Pros
- A consultancy that cares about people and work life balance - This isn't a pro but I'd like to point out it's a very different experience being a consultant vs. part of services / HR team
Cons
- HR leadership is underqualified to fulfil role. For some reason it is assumed if you have been a consultant, you can transition into managing a HR function, with zero training/ experience. My manager was not competent to lead the team. Not meritocratic, no clear structure or progression pathways, no clear pay bandings. The entire HR team is siloed. Burdened with admin. - I was scrutinised for using basic HR terms. Example: when I referred to performance management as performance management… I was told this has a negative connotation and that it indicates we are trying to manage someone’s performance as in manage them out. (This wasn’t the case I was simply referring to the process...) Other examples: workforce planning – I get that we are shifting to a world of using terms such as people rather than human resources/ workforce which I am all here for, but please try to understand basic textbook terminology. - Lack of availability and no sense of urgency to get back to messages or emails. Team lead always gave the impression they were being drowned in emails, at times I wouldn’t get a response for weeks and had to chase multiple times. When I first joined, I would frequently ping the teams group chat with questions, one of my colleagues told me to stop asking questions in team chat and can I email as it is distracting/ the other colleague told me don’t email just ping a message. I found it difficult to build knowledge and integrate into the team especially working from home. - No appetite for process or policy, everything is done in an ad hoc manner. Example: WFH/WFO – no consistency. Some people told to come in 5 days a week and had to push to get 1 day WFH. Others told it’s ok not to come in/ some allowed to work abroad for months at a time = really hard to manage expectations. I was penalised for not going to the office more regularly when my team members had been in a lot less than me. Another example: when I drafted a pregnancy loss policy there was a lot of push back… Do we need it/ can’t we trust people to take the time they need/ why are we timeboxing grief. I pushed back further saying we need to safeguard females/ there needs to be a minimum time off allowance. Also no clarity on who get’s final sign off due to “no hierarchy” went round in circles. Someone just needs to take accountability. - Brand themselves as non-hierarchical however I was put into situations where this wasn't the case. Example - I drafted a new agreement for Apprentices, role changed from HR specific apprentice to Ops and HR. Asked Ops for a few sentences about the role and responsibilities so I could work this into agreement. Informed by the individual they were too busy to provide this. Next thing I know I'm put into a group chat by this individual with my manager and she is stressing the contracts need to be sent out by COB. For a company that introduced the notion of "drama triangle" it sure goes against this ethos. This is just one of many examples. - Constant changing of priorities/ then blame culture when something isn't completed. HR leadership not aligned on priorities. Example, my head of people encouraging me to work on recruitment initiative, my team lead telling me they're not sure if I should be working on this... Just align on priorities and expectations so that everyone can do their job. - Just before I left they were shifting to a model of “empowering coaches to take more HR responsibility” which I fundamentally do not agree with. Example, getting coaches to communicate notice period increases. I voiced my concerns and the risks to the team but was ignored. Feedback from several employees to me: no clear rationale/ they weren’t told and found out through a colleague/ didn’t know what to do if they didn’t want to sign off the change. For me, this shift in the way of working doesn’t align to what I fundamentally believe from an operational standpoint. - Simple things made problematic eg. holiday approval. I followed process, my holiday was approved, then I got an email telling me "not to make plans" as my manager had wrongly approved. eg. red face expense policy. I went to the CIPD conference and booked a standard Hilton room, but was questioned about it. The invoice clearly stated what sort of booking was made, I was made to feel unreasonable.
