A Good Burn

My staffing ratio of professional HR staff is 1 HR Generalist for every 207 employees. We received a national mandate on Thursday to decrease that ratio down to 1 HR Staff for every 80 employees over the next 3 years. See, we have been working like dogs :)

Bottom line, this equates 10 new HR staff members for my department. I could simply go and fill 3 more specialist positions in kind but I will not. This is a golden opportunity for me to assess our staffing, our services, and our gaps in meeting stakeholder needs to determine where I can add these staff members to make the most impact.

Time is of the essence. I am required to fill the first 3 new positions now. That means 3 new positions to be developed, described and posted by November 1.  I was off today (thanks Columbus!), but I was not. I spent the morning redesigning my department and will begin to seek feedback tomorrow.

Ah, with 14 not-yet-started performance reviews due at the end of the month and a multitude of October suspenses, I am wound a little bit tight. Not so tight I could not stop the train to eat lunch with my 2nd grader and volunteer in the classroom with her (thanks Columbus). 

So much to do right and so little time to do it. My thinking muscles are running through many thoughts, ideas, and options. They are burning. It is a good burn.

Comments

[Rachel - I Hate HR]

What?!?! You get to ADD people to your department? What a great opportunity. I'd take it slow though. Sure they say they want more now but who knows what they'll say once you start adding people.

[Lisa Rosendahl]

I didn't believe it either but good rule follower that I am, I am right on top of this. A little more time would be nice but I will take what I can get. I will keep you posted.

[John HR]

You are and will be significanly over-staffed. This is the era of cut backs and it may be prudent for you to provide an assessment to the "c-suite" that the additioanl staff is not required and through technology and employee self service initiatives, you believe that the corporate mandate for greater HR staffing is not required.

[Kris]

You are only adequately staffed if HR is purely a transactional role in your organization. I think that ratio metrics are fine, but the HR function can be VERY different from one organization to another. If you really want to have a high quality development program (not just reactionary development, but pro-active, talent building development) and other abilities like that, you need to have dedicated people for that.

I think you are taking the right approach in using this as an opportunity to re-evaluate your stakeholder needs and current gaps. If you can provide high quality impact across the organization with your first couple of hires, you can justify the next steps.

Thank your lucky stars that you have this opportunity! I'm in a similar position and it is amazing.

[RutgersFan]

I am fortunate enough to be in an HR department that has added 10 new people in the last year (bringing our department to 25 for North America). This has been an exciting time. It has allowed our department to lead on some initiatives getting global exposure in our Japanese-owned company.

My advice, be careful with your hiring and on-boarding. We had some major drama due to insufficient on-boarding and not managing people's expectations well. And I mean -- DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA. Enough to make those of us ranked as Hi-Pos in the department want to quit. Me? I'm keeping in it for now -- who knows? I may get to see how US initiatives get modified to work in Europe, Thailand, Mexico. How often do you get that chance?

That said, I'm in the ER part of the department (with project work with OD&T) and my ratio is about 1:300 (well before the layoffs due to economic slowdowns in the auto industry). It is a challenge to be strategic with so many transactional responsibilities - but it's worth pushing on.

Good luck with your hiring!