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Undermined as a HR Administrator

Caitlin

Hi all,

I am looking for some advice regarding my current role, I am a HR Administrator for a large company for over a year now, and previously was a HR Officer that took redundancy in another company for 3 years.

We have a lot of dealings with site managers, who have their own HR Advisor they go to - but for example if I answer the phone regarding a sickness query or contractual query (which is part of my role) they refuse to speak to me and want to be put through to their Advisor - but I can happily answer what they need to know myself. For example a site managers advisor wasn’t in that day, I asked if there was anything I could help with, and I was told they want to be put through to someone that has ‘more experience.’

I never had this when I was a HR Officer, I feel since I have the Administrator title - no one wants to come to me even for basic queries which is part of my job role.  I am L3 CIPD qualified and halfway through my L5 Diploma. 

I have my appraisal coming up this week and I want to put across how undermined I feel in my role, I feel my manager doesn’t want to take how I want to progress seriously. I have asked to shadow the Advisors but I have been ignored. How can I bring this up in a positive but firm way? 

Any help would be appreciated. 

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  • Hi Caitlin

    I think you are facing the challenge everyone in HR faces at some point: gaining credibility. In HR we rarely have the authority to enforce management compliance. We have to establish ourselves as authorities. At the moment, managers know and trust their HR Advisors and don’t see you as someone who can provide the advice they are looking for. Shadowing the Advisors won’t help you with this because your problem is nothing to do with the knowledge and experience you have; it is about the trust they have (or not) in you. You need to find opportunities to demonstrate your competence to them.

    Could you get out and do some site visits? You need to find some ways for the site managers to get to know you. At the moment you’re just a voice on the phone who puts them through to the person they actually have a work relationship with. Could you get the Advisors to signpost the managers to you to deal with some of their queries?
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  • Hi Caitlin

    I think you are facing the challenge everyone in HR faces at some point: gaining credibility. In HR we rarely have the authority to enforce management compliance. We have to establish ourselves as authorities. At the moment, managers know and trust their HR Advisors and don’t see you as someone who can provide the advice they are looking for. Shadowing the Advisors won’t help you with this because your problem is nothing to do with the knowledge and experience you have; it is about the trust they have (or not) in you. You need to find opportunities to demonstrate your competence to them.

    Could you get out and do some site visits? You need to find some ways for the site managers to get to know you. At the moment you’re just a voice on the phone who puts them through to the person they actually have a work relationship with. Could you get the Advisors to signpost the managers to you to deal with some of their queries?
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