Do you strive to be an employer of choice that provides a great place to work for your team? If YES, it is time for you to revisit your HR behaviour strategy.
Unlike many professionals in business such as IT managers who focus on managing IT team, or operation managers who deal with fixed assets that functions largely in accordance with company growth, HR practitioners deal with humans who are known to act in the most unpredictable ways as they are unable to be controlled or owned. It is in the spirit of humans that they demand freedom and flexibility, thus, HR cannot strictly control their motion, even at work.
See also: HR Knowledge: Psychology Theory of Work Motivation (Chapter II)
However, HR team can easily maintain employees with their behaviours, said Rubel and Kee in their study. Rubel and Kee found that human resources practices directly influence employee’s attitude and behaviours, which eventually help organisational performance and operation. On the other hand, employees within an organisation need to be led rather than simply managed, meaning HR needs to gain respect from employees before anything else. That being said, adopting good HR behaviour is crucial in order to win some respects. Well-behaved human resources practitioners show the integrity of oneself and the company that they represent, resulting in a respectful and harmonious work environment.
Moreover, how HR behaves become a critical factor for professionalism in the lives of HR practitioners, especially when HR is acting towards their responsibilities including setting behavioural standards for employees. Behaving as HR professionals, however, does not mean that HR practitioners are required to be saints. The true meaning of having good behaviour is that they need to be people of integrity who, within reason, behave in private as they do in public.
Given the above reasons, HR practitioners should at least have character traits which include being courageous, solutions-driven, future-oriented, critical and enquiring thinker, collaborative, and being a person who understands and cares. All these can likely usher HR people to not just be well-rounded individuals, but also are likely to be leaders among their peers.
Another key feature of effective human resources is to be able to maintain two-way communication. As Sheryl Sandberg has said, “Talking can transform minds, which can transform behaviours, which can also transform institutions.”
Read also: More than Just a Feedback: Better Employee Engagement Strategy
