HR Managers have a lot on their plate. Their roles range from the positive and growth oriented such as onboarding employees, employee development and organisational improvement, to the negative and darker side of HR, such as being the bearers of bad news when it comes to redundancies and offboarding. Because HR managers have such a wide view of the employee lifecycle, they also can get a very accurate picture of how organisational values play out at every step, and it doesn’t always align with their own personal values. 

When your values don’t fit with your organisation 

The reality is that you’re likely to work for an organisation if most of  your values are aligned. It’s very rare for a perfect fit to be found. While it might all seem fine while things are going well for the organisation, the values divide can start to show its face when things aren’t going so well. 

HR Managers can start to feel very conflicted about representing a company that doesn’t uphold their own personal values through to the end of an employee’s lifecycle. 

It can be hard working in HR in the first place with so many different aspects to oversee, but it can get harder when the trickier parts of HR – offboarding, redundancies, etc – start to dominate your agenda, particularly when you are being asked to act in way that doesn’t align with your own personal values.

Are you doing right by your employees and yourself? 

Imagine you’re walking down the street in a couple of months’ time and you see the former employee that you needed to lay off. Are you proud to stay on the same side of the street as them, and greet them with a smile? Or would you feel embarrassed and guilty if you caught a glimpse of them, crossing the street quickly to avoid an interaction? 

The HR Managers that we work with would feel comfortable to stay on the same side of the street. 

Doing right by your employees means that you can be proud of the way you handled their situation, proud of how they’re leaving your organisation and proud of your own work. 

Don’t underestimate the power of doing the right thing for the employees you have responsibility over. It can help you to avoid feelings of guilt and shame and allow you to sleep better at night knowing you’ve done everything you can, and you’ve acted in a way that aligns with your own personal values. 

The solution is simple – treat people well on the way out

Look after people by making sure their exit is a positive one, even when the circumstances are less than ideal. 

Ensure that exit interviews take place, and remember that functional exit interviews can only happen when people are treated well. Those who are treated poorly won’t have time for an exit interview or, if they do, they’ll be so unhappy with the circumstances that they’ll only dump negativity, rather than constructive feedback. 

When offboarding is done right, and outplacement is provided where possible, employees can be sent off with confidence and HR Managers can feel good about their jobs, knowing they’ve done everything in their power to treat people well. 

How can you advocate for outplacement? 

• Show how the addition of outplacement can make your organisation a great place to work. 
• Explain how disgruntled employees can harm your organisation’s reputation. 
• Help your leadership team to understand how sending people off with support can mean they return as boomerang employees and how that benefits your organisation 
• Show your leadership team why not providing outplacement conflicts with the organisational values and explain how implementing a program can help you to bridge this gap.
• Show your leadership team how outplacement factors in the overall obligation of being a responsible employer
  

Outplacement programs don’t appear out of thin air. HR Managers are influential people when it comes to getting these programs implemented, so it’s important that you have these conversations with the organisation’s leadership team to help them realise the benefits. 

HR Managers will see the benefits of these programs – both in the employees they manage and in themselves as they go about their job and look to be proud of the work they do.