Ten Things Human Resources Won't Tell
You
By JIM RENDON
"We're squeezed too." There was a time when human resources departments handled
every staffing need at a company, from hiring and firing to administering
benefits and determining salaries. But HR's role has begun to change
significantly as departments have shrunk at companies across the board.
According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, the
profession's largest association, the head count at the average HR department
fell from 13 in 2007 to nine in 2008. "HR departments are under pressure like
never before," says Steve Miranda, the society's global HR and integration
officer.
As much of what was once HR's domain increasingly gets outsourced, human
resources is regrouping to help show top management how it can add to the bottom
line, says Tony Rucci, former chief administrative officer at Cardinal Health
and a professor at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University.
Though that may seem like an odd role for a department that doesn't make or sell
anything, strong HR departments are now focusing on boosting productivity by
helping employees better understand what's expected of them and by showing
managers how to be more effective.
"We're not always your advocate..." Employees often turn to HR if they're having
problems with a manager, but they don't always come away satisfied. In 2007,
Ronica Tabor was interviewing for a better sales job at tool manufacturer Hilti
North America when, she says, the interviewer told her that women had to work
harder than men to learn to use and sell tools and that she should check with
her husband about applying for the job. Ms. Tabor says she turned to HR with
"high hopes" they'd keep the interviewer from doing this with others. But Ms.
Tabor's attorney says she was "made ineligible for promotion for another year"
and left the company.
She is suing Hilti in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
Oklahoma, alleging gender discrimination. A Hilti spokesperson says the
company's investigation found that Tabor wasn't qualified for the opening and
that Hilti doesn't discriminate. "Our HR process did work," says the
spokesperson. Still, employees should realize that HR answers to the company,
says Lewis Maltby, director of the National Workrights Institute, an
employee-rights organization. "HR is a spear carrier for the boss," he says.
"...but we can help your career." Human resources managers do much more than
handle employment agreements, medical forms and 401(k) paperwork. They can also
have a hand in helping to retain and promote top talent—i.e., you. J.T.
O'Donnell, a former HR manager and the founder of online career-development
company Careerealism.com, says it's a good idea to be in touch with someone in
the department. Employees often want to avoid HR, Ms. O'Donnell says, "but you
really should do the opposite."
Molly John credits HR with helping her get promoted to partner at Ernst & Young
last year, after she participated in an HR-sponsored program assigning senior
partners as mentors to promising junior employees. Without it, she says, "I
would not have been promoted so soon." Seymour Adler, a senior VP with HR
management firm Aon Consulting, says one way to be recognized for your work is
to keep human resources in the loop—say, by sending your HR manager an
occasional e-mail to let her know how you've been contributing to the company's
success.
That kind of connection could help land you a promotion when positions open up
or even keep you off the chopping block during the next round of layoffs.
"Want the job? Then you'll want to get to know us." With unemployment hovering
around 10%, HR managers are inundated with responses for every job posting. In
fact, some companies are hiring outside firms to post jobs and sort through
résumés, presenting only a dozen or so qualified candidates for consideration.
How to make the cut? Be sure your résumé and cover letter highlight the skills
asked for in the job posting; HR tosses applications that don't meet all the
basic criteria. And ask yourself what in your background fits the company's
needs, says Mike Wright, senior vice president of outsourcing sales with Hewitt
Associates.
Another angle: Approach an in-house recruiter or hiring manager before they post
a position. Try using business-oriented social-media sites like LinkedIn.com to
meet contacts, says Ms. O'Donnell. Judi Perkins, founder of
FindThePerfectJob.com, says she found most of her clients jobs this way. When
you score an interview with HR reps, take it seriously—you never know how much
say they have in the process. And ask them what qualities they look for in
employees. "You really need to sell them on your abilities," says Ms. O'Donnell.
"Yes, Facebook can get you fired."
Employees like to think that what they do on their own time is their own
business, but that's not always the case. According to a 2009 survey by the
American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, 27% of companies have
policies about what employees can post on personal blogs. "You have to think
about whether this will come back to haunt you," says Nancy Flynn, executive
director of the institute.
That never occurred to Nate Fulmer, a warehouse manager for chemical supplier
Environmental Express. Mr. Fulmer and his wife made fun of a local church sermon
in a podcast they posted online in 2005. Mr. Fulmer says it got so much
attention, his boss listened to it, thought it was offensive and fired him. "I
was so blindsided," he says. (A company spokesperson says the firm has new
ownership and can't comment on employee matters.) According to Ms. Flynn's
survey, 2% of companies have dismissed employees over the content of personal
social-networking pages. Ms. Flynn recommends employees check company policy
before posting anything online and steer clear of potentially offensive content,
even if it has nothing to do with work.
"In some companies, we're not very useful at all."
It seems that every company has a different approach to human resources. For
some, it's nothing more than an administrative job, involved with hiring and
firing, benefits and not much more. These firms may have a dysfunctional work
environment with high turnover, Ms. Perkins says, where employees can often feel
trapped. By contrast, companies with strong HR departments have been shown to do
better financially, says Mr. Rucci. Empowered human resources reps can also help
guide employees through their careers.
How to tell the difference? For one, see whom HR reports to. If it's the CEO,
that's good, says Mr. Maltby. If HR managers are in the field, getting to know
employees and how the company works, that can be another key, says LaRhonda
Edwards, an employee-relations panel member with the Society of Human Resource
Management. One way to suss out a human resources department's effectiveness is
to ask the manager interviewing you how HR operates and what it has done to help
her achieve her goals. If she doesn't have an answer, it's "not a good sign,"
Mr. Rucci says.
"You're not paranoid—we are watching you."
Companies want to make sure you're working most of the time, not sending joke
e-mails to your buddies. Half of organizations in the ePolicy Institute survey
banned the use of personal e-mail on the job, and more than one in four reported
firing employees for misusing the Internet. In many companies, HR works with the
information-technology department and the legal team to develop policies for
electronic communication.
These policies aren't a secret. Ms. Edwards says she makes a big effort to walk
new employees through computer-use and e-mail policies, and they must sign forms
saying they're aware of them. Many companies employ software that sifts through
e-mail looking for curse words or sexually explicit language. IT monitors Web
usage and can see every site an employee visits. In fact, anything you do via
the company's server—most activity on an office computer, including personal
e-mail—is subject to review by your boss.
Firings over these issues are on the rise, says Ms. Flynn. In 2009, 26% of
companies reported terminating employees for violations of e-mail policy, up
from 14% in 2001. "Employees should act as if the boss was looking over their
shoulder," says California employment mediator Michelle Reinglass.
"Read the fine print."
When you take a job, you may be agreeing to more than you know. In the fine
print of employment agreements, employee handbooks and job applications, many
companies include a mandatory arbitration clause—meaning that you agree to give
up your right to take any dispute to court, even if the employer has broken the
law. Instead, the case goes to an arbitrator, who decides it privately, and "the
grounds for appeal are extremely limited," says Donna Lenhoff, an attorney with
the National Employment Lawyers Association. Lenhoff estimates that more than 30
million Americans are bound by arbitration clauses at work.
Employers—particularly those in financial services, health care and
pharmaceuticals—often favor arbitration because it keeps costs down and cases
out of the headlines, says Manesh Rath, a partner at the law firm Keller &
Heckman. But, says Ms. Lenhoff, arbitration seldom works out well for employees.
A recent study found that arbitrators decided in favor of employees just 30 % of
the time, and when the individual arbitrator had worked previously on a case
with the employer, the employee won only 12% of the time.
Ms. Reinglass says employees can often fare better in court. "Someone on a jury
might relate to your experience in a way that an arbitrator may not," she says.
"We know more about you than you think."
These days companies do a lot more than look over a pile of résumés and call a
few references before hiring a new employee. They bring in outside firms to dig
into an applicant's background and verify education and employment histories,
and they will often even search criminal records and credit reports. According
to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 53% of companies have
conducted credit checks on their employees. Companies are concerned that "if you
have a lot of financial pressure, you might not act in the best interest of the
company," says Mr. Wright.
Another survey, conducted in 2007 by HR Focus magazine, found that 86% of firms
performed criminal background checks during the hiring process, and it has been
estimated that nearly two-thirds of companies test job applicants for drug use.
But not everyone thinks such measures are extreme. If anything, employers don't
dig deeply enough, says Mr. Rath: "An employee with a problem with a previous
employer or criminal record will try to hide it."
"We love tests."
Job seekers today have so much experience packaging themselves, with tailored
résumés and rehearsed answers, that companies turn to tests to find out more
about what makes them tick. A 2009 survey by research firm IOMA found that 26%
of companies conducted personality, psychological or integrity tests on
applicants. Job seekers may also be asked to take a test to quantify their
creativity. What's more, insurance companies are pushing businesses to screen
for traits like risk-taking, a quality the underwriter would not appreciate in,
say, an applicant for a forklift-driver position.
But testing does have its problems. Mr. Rucci says that the most important
indicator of future success on the job is past performance. Counter to that, HR
managers sometimes distance themselves from the hiring process by relying on
tests rather than performance appraisals. "There was a time when someone would
say, 'This is the best-qualified candidate, based on their record'," says Mr.
Maltby. "Now it's tests, and no one takes responsibility for the decision."
From the May issue of SmartMoney magazine.
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of
this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For
non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints
at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com
Back to Home Page
Back to Articles page
From May 2010