HR manager Kim Baker put together some great HR reports for her managers. Problem was, no one was reading them, until she figured out how to get the managers’ attention (part of an ongoing series).
As part of an ongoing series, we’ll have practicing HR managers present real problems they faced and how they solved them.
We have a lot of info in HR: turnover rates, absentee rates, pay rates, how long it takes to fill various positions, etc. Realizing that, our CEO suggested that we circulate an “HR Data Report” to our managers.
The theory, of course, was that the more information they had, the better. Nice theory, but we realized in informal conversations that our managers weren’t reading the report. Again, in informal conversations, I asked them why.
The common answer: “I don’t need to know at least half the stuff that’s in the report.”
Tell us what you want
We could have twisted their arms or attempted to convince them that there was valuable info buried in there. Instead, though, we asked each one: OK, tell us which pieces of info in the report are important to you.
Everyone had a slightly different answer. So we customized each manager’s report to show only the info he or she wanted. Yes, it was a little bit more work for us, but our IT person helped by showing us how to arrange the information easily.
Now, managers stop me in the hallway and discuss the information in the report and how they use it. So the report is no longer “just another piece of paper.”
(Kim McCauley, HR manager, Boston Beer Co., Boston)
