Oops: Ten Mistakes HR Beginners Always Do

If you can still remember your first job, chances are you always remember the mistakes you've made as a rookie. But all those mistakes are crucial for your career development. After all, failure is one of the best teachers, as long as you are willing to learn its lessons.

Here are some common mistakes that HR beginners make:

It's fine for HR to be friendly with the staff, but there must be balance.

1. Being too friendly

Many HR beginners try too hard to please everyone. But the reality is that HR is not about liking everyone. It's about:

Understanding people, business practices, and regulatory demands.
Developing a culture that allows the business and staff to thrive.

As an HR professional, your obligation to your employer comes first, and your friendships and personal needs are secondary.

It's also crucial in staying professional when it comes to recruiting efforts. Don't ask candidates personal questions; only ask employment-related questions.

2. Forgetting that your employees are humans

Now everyone relies on technology, maybe a bit too much. But empathy and critical thinking are still needed for an HR professional. Never forget what the "H" in HR stands for.

Many HR beginners failed to understand and support their employees and treating them like numbers on a spreadsheet.

To be more "human", HR rookies can start seeing HR as a customer service role, in which managers and employees are your customers, and embracing an open door policy as much as possible.

3. Sharing private information

Many HR beginners failed to keep confidential information a secret. When it comes to handling confidential employee data, it boils down to understanding who needs to know what.

HR professionals cannot use confidential information about other employees in their career negotiations and gripes. Sharing that information with non-stakeholding HR team members is also unacceptable.

HR must balance between the employer and employees.

4. Not balancing between employee advocate and the company representative

HR professionals must walk between advocating for employees while also representing the company. With the right balance, everyone wins.

The problem with HR rookies is that they are too eager to please management. The worst mistake for the beginners is that they give in to management pressure when they know the management is in the wrong.

It's also common for beginners to take employees' side and forgetting to protect the company and its interests.

5. Thinking that they know everything

It's not easy to admit that you don't understand something, and sometimes rookies hide what they don't know by pretending they have all the answers.

Many HR beginners are afraid to say, "I don't know; let me look into that and get back to you." Most experienced HR professionals usually understand that learning on the fly is part of the job.

HR rookies should know that no one is expected to know everything all the time and that they should take the time to research than to give advice that could put the company in a problematic situation.

6. Underestimating the importance of compliance

It's excellent when HR professionals have the time to understand their roles, but many departments of one or small teams don't have that choice. Therefore, many HR practitioners must hit the ground running.

Many HR rookies didn't have the time to learn about benefits, laws related to employment, and payroll audit. Some of these topics are also not included in HR guide books, so they needed to make calls to labour offices to learn about compliance.

7. Believing that a degree equals experience

It's crucial to realise that reality is more nuanced than the classroom. Many HR beginners failed to grasp the nuance, and they end up making uninformed decisions that involve people without understanding the context and having overconfidence.

In HR, there's always room to grow and learn from experts.
Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

8. Not taking HR seriously

Many HR rookies tend to oversimplify complex issues, which often arises from not knowing enough. As a result, these rookies sometimes suggest solutions that do not fit the seriousness of the problem.

For instance, one cannot successfully recruit and retain employees if they do not understand what their role is and what impact they have on the organisation.

HR beginners tend to not be as proactive in solving complex employee relations issues. They sometimes let the problem go, and it can spiral out of control quickly, which affects culture, legal liability and employee morale.

All HR rookies need to do is spend more time with seasoned HR experts so they can settle into their roles by providing insight into the matters that beginners might not know.

9. Believing that HR is one-size-fits-all

New HR professionals often fall into the trap, thinking there should be a black-and-white answer to everything. In HR, there is a lot of grey in the workplace.

Just because one organisation can use specific HR solutions, does not mean your organisation can use the same solutions.

There are rarely textbook answers in the real working world. HR rookies need to understand their organisation very well using their business acumen, then see what fits and what works.

As rookies turn into experts, they always realise that knowing everything is not an option. The best way is to ask the right questions, learn from victories and mistakes, and build on their strengths.

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Source: SHRM