Having confidence in specialist expertise

Providing specialist expertise is a vital function of HR. There is a tightrope to tread here, which HR people know well. Often, the technical (e.g. legal) or specialist advice isn’t what the recipient wants to hear, e.g. around performance issues or the annual rating. Sometimes you have to work through some conflict before finding a workable solution. Often it is the line manager’s decision, and it is HR’s role to explain clearly the aspects that must be considered. Two vital ingredients in making this work are the credibility of the HR person, and the quality of the relationship already established.