What To Do When HR Doesn’t Respond

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Question:

I sent my HR team a request to update my home address. Our process to make updates to personal data is really under HRs control, it’s literally impossible to update ones information online singlehandedly. It’s been more than 90 days and HR has yet to update my address in the system. What do I do here? Do I escalate to department heads?

Advice: 

The quick answer is to escalate the concern.

Unfortunately, this is an increasingly familiar complaint. Whether it’s the applicant tracking, the employee database, or the benefits platform, the responsiveness to requests starts with the HR team’s knowledge of the technology and a good process. I find this challenge is present more in organizations that have historically been paper-driven and have made minimal to moderate strides into the virtual world of HR or are new companies very early in their procedure development. Often when employees use the self-service portal of an HR platform the request triggers an alert or email. So, in a nutshell, the request is sitting in an “in-box” waiting for an HR person to approve or push the information forward.

Companies can move past this sticking point by owning the issue, learning the platform features that address the topic, identify which role and who in the HR department will take primary responsibility for the update, cross-train for back up, and create an audit tool that checks to make sure that the process is being done.  A process without a window, side door, or backdoor to look in and see how things are going, is futile. Checks and balances are always important to have. Lastly, department heads must make sure they have the proper amount of staff to execute the processes. Database management requires diligence to truly be successful.

Overall people at work have good intentions and when things are brought to the awareness of decision-makers and influencers, they do something about it. Raise awareness and improve processes by sharing your experience up the ladder.

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