As a minimum, the essential daily activity of managing people includes tasks relating to recruiting and paying your employees. Employment law also dictates certain minimum requirements in respect of checking and recording details of an employee’s right to work in the UK and paying them. Many of these are statutory and can be costly if you get them wrong.
When it comes to managing the employment of people, you don’t have to have a dedicated HR department. However, I strongly recommend that whoever is responsible for the paperwork has strong administration skills. Keep in mind that the best people to administer the paperwork and the processes of managing people are not necessarily the best people managers.
There is a fundamental difference between the administrative tasks of managing people and the actual issues of People Management. Paperwork, pay and contracts are either right or wrong in respect of content and accuracy, and the distinction is usually very clear. People Management issues are rarely clear-cut, and things do not fit neatly into boxes marked right or wrong.
In my experience I have found that someone who wants everything to be perfect and add up, with no surprises, will be good at the administrative side of managing people, but less good at managing people issues. However, someone who gets frustrated by paperwork, who recognises that people do not fit neatly into boxes and that things are not clearly right or wrong, are likely to fare better with the unpredictability of People Management!
I am not saying that people should just be categorised as either managers of the day-to-day, or people managers. The point I am making here is that if you are in charge of people you will need to be prepared to utilise contradictory skill sets.
As a boss, regardless of whether or not you employ a specialist to help you, or you have access to a team of HR people, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you can abdicate the day-to-day responsibility of People Management to others. All managers of people need to be aware of their additional responsibility to learn about and employ People Management skills to help with decision making. At some point you will find yourself having to make a difficult decision involving someone you employ.
There is no perfect approach to People Management and it is impossible to expect yourself, or anyone else, to be able to predict and stop problems. The only predictable thing about people is that they are unpredictable. Be prepared to deal with the irrational, emotional and downright flabbergasting things that people will do.
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Best wishes,
