

Rejecting change

When employees are inflexible and refuse to accept new ways of doing things, conflict may ensue, says Sue Andrews, fellow of the UK-based Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. There are times when employees resist, even when changes are made because management requested them.

“Sometimes, staff can be a little inflexible about things and take the view that, ‘Why should I have to change?’ Rather than perhaps taking a step back and thinking, ‘Well, what's the bigger picture here? Why are the company asking for this change?’” says Andrews. When you opt for the latter, you may see that there are valid reasons for the shift, she adds.

Not reporting injuries or accidents

When employees fail to do this on the job, “they create additional issues for both the company and the injured employee,” Burr says. If a dangerous situation caused an accident or injury, it needs to be rectified right away. And companies may have their own protocol or requirements for dealing with injuries or accidents on the job, according to Burr. Immediate reporting also helps the individual get immediate treatment and prevent exacerbating the injury or situation by delaying medical or other appropriate attention.

Involving HR too soon

The HR team can be invaluable in mediating disputes, but that typically shouldn’t happen before you’ve tried to resolve the situation yourself.

“In my experience, the biggest gripe that teams have is that employees will frequently raise an issue formally to HR before they have tried to resolve the matter informally,” says Andrews. “The problem is that once HR is involved, matters will naturally become more formal and a situation that could have easily been resolved becomes more complex.” The situation may also become more contentious between the employees involved in the dispute, she says.

Of course, there are some situations that warrant going directly to HR —for example, when the individual’s supervisor is acting inappropriately— and, in those cases, employees should use the resource. But, for less severe matters, trying to iron out differences one-on-one or with a supervisor’s help can avoid an escalated situation.

Being as judicious in using HR team members’ time and resources as you would any other co-worker is a good guideline in developing strong relationships with this employee-centered team. And not losing your paperwork over and over helps, too.