The Four Stress Management Techniques For Any HR Leader

By Perminus Wainaina

It’s not uncommon for HR Mangers (including yourself) to feel extremely pressured and stressed.

After all, the HR department is the central point of the organization therefore you can only imagine the weight you have to carry on your shoulders as the HR Manager/professional.

Examine these 5 stress triggers for HR Managers and see if they apply to you.

Stressor #1:        Juggling multiple roles all at once; as a HR leader, you handle a number of duties from recruitment, employee welfare, trainings among other consuming tasks.  The entire company with regards to employees are constantly looking to you for answers and direction.

Stressor #2:        Having to deal with discontented employees; it can take a toll on you and your well-being when you repeatedly have to deal with staff welfare and issues of pay, promotion, termination as well as occasionally having to handle disgruntled employees.

Stressor #3:        Meeting training demands; part of your job as HR professional entails honing employee skills through career development training programs. The pressure of having to meet demands such as customer service training, orientation of new staff is a stressful and tedious task.

Stressor #4:        Managing possible crisis; you are required to foresee and mitigate imminent crises that threaten the reputation of the company. In the event of a crisis situation, you are heavily tasked with ensuring as little damage to the organization as possible.

Stressor #5:        Recruitment and retention responsibilities; recruiting the right candidate or the best fit for the job is one of the challenges you have encountered as a HR professional. Finding a professional who can fit in with the culture of the company places a lot of pressure on you since it has a ripple effect on the rate of employee retention.

Having become aware of the above stressors in your career, here are 4 solutions you can use to remedy the situation.

  1. Create a balance between your technical roles and giving a human touch

Simply, don’t operate in silos. Whereas the HR department may be technical in terms of policies and structures, make an effort as the HR to find out what is happening in other departments.

Unearth issues they are facing by organizing brief meetings with heads of departments. Get to find out what suggestions they have that would improve their performance.

Basically, become interested in the employees themselves as opposed to waiting for rumors to spread or have to deal with disgruntled employees.

  1. Outsource for help from a specialist or a professional

Don’t try to do it all. For instance, if you need to hire for a new position, hire the services of a recruitment firm. This will eliminate hours spent in shortlisting and interviewing.

If you have realized that employees are dissatisfied and underperforming, don’t conduct the training yourself. Hire a specialist such as a career coach and mentor to facilitate the training for your employees.

If you feel current systems, policies or structures in the company are not working in tandem, consider outsourcing for a change management expert.

In the event of a crisis, you can also look for a crisis management expert and a media liaison to help you manage the situation.

  1. Allow departments to run effectively on their own

You are probably stressed because you are trying to micromanage what every department does. By so doing you have created a sense of dependency from other departments.

One of the best tools of reducing dependency on HR is to conduct trainings.

Purposeful trainings create an opportunity for you to share knowledge that pertains HR policies governing the running of the company, employee welfare issues and how they should be handles, provide sufficient information on the website and even offer a manual on how to self-resolve arising work place issues.

  1. Make departmental meetings more productive

The next time you have a meeting with your team, ensure that it is productive. Use the opportunity to do an assessment of where you have not executed as a department and come up with feasible solutions.

Additionally, delegate tasks within your team in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Moreover, use these meetings to discuss issues/personal crises each member is facing that are affecting their performance and see what solutions can be offered for the same.

Lastly, conduct a SWOT analysis of your team in order to understand where your greatest flaws lie as well as your strengths.

The sooner you become self-aware of your stress triggers, the better you will become at managing them.

Your role and impact as the HR person cannot be overlooked. Therefore it is imperative for you to remain relevant in your work in order to not only advance in your career but also continue to play the vital role in helping your company meet its goal.

Perminus Wainaina is a Certified HR Consultant and the Managing Partner at Corporate Staffing Services where he manages a team of 20 staff.  He helps CEOs, executives, and managers solve their biggest HR pains, dysfunctions, and key challenges and turn their teams into a well-oiled machine that contributes dramatically to business success.