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Are managers obliged to take advice from HR?

Jen

Hello, 

As an advisor is see my role in advising manager's on employee related issues and to advise on best practice and potential risks should they not take that advice. I don't directly manager these managers nor do I have authority to impose a direct management instructions.- however I am being challenged to  enforce the advice on Manager's - so the questions I would like to ask my fellow colleagues - are manager's obligated to follow the advice we give?  My understanding on having worked for many years in an advisory role is that all we can do is advise its down to the manager's to make an informed decision on what action to take.  Also I am liable if I give advice but the manager decides not to follow this?  I would welcome you views on this, thank you.

Parents
  • Thank you for your comments, yes I tend to escalate to higher management if I am aware the manager is not taking my advise, unfortunately, sometimes I don't know they haven't taken the advice until after they have decided not to follow this and then I am having to deal with the consequences of their actions. This as all come about due to me saying to my HR manager 'I can't force managers to take my advice I can only advise' when it became apparent that a manager didn't want to follow it. In practice we do escalate this type of thing if we know or suspect the advice wont be followed which thankfully is not often, I was just reprimanded for saying what I said which felt a bit unfair. Hey ho... thank you though for you insightful comments.
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  • Thank you for your comments, yes I tend to escalate to higher management if I am aware the manager is not taking my advise, unfortunately, sometimes I don't know they haven't taken the advice until after they have decided not to follow this and then I am having to deal with the consequences of their actions. This as all come about due to me saying to my HR manager 'I can't force managers to take my advice I can only advise' when it became apparent that a manager didn't want to follow it. In practice we do escalate this type of thing if we know or suspect the advice wont be followed which thankfully is not often, I was just reprimanded for saying what I said which felt a bit unfair. Hey ho... thank you though for you insightful comments.
Children
  • in reply to Jen
    Hi Jen, thanks for posting your question. I must admit you are not the first HR colleague to raise this dilemma around advising and being listened to. I clearly remember eons ago during my CIPD studies a classmate who was an HR advisor telling me about yet another conversation with a manager who was clearly not going to follow her advice, it was really demoralising for her and after all, when asking someone for their advice surely it is to follow their advice rather than ignore it??!? What may be required here in your case is some more support from your line manager. Is it worth documenting somewhere each time you have a conversation with a colleague along with a brief summary and perhaps include these with any one to one meetings you have with your HR manager? I do get your point about being unable to force anyone to adopt your good advice, we can lead the horse to water but cannot make it drink the water. Can anything be done to help you feel more supported?