Over 80% of workers are scared of their company’s HR department
Is HR… scary? Over 80% of workers said they’re afraid of their employer’s HR department, according to a survey of over 1,000 U.S. workers from MyPerfectResume, a resume and career advice platform.
Some 85% of workers said they’ve hesitated to discuss a work-related issue with HR, citing concerns like a lack of confidentiality, perceived ineffectiveness of HR, fear of repercussions, and uncertainty about HR’s response.
And some 37% of workers said they just find HR workers to be unapproachable. It’s an issue for those in HR roles who can’t do their jobs effectively if the people they’re in charge of don’t trust them, but there are some steps HR leaders can take to make staff feel more comfortable and clear about what they’re there for. Much of the fear is likely stemming from the fact that staff are just confused about HR’s responsibilities, workplace experts say.
“Human resources is such a multi faceted department that it can be really tricky for employees to decipher, like, what the heck are these HR professional team members doing? And how, if at all, can they help me?” said Niki Ramirez, founder and principal consultant at HR Answers, a human resources consultancy for small businesses.
HR leaders’ roles have evolved significantly over the past decade and they’re now in charge of a variety of functions, like payroll and benefits, company culture, training and development, and recruitment to name a few. It’s typical for employees to not know the exact responsibilities among those in other roles in their organization, making it important for HR to provide some clarity. They can do so by getting specific about their duties and addressing that with staff.
“Every HR team needs to be able to describe to employees what they can expect with the HR department, you know, sort of a list of FAQs or a video that describes who the team members are and what their major responsibilities are to help to start to build that connection and trust that people need in order to come to an HR department and really ask tough questions,” Ramirez said.
But oftentimes HR departments are small, or even just one person. In those cases, transparency around responsibilities and expectations are key. HR leaders of small teams should let staff know their average turn-around time for following up on requests to clamp down on staff perceptions of ineffectiveness. It’s also important to keep staff in the loop by “demonstrating a commitment to follow through on feedback and openly sharing the process and results, so HR can continue to foster the narrative of being both a valuable advocate for employees and an effective presence in the workplace,” said Jasmine Escalera, a MyPerfectResume career expert.
Another reason staff hesitate to approach HR is because many prefer to solve a problem on their own or with their manager’s help — according to 31% of workers surveyed. That may be in part due to a fear of a lack of confidentiality with HR, but so long as an issue doesn’t arise to a policy infraction or legal risk, they can keep issues between an HR leader and employee.
“HR professionals can openly discuss the boundaries of confidentiality with employees, clarifying when and why certain information may need to be disclosed and under what circumstances it can be kept confidential,” Escalera said. “This approach helps set realistic expectations and builds trust. By being upfront about the limits of confidentiality, HR can demonstrate its already existing commitment to protecting employee interests while also fulfilling its organizational responsibilities.”
“Organizations also need to actively support their HR departments in prioritizing this open line of communication with employees. These efforts convey a genuine commitment to protecting employee interests and have the direct potential to mend trust between employees and HR,” she said.
HR leaders can also alleviate this concern by setting the tone in conversations and defining whether staff would like to brainstorm solutions when they bring up an issue, or whether they’d like HR to actually intervene, Ramirez said.
A lack of approachability was another concern cited by staff, and one HR leaders can remedy by making themselves more visible and having more interactions with staff in general. “The more that we have true, genuine connections with the employees that are working in all different departments in a business, the more likely it is that they will come to you and share their concerns and trust that you’re not going to be overly judgmental and that you’ll be a sounding board,” Ramirez said.