Human resources departments, which are also sometimes called “employee experience” or “people operations” teams, can have a bad reputation for not being someone an employee can trust.
Daniel Space, a senior HR business partner for large tech, media and entertainment companies, said the reason for negative assumptions about HR can be because employees often have very limited exposure to HR departments, and HR teams themselves do not do the best job of getting across what it is they actually do.
The “HR only exists to protect the company” narrative employees can hold, he said, discounts the variety of work within HR departments. These teams are also responsible for core benefits, compensation, immigration, morale, and training and development, things that do help employees.
“Obviously, HR teams are employed by the company. And so we’re here to help the company be successful. That said, that’s not mutually exclusive from the goal of what employees should also be working toward,” added Gianna Driver, chief human resources officer at Exabeam, a global cybersecurity company, who considers her role to be a bridge between employees and the company.
To clear the air about what exactly HR does and can help with, four HR experts weigh in on the biggest misunderstandings about HR’s role:
