When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Creative

Confessions? Oh I’m def feeling like Usher in 2004—except instead of burning up with regret, we’re burning up with real talk about some of HR’s messiest challenges. 

It’s a wild ride where no two days are the same and the unexpected is the norm!

The Big Brother tagline should become HR’s tagline: expect the unexpected. 

(But seriously, I couldn’t write this without humming “Confessions Part II” on repeat.)  

For this edition, we have: 

👀 Building culture without leadership buy-in? Oh boyyy

👀 Office conflicts? Emotional and operational trauma.

👀 And ignoring those interview red flags? A one-way ticket to “Why Did I Think I Could Fix This?”-ville. 

But here’s the good news: You’re not alone, and there are ways to navigate this chaos without losing your sanity (or your Spotify playlist to a mid-2000s R&B spiral).  

Ready to confess—and conquer? Let’s go!

Confession #1: Building Culture Without Buy-in? IMPOSSIBLE!  

📣 “I hate that senior management is not committed to building a culture.”

Ever feel like you’re the only person trying to cultivate a vibrant company culture with zero support from above? 

Been there, felt that. 

How I’d Handle It:  

• Figure out what they want: Is your team even interested in building a culture? Do they  understand the importance of good culture? Start there – sometimes this will take many many many conversations before someone understands the intangible parts of culture! 
• Share the data: Bring your leadership team along for the journey by talking about why culture is impactful and how EVERYONE (including them!!) play a role and gain some benefit. Make sure you know what everyone gets out of a good culture and show them in the data what happens when they build or break that culture.
• Employee empowerment: Launch peer-to-peer recognition programs to build a supportive atmosphere. Employees might want to participate more in culture building than leadership… but be weary because if the top isn’t aligned it can become impossible to actually drive culture.   

Confession #2: When Co-Workers Clash, It’s Creating Drama and Causing Trauma

📣 My coworkers do not get along.  

Acting as the office referee when coworkers clash? Been there, done that! 

I have so much to say here!! 

Conflict between employees is rarely fun to navigate… and did I mention few folks are actually *trained* on handling conflict? 

When I was in middle school I took an 8-HOUR long mediation training that has stuck with me to this day. It’s also the ONLY training I’ve ever formally received on conflict. 

AND I’M NOT ALONE!!! 

So many HR people have shared that they have never had any formal training around conflict and how to mediate.

How I’d Handle It:  

• Conflict resolution training: How we handle conflict as adults come from how we observed conflict growing up. So if your parents were fans of the “don’t argue in front of the children” you might have never observed conflict growing up! So how would you handle it in the workplace? Well, training can significantly help here. In fact, I think conflict resolution is one of the most powerful trainings anyone can deploy to improve workplaces! 
• User guides: Sometimes conflict stems from simply not understanding one another. I love to leverage user guides where employees get a chance to fill out what it is to work with them and then share with everyone they collaborate with. There are so many ways to leverage user guides. Onboarding is one of the best use cases. Have a new employee fill out their guide within their first week and review it with their manager. Trust me it makes a difference! Pro tip: Build these guides into your onboarding workflows when people join OR change teams or roles and make them available in a centralized place. To get ahead of potential future conflicts you can make “Did you read the other person’s guide?” and “Where might there be a misunderstanding based on the guide?” required pre-work before escalating something to HR. 
• Mediation spaces: Establish designated areas where employees can resolve conflicts with a neutral HR presence. Be careful though  because sometimes HR’s presence can escalate a convo and put more pressure on the employees and the conflict. If not HR then ask a manager or leader who can navigate conflict well to step in. 

Confession #3: Ignoring Red Flags: A Recipe for Regret

📣 I am not happy with my organization. During the interview process, I chose to ignore a couple of red flags. I have been here for 7 months, and there is little structure. It wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t this resistance to change between the COO (who is over the P&C function) and the CEO. I aim to leave the place better than I found it by getting salary ranges and performance appraisals in order.

Ever ignored those little warning signs during the interview process? 

We’ve all been there—optimistic that we might be the catalyst for change!

I’m going to hold your hand when I say this: you might never be happy with your organization. 

You have to decide – is this place even *capable* of change. The fact that TWO of the C-suite don’t seem to be open to changing things could be your first sign… 

How I’d Handle It:

• Understand the resistance: A lot of folks are resistant to change because they are scared. Dig in with these C-suite leaders around what they are scared of and what would make them comfortable with change. Ask them what would need to be true for them to get onboard. That question can flip the conversation from you trying to convince them to follow your vision to you helping them make their vision come true.
• Build trust: Trust takes time, especially with C-suite leaders. Get to know what motivates them, what they incentivized on and what they care about. From there you can identify changes to make that would be “aligned” with what they want and what benefits them. 
• Pick your battles: Not everything is a hill to die on, so make your list of what is worth it and what isn’t. Ultimately, you can’t burn yourself out if change isn’t even possible. 

Why These Confessions Matter:

Look, these confessions aren’t just HR horror stories, they’re battle scars from the frontlines of trying to make work better.

And while we can’t magically fix every toxic CEO or force coworkers to play nice, we can arm ourselves with tools that help on the tough days!

Because we know those days are coming—it’s a matter of when, not if.

But that’s exactly where HiBob can help! 

Think of  HR sidekick—the Robin to your Batman. Even though I’m more of a Marvel girly than a DC girly. IYKYK. 

From smoothing out culture-building chaos to putting out team-drama fires, HiBob gives you the tech to stop reacting and start strategizing! It can help you build a culture through consistent process and objective data that keeps people aligned and working together. 

Remember when I mentioned workflows and a centralized place to store important info? Yup, HiBob can do that too! Imagine a world where your problems are solved before they become, well, problems. That’s the dream and HiBob can make that your reality.

So go ahead and confess your HR sins, share your war stories, and then go grab the tools you deserve, so you can stop using the outdated software that makes you want to yeet your laptop.

Because you shouldn’t have to usher in change alone.

Okay okay, I promise I’m done with the references now!

XOXO,  

Hebba Youssef