In a recent article, the trick to being a great HR department was revealed — act small, even if you’re really big. At first thought, this didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Don’t larger corporations have a better success rate? They have grown from a small entity to a large conglomerate. They have the capital to sustain. Aren’t these all necessities for success?
Not necessarily. Think about why a lot of companies are failing these days. It’s not because they are small and trying to make it in a rough economy. It’s because they’ve gotten too big. They aren’t doing the things that smaller companies are doing such as:
- Taking responsibility;
- Being responsive to everything and everyone;
- Being in the know;
- Always saying, “yes;” and
- Treating the business like it’s theirs.
HR departments, regardless of their size, need to act like they are small. You’ll notice a lot of the successful larger companies are leaning towards hiring generalists in their HR department rather than specialists. This allows the department to operate as a team, rather than as individuals. According to the article, “A lack of response, lack of solutions, lack taking full responsibility to ensure someone gets the answer they need will not be tolerated, at any level, within their HR shop.” Fostering a sense of teamwork in your HR departments (or any department for that matter) ensures everyone is working together to solve any issue that arises immediately. When someone calls their HR department, all they want to hear is, “Yes. We’ll take care of it right now.”
Not being responsive in a small company would lead to an ultimate job loss. People will stop coming to you if they don’t feel you are helpful. Once you aren’t helpful, you aren’t needed. So the next time someone comes to you for help, ask yourself if your answer to him or her would suffice in a small organization? If not — change your answer.
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