How to Keep HR from Being the Employee Complaint Department

It seems that HR has become the place where employees go to vent about every petty slight or departmental squabble. And employees somehow expect HR to instantaneously fix these and smooth over all their workplace relationship issues. Certainly, employees who come to HR to lodge legitimate complaints of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation is one thing—but this petty nonsense with employees running to HR about anything and everything is getting out of control. The problem with HR being The Complaint Department is that organizational resources are not being allocated to HR to help deal with this increase in employee foot traffic. The result is that a lot of HR professionals, many of whom are women, are working longer and longer hours every day just to try to keep their heads above water with their workloads. And, with technology having changed the way we work, HR is also much more accessible after work hours. And, some HR professionals are beginning to hit a burn-out factor in their careers from a lack of work/life balance. In this enlightening, informative, and entertaining book, internationally recognized professional speaker, author, and HR consultant, Natalie Ivey, discusses the eight root causes to The Complaint Department phenomenon and very specific organizational and personal strategies to diplomatically push back on issues and problems that HR shouldn’t own. She highlights how HR’s involvement in departmental concerns is actually an enabling behavior which is creating the “on ramp” for the foot traffic to HR’s door and how this enabling behavior is crushing the productivity of the HR department. She also shares specific communication tips and techniques to use when handling difficult employees and assertive communication tips on how to deal with conflict-averse managers who are shirking their leadership responsibilities and creating more work for HR. Lastly, she provides great insight into how to execute a “stay or go” HR career assessment to improve work/life balance and personal and professional satisfaction.