Lessons from The HR Lady
Interview with Ingrid Awerbuch (Consultant, Facilitator and Trainer) inSync Human Resources
Tell us about your professional background.
I have been a Human Resources professional for 25 years. After graduating with a degree in Psychology, I joined a very large corporation as a Recruitment and Selection specialist and from there worked my way to a senior HR executive consultant. This involved developing and implementing HR strategies to support the company’s business goals. My role required that I develop a deep understanding of the business and its challenges which allowed me to develop solutions that would enable employees to contribute effectively to the business goals. This typically involved:
proposing solutions to the leadership team
designing and facilitating customized training to equip managers with people management skills
implementing performance management processes
coaching
supporting people through change
talent management
This is where I really developed my skills as the organization had leading edge human resources practices and I embraced opportunities to get involved and be exposed to them. I spent 10 years with this company before starting my own business to consult independently.
I had gained rich experience and wanted to stretch out of my comfort zone. I decided to set up my own business and offer my services to other organizations. This is what I did for the next 10 years prior to coming to the United States. My clients were from the financial services, local government, life insurance, petrochemical, publishing, banking and information technology sectors.
What are the most common HR challenges you encounter?
People are initially very excited when they receive the job offer. They even find a way to celebrate. A few months later many are unhappy at work. What has happened?
They have invariably become disillusioned for a number of reasons – lack of proper training to do their job, receiving no feedback or only criticism, the way they are managed is demotivating and they feel unappreciated, co-workers are uncooperative, the atmosphere is negative etc.
The challenge for management is to create an inspiring and supportive environment that enables people to be the best they can be so that they remain as excited about their jobs as they were when they were first hired.
I find that employees don’t know what they can do to shape their workplace experience through their own attitude and behavior nor how they can set themselves up for success. Both employers and employees lose sight of the fact that the employment relationship is a reciprocal one to which both parties need to contribute if it is to be mutually beneficial and satisfying. This is true of all relationships. This lack of understanding leads to a breakdown in the relationship.
As the HR consultant, I hear what managers are saying and what employees are saying. Often the communication between them has broken down and results in assumptions and misunderstandings. Employees often don’t understand the constraints under which managers and the company have to operate. The challenge is for both to understand each other’s needs through better communication and transparency.
Why did you decide to do HR consulting on your own?
After 20+ years of experience working with management, leadership and employees across a diverse range of industries, I felt that my skills could best be utilized in a consulting capacity. Larger corporations can afford to have HR professionals on their payroll whereas smaller companies often can’t afford to have someone on the payroll as a fixed cost. By providing a consulting service, these companies can also access the expertise as needed.
When I come into a company, part of the value I bring is an objective perspective as I am not involved in the internal differences and don’t have a vested interest in a particular outcome.
An additional benefit is that consulting gives me a lot of variety and flexibility and allows me to share experiences and insights with my clients.
How does the work style in South Africa differ from those in the states?
Well for starters, we sound different.
South Africa has implemented Affirmative Action over the past 15 years so there has been a lot of diversity training for employees as the workplace became more diverse and accommodating of different cultures.
By and large I haven’t found that things are that different. You know, people are people and have the same needs, no matter where you go.
What HR challenges do you see businesses facing today?
As the economy has recovered and businesses are growing, a challenge is finding the right employees and retaining them. It is very costly to keep on recruiting new employees. There is the advertising cost, time spent on interviewing, backlog that accumulates while positions are not filled which means that service delivery suffers, time and money spent on training and getting a new employee to the point where they can be productive.
Another challenge is getting everyone to work together towards common goals and to want to co-operate with each other to achieve the goal. Leadership and management play a key role in creating a workplace environment that fosters team spirit.
Companies compete with the same or similar products, it’s the experience that the customer has that differentiates you from the competition and your people create the customer experience. A principle in driving a customer orientated culture is that - you need to treat your employees as you would want them to treat your customers. The challenge is for companies to recognize how important their employees are and to implement practices that stimulate a customer orientated culture.
In order for a small business to grow, processes and more structure need to be implemented to create a solid foundation. A house without a foundation is unstable, similarly a business without a sufficient foundation will be fighting fires all the time, will lack consistency and be perceived as being unreliable. Growing organizations need to focus on developing their human capital, both at the employee and management levels.
What challenges do women in particular face? And how can those be addressed?
The reality is that women fulfil multiple roles outside of the workplace, all of which place demands on our energy and capacity. The primary challenge facing women in their careers are issues related to managing competing priorities and responsibilities. Competing priorities include family, raising children, caring for the elderly, community involvement and compromising with their husband’s work needs and so on. We often think of this as achieving work / life balance. But balance suggests that we have to spend equal amounts of time on each area. I see it more about “how can we manage all of these responsibilities as effectively as possible”? By thinking of it this way we can more easily strategize about what we can do to manage all of these demands on our time and attention. Rather than beating ourselves up for not achieving balance.
Addressing these challenges is a very individual thing as everyone’s particular circumstances and needs are unique. However, some of the things that can help are:
effective time management
having support systems in place,
managing our stress levels and taking care of ourselves so that we don’t burn out
While employers have yet to provide creative solutions, we need to strategize around what we need to put in place for ourselves so as to be able to cope with all of the demands. Some ideas might be to
do grocery shopping on line (this cuts out the mega time that it takes to go into the store);
proactively establish a back-up in emergencies such as a family member, friend, neighbor etc.; negotiate working from home one day a week; delegating some basic responsibilities to older children (with the proviso that you equip them, this also teaches them some important life skills).
I did notice when I was in South Africa in the summer, that professional women who are invested in their careers, are employing au pairs to help them with their other responsibilities. Another idea may be for a few women together to employ someone to help them with things they have difficulty fitting in, such as making doctor appointments, paying and/or querying bills, making travel arrangements and other admin that takes up valuable time.
What challenges do female managers face?
Despite the work that has been done to break down the “glass ceiling”, we still see that women are lagging when it comes to holding top positions and in their levels of compensation.
Related to this, an aspect of work culture that presents a challenge is the lack of support and access to professional development opportunities. Very often (and this applies to men as well) managers have not been given the training required to be effective managers and so the stress levels they experience are much higher than they would be if they had the proper training and were confident about how to most effectively manage people. Also, women often don’t have access to mentors in the workplace who can guide and support them. This is where the Women In The Workforce group can play such a valuable role in providing opportunities for women to connect, share, provide support and be mentors to one another.
What do you hope to accomplish with your HR consulting services you provide to business owners?
Happy employees are a prerequisite for business success, both because their productivity is greater and because they stay with the company for longer. Employees also need to be willing and able to do their jobs well. The work environment goes a long way in determining how willing employees will be to perform optimally, the training you provide determines how able they will be.
I hope to partner with organizations to implement appropriate HR solutions that drive both business results and create a work environment that inspires and enables employees to achieve superior performance.
Ingrid can be reached at inSync Human Resources by email – ingridawerbuch@gmail.com or on 732 908 6641.