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“We need a HRBP for the HR team”
“Why can’t people just go to a therapist, why am I listening to their personal problems. I do not know how to solve them”
“I’m so exhausted by the end of the day, I absolutely have no energy to engage with my family”
“I’m going to move out of this role, maybe try something less people-centric. I have no empathy left in me any more.”
***
Walk across any People Success bay in any organization, and you will hear these statements as a part of regular conversations. In most cases, the people success team is often the first to listen to any crisis that an employee might face. While the job demands it, there’s nothing in the handbook that equips them to deal with the myriad issues that an employee faces outside their work life, too.
In 2016, I walked into a training program. It was the first week for a batch of new employees. One of the employees, someone joining my team, was so out of the training program that I had to pull him aside and speak to him. Turned out he was recovering from his breakup and was wondering how he could cope with his new job, and I spent the entire day speaking with him.
He walked away feeling he had a cool manager, I walked away exhausted.
In the late 2000s, companies popularized the catchphrase of “Bringing your whole self to work”. Part DEI initiative, and part employee engagement, this was a much needed and welcome shift – resulting in companies becoming more welcoming to diverse philosophies and in employees adding more individuality to their work.
While this was a much needed and welcome shift, the flip side meant work and life were more enmeshed than ever before, with people success teams offering shoulders of support to issues ranging from bad managers (this is well within our ambit) to a personal relationship gone sour.
It is a problem.
While we are well-trained to do the operational part of human resources, a lot of us in positions of responsibility aren’t equipped to deal with the messiness that comes with humans and their emotions. Both line managers and people success professionals alike are first-hand responders to an employee’s crisis, professional or otherwise. Neither are always the best prepared for dealing with the resulting toll it takes on the individual, the employee, and the team.
And while active listening is something all of us people success professionals pride ourselves on, neither are we equipped nor are we qualified to deal with issues of emotional duress.
Our courses do not teach us to deal with these situations. There could be a class or two on psychology as a part of your MBA curriculum. You might have a little more insight if you have a background in Organizational Psychology, but nothing prepares you for the diverse range of issues from serious health conditions to the grief associated with loss of a loved one or from the crippling anxiety and insecurity that is a part of everyday stressful work environments to the world of dating and relationships.
Not meeting these expectations result in extreme burn out, social disconnection, and sense of failure amongst even the best in the business.
While HRBPs are not your therapists, it’s not something one can sweep under the rug. The big things that affect us emotionally, the same things that the people success team is not equipped to solve, stop us from being our best selves at work. After all, it is impossible to bring your whole self to work if you don't feel whole.
So what gives?
Most schools today have counsellors, and the better schools have counsellors who deal with career guidance separately and developmental challenges separately. Do we need a similar system at our workplaces, perhaps a psychologist who is a part of the people success team? Companies and organisations have started to solve this partially, offering a whole host of mental health services as a part of their employee benefits program. However, adoption of these programs is fairly low, with trust and quality being major blockers.
While I’m figuring this out as well, here are some things companies can do
- Allow employees to look out for their own therapists and reimburse their costs [but how do we ensure employees are actively investing in their wellbeing, and what if access/taboo is their biggest blocker?]
- Hire a therapist as a part of the people team [but how do we get employees to trust them enough to share their problems with them?]
- Train the people managers and the People Success team on handling the emotional and psychological needs of the people [is the operational cost and effort worth it, and will training ever make them equipped enough?]
Sometimes, it’s a difficult but required decision for HRBPs to take a hard stance. Offer employees the means to access to mental health services through their employee benefits stack. When the conversations enters these areas, gently draw a hard boundary – tell them you’re not the best equipped to help with this situation, and encourage them to avail these benefits, while reassuring them that these conversations will remain private.
People managers and HR leaders and teams will continue to have to respond to this evolving workplace environment. In the end, the type of organisations you are a part of will play a key role in determining how this trend evolves. While some will continue to stick to the traditional ways of employee experience, a large majority of them are starting to pivot. Small and big shifts have started to emerge in ‘people-centric’ organizations, with companies putting the human at the core of it all.
But how much of it can be done without people success bearing the emotional burnt of this remains to be seen.
