Human Resources Roles Model

Employee Advocate

HR professionals spend about 19% of their time on employee relations issues. The proportion is apt to be higher if working in a service center rather than in a center of expertise. Whatever the context, caring for, listening to, and responding to employees remains a centerpiece of HR work. It requires HR professionals to see the world through employees’ eyes—to listen to them, understand their concerns, and empathize with them—while at the same time looking through managers’ eyes and communicating to employees what is required for them to be successful. Employee advocacy involves being available and caring while also being able to assimilate and share different points of view.

Some in the field argue that HR should move exclusively to business partnering, to help business leaders define and deliver financial and customer goals. Ulrich and Brockbank disagree. Employee relations are not just window-dressing: Employees really are the primary asset of any organization. The treatment employees receive shows in the treatment of customers and, ultimately, of investors. Indirectly, caring for employees builds shareholder value. HR professionals are the natural advocates for employees—and for the very real company interests they embody.

Advocacy also involves systematic discussion of employee concerns. When strategy is debated among the management team about closing a plant, expanding a product line, or exploring a new geographic market, the HR professional’s job is to represent employees. What will this strategy do to employees? What employee abilities will help or hinder execution of this strategy? How will employees respond to this strategy? HR participation in strategy meetings should present the employees’ voice—and employees should know that it does so.

Advocacy also involves managing diversity and ensuring mutual respect so that people feel comfortable sharing and discussing various points of view. Dissent with a shared focus on outcomes generates new ideas, encourages innovation, and delivers results. Diversity can be managed through training and communication programs and statistical monitoring or tracking, but it is created in the culture—in how leaders make decisions, interact with people, address conflict, and share information. The HR professional’s role is to root out discrimination whenever it appears. Had HR professionals countered off-color remarks with, “This is just not acceptable,” more than one company would have saved millions in legal fees, settlements, and lost reputations.

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