UK 
United States
Before launching her own talent and coaching business in 2022, Serena Palmer was Director of Global Diversity and Talent at Ørsted – a position that her two previous roles (spanning ten years), as Head of Talent and Workplace Planning at Telefónica and Talent Business Partner at The Co-operative Group, should have meant she could do this standing on her head.
But when she was asked to present to executives in America for the first time, she recalls just how miniscule they made her feel, when an expected introductory first meet instead turned into them grilling her about US employment policy. “I was left feeling completely stupid,” she recalls. “Everything I’d prepared went out of the window. I felt like I’d immediately lost credibility. I couldn’t tell them the answers to questions they were asking me because I wasn’t expecting them and hadn’t prepped.”
The experience was so chastening for Palmer that it still sticks in her mind today, and it’s why she says she has empathy with the results of some truly shocking research – polling which finds that not only do HR professionals increasingly feel stressed in their roles, but much more worryingly than this – they feel what the research calls ‘out of their depth’.
According to the research – by PayFit – such has been the recent expansion of CHROs’ responsibilities that nearly two-thirds (64%) of HR professionals polled said they were now ‘working beyond their limits’ – with them saying their work is suffering as a result.
“The phrase ‘out of their depth’ is worrying,” says Palmer, “because it’s one layer deeper than the already worrying aspect of poor mental health amongst HR professionals.” She adds: “This them saying they no longer feel knowledgeable enough to do all the things expected on them.” Palmer continues: “The thing is, I feel it’s been a long time coming. Ten years ago everything was about HR winning a seat at the table, but I sense that now this has been achieved, they’re being pushed into decision-making without the right expertise.”
HR feeling like it has to be ‘the expert’
The double-whammy, argues Jo Burrell – who specifically runs support for stressed out HR professionals – is the ever-widening broadening of HR’s remit – which is expanding at a speed they can’t keep up with.
The phrase 'out of their depth is worrying' - it's them saying they no longer feel knowledgeable enough to do all the things expected on them
She says “This data totally speaks to the increasing complexity widening of their remits, the impact of which just hasn’t been realised by the rest of the business.”
>She continues: “There is a feeling HR now needs to be the ‘expert’ in virtually everything. The problem, is that if people in the rest of the business see HR as the people that have responsibility for an area, they also see them as being the experts – when this just isn’t always the case, or indeed possible. There’s just been no let-up in the number of things that seem to land on their laps, and it’s now gotten to a breaking point.” Adds Steve Grant, Managing Director, Figment Agency: “HR professionals are feeling overwhelmed now because their roles have expanded rapidly, often without matching increases in resources or training. They’re juggling everything from recruitment and compliance to employee wellbeing and organisational change, all while adapting to evolving workplace challenges like hybrid working and mental health support. This constant expansion creates a feeling of being pulled in too many directions at once.”
Is feeling overwhelmed a failure of HR to refresh itself?
While lots of professions – not just HR – could also be described said to be undergoing significant change (with a ballooning of their responsibilities too), Marie-Alice, Chief People & Fulfillment Officer at PayFit says it’s HR in particular that “feels confronted by a higher level of uncertainty and chaos, because it’s HR that is expected to deal with it.” She says: “I think we in HR definitely feel this burden more.”
The big question of course, is whether HR professionals only have themselves to blame – particularly if they’ve not been good at updating themselves; not been good at refreshing their skills; and have not adapted to change and uncertainty as well as others around them. Could this be a fairer reflection of reality?
