How HR managers should solve problems

I pity our department’s human resources (HR) manager. He’s perceived to be incompetent; many employees see him as a mere office clerk who can’t make decisions on almost anything. I’m sure there’s a way to handle this situation that would not diminish his person. Can you help him? — Rainbow Connection.

You don’t have to zero in on your HR manager. He’s not the only person who may be suffering from this issue. I’m sure there are many managers who fit the description of “mere” office clerks who don’t have the capacity to make decisions on their own. You can probably find it elsewhere in your organization, hiding in plain sight.

This happens all the time because of bad systems and procedures. A good example is the leave application policy. How many signatories do you need to approve an employee vacation leave, say for one day? How about three or five days? In many companies, all applications for leave, regardless of the number of days, must be approved by several signatories.

The approval process starts from the line leader, supervisor, manager, even up to the department head. Even for a one-day leave, the application form itself tells you that multiple signatures are required. No ifs, no buts. That’s the policy. And yet, they’re the same organizations that promote “empowerment” in their corporate values, vision and mission statements, if not in their public statements.

What are we missing? Simply, they don’t walk their talk. Or worse, they don’t know what they’re doing. At times, when confronted with this issue, they would tell you that consensual decision-making is one of their core values. Is it? If so, the context is wrong. We use consensual decision-making when we’re talking of a complex problem like terminating an employee, among others.

LEAN HR
If you trust your team leaders, supervisors and managers, then show the way. Empower them. Observe a one-on-one supervision policy. Let them decide on the leave applications of their own employees without the concurrence of other supervisors and managers. The immediate boss knows best. No other signatories should be made to provide approval under normal circumstances.

That way, the immediate boss can exercise his thinking faculties instead of relying on other managers to do the thinking for him. Make one-person approval the standard policy, regardless of the number of days being requested. Just the same, allow senior officials to intervene if the number of days being requested is out of the ordinary, like when an employee is planning to take the bar exam and needs three months of leave, even without pay.

Peter Drucker was right: “So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.” You need to step back to consider what’s value-adding to company operations rather than send an indirect message that the team leaders and line supervisors are not trustworthy.

This issue came to me again whenever I think of how Lean HR can help us. One-person approval means everything will be faster. No more delays. It’s either a yes or no for the immediate boss. If no approval is given, then the employee can lodge an appeal to higher-ups.

Lean HR is the application of kaizen and lean thinking to HR processes. It is focused on identifying what is useful and what is non-value adding in a work process. Eliminating the useless baggage to make the system dynamic and robust. The idea is to create efficient flows for the employee, customer or other stakeholders. To simplify the problem-solving process, your HR manager and other managers should ask the following questions, using the acronym THINK as a memory jogger:

One, is it true? Is the employee idea, request or suggestion logical and valid? Is it being supported by reliable documents to prove its worth? If there are no available documents to support them, what steps would you undertake? What would happen if management rejects the proposal?

Two, is it helpful? Would the request, if approved, make everyone’s work easier? Is it beneficial only to the employee or other employees similarly situated? How can it be beneficial to all and be in the best interests of the organization?

Three, is it inspiring? Can it motivate other workers and their managers to improve their work standards or exceed management expectations? If so, can we share the best practices to others? If not, why not?

Four, is it necessary? Is it imperative for all stakeholders to follow for the betterment of the organization? Is it the best approach to display one’s capacity as an efficient problem-solver and decision-maker? In what other circumstances can this idea or suggestion be applied?

Five, is it kind? Does it give reasonable credit to the right people? Does it give due respect to the people who were instrumental in making that policy possible? What’s the fastest way to make an intelligent decision? What kind of problem are you best at solving?

The acronym THINK is not my original idea. It has been around for some time now; we just can’t identify the person who coined it in the first place. Whoever may have come up with it, it’s my brief and simple prescription for what you should do under the circumstances. If you want more specifics, I can tell you more about it in the next article.

Join Rey Elbo’s Japan Study Tour on Oct. 15-21, 2023. Visit Toyota City under a brief immersion program to help you understand about the Thinking People Strategy and how workers should be motivated to exceed management expectations. E-mail [email protected]�� or via