The Secret HR Director: In times of trouble, get bossy with your boss

There is a quote, that originated with the Quakers, about speaking truth to power.

It’s a nice idea. In HR, where integrity is so prized, many people like to believe that they do it.  Recently, there was a story where a CEO fired 400 employees with no warning. Where was HR in that organisation? Did they even have HR? At what point did someone say that there was trouble and something had to be done? Well, the CEO clearly took the reins. 

It’s a difficult call for HR in circumstances like this. They couldn’t unilaterally go to the staff and warn them and they may not be in full possession of the facts, in any case. At the 11^th hour it could be the administrators coming in or a private equity deal.

So, what can we do? Part of the role of the HR Director is to coach the CEO through these things. Just because they are brilliant businesspeople, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not petrified. One CEO I worked with, faced with a redundancy programme, looked at me and said “well, shall I just walk out too?” You may feel rather like Winston Wolfe, in the film Pulp Fiction, cleaning up and steering a rudderless ship. But HR can be a real enabler, giving the leadership confidence to make the changes or come to terms with hard decisions.

Making change a way of life, having an engaged workforce who are comfortable with it, is another way of preparing staff to cope with these situations. One member of staff told me recently that the former CEO had promised that there would never be another redundancy in their company. No one can make those kinds of promises, unless they plan that every redundancy becomes a conversation with a hefty settlement agreement attached. 

As is often the case, the unpredictable nature of human resources comes to the fore. There’s only so much preparation anyone can do with these things. As Woody Allen said, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.