Alfred Gardner is a project manager for human resources, strategy, and leadership development at the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech, which is part of the Innovation Enterprise Institute. His expertise was honed over more than two decades in the industry, and here he discusses the levels of HR maturity, why empathy is all-important, and the first step to becoming an employer of choice.
Talk about your position. What does it entail?
Alfred Gardner: I’m a HR consultant with GaMEP. We work with more than 1,000 manufacturers each year to implement onsite projects, conduct training, and connect manufacturers to Georgia Tech resources and our partners throughout the state. My role is to help them be more effective with human resources. I’ve been with GaMEP since March 2023, and I’m still building out HR services and tailoring them to fit the individual clients’ needs.
How did your career evolve in this direction?
I spent 30 years at manufacturing plants as small as 150 and as large as 1,100-1,200 hourly employees. In addition to facilitating human resources at the manufacturing plant level, my experience in human resources extends to divisional/corporate level HR and international organizational development responsibilities in the Middle East, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, and Canada. I also spent about four years in production operations prior to entering the field of human resources, which really helped me to be more relatable to managers when they had issues.
People come from all over the country to work in Georgia. What are some of the HR practices in this state that might differ from what people have experienced elsewhere in the U.S.?
A lot of HR practices are pretty much consistent. Where you find differences is in state-specific employment laws.
For instance, when I was in North Carolina back in the mid 90s, they had parental involvement leave law that required employers to give employees 4 hours per year leave to any employee who is a parent, guardian, or person standing in loco parentis of a school-aged child so the employee could be involved at the child’s school. The leave was not required to be paid. Not all states have parental involvement leave laws.
Now that we’re getting more into what I would call well-being, or work-life balance, you find more companies offering that kind of leave on their own, and you find some states venturing in that direction. The laws give you the mandate, and it’s up to companies if they want to go beyond the mandate.
What are some of the characteristics of an effective HR team?
To really be successful within an organization, you first have to be what I call a strategic business partner. It’s making sure that the services human resources are providing is aligned with and a conduit for the business achieving their mission, vision, and strategic objectives. You are providing tools to help employees be more effective, which in turn helps the organization meet their goals.
The most effective soft skill HR as well as other leaders in an organization can have is empathy. It’s not enough to sense other people’s emotion, you have to acknowledge what people are feeling and why. Displaying empathy doesn’t mean you agree with the feeling, it means you are listening. Empathy creates trust and encourages employees to open up and feel comfortable interacting with you. Without trust, it’s difficult for leaders to lead and organize people for success.
There’s a class that I facilitate as part of our leadership development series called Building and Sustaining Trust. I always tell the class the greatest compliment that I ever had was when I was at a plant and this employee had made a workers’ compensation claim.
We did everything that we could, but the insurance carrier said, “There’s not enough evidence to support that the injury actually happened at work.”
The employee and I did not see eye to eye on the decision not to accept the claim, but we at the company did all we could in the investigation. When I got an opportunity to go work elsewhere, this employee found out about it, and he actually took the time to find out where I was and called me.
He said, “I want to congratulate you on your new opportunity. I know we didn’t always see eye to eye, but I always felt like you were acting as a neutral party and not just in the company’s interest.” Empathy builds trust, and people know when it is real.
How can employees tell when HR is doing a good job?
Human resources is bigger than the HR department; the entire leadership team is responsible for human resources. Every leader, directly and/or indirectly, has an impact on human resources in some aspect. When organizations talk about what they can do to better retain employees, you can’t overlook the impact of the relationship between manager and employee.
HR as a functional department is doing a good job when they are providing services, guidance, and tools to help managers become better leaders, while at the same time also providing services and tools aiding the growth and development of employees within the company.
If HR has built a good framework that allows for transparent, open communication between employees and the leadership group, has a proactive approach to compliance, and takes ownership in fostering a positive workplace culture, you see high employee engagement and more favorable business results. That’s when you know HR is becoming a better, more effective strategic business partner.
People should feel free to express their concerns. Or, for those don’t feel comfortable expressing them face to face, you provide a means — whether it’s through climate surveys or something similar — for people to anonymously share their thoughts. You also need to make sure you’re providing data to leadership so they can act on improving and/or enhancing the environment, if warranted.
What are some of the misconceptions employees have about HR?
The biggest misconception is that HR is only there for people problems, hiring and firing, and compliance. While HR is and should be what I call the conscience of the organization; equally, if not more importantly, employees and management need to be able to view HR as an unbiased strategic partner.
HR provides one of the first interactions that employees have with a company. What kinds of things can they discern about the company from that interaction?
I truly believe that the first impression is a lasting impression, so from a human resources standpoint, you really have to live the values that your company professes. Companies have their values posted on the wall, but are they really living them and practicing them? HR is the first chance for a candidate to find that out.
That first impression lingers on, and if it’s a negative one, it can be hard to get past it.
What are some of the ways that HR can support employees throughout the course of their employment?
In the beginning of the employment life cycle, an employee has a lot of direct interaction with HR. But later on, most of their interaction with HR becomes indirect. They may not interact with HR until it’s time to enroll in benefits or go through the performance review process.
HR needs to evaluate how effective they are at providing services that support employees, such as health and wellness, safety, professional development, and career progression, just to name a few.
In your consultancy role, are there particular challenges that you see more frequently in certain types of manufacturing work, or do they tend to be more or less the same across the different sectors?
The clients that we deal with at GaMEP tend to have the same issues as larger organizations. When those clients are asking for guidance, I always try to understand where they are in terms of what I call their HR maturity.
A lot of companies look at human resources as just compliance, hiring, and firing. They know they’ve got to follow laws and pay people on time. That base-level compliance is the first level of HR maturity.
The next level is the service level. Josh Bersin is a highly regarded HR analyst and researcher, and he states that this is where an organization’s HR function focuses on delivering efficient and standardized HR services, typically characterized by centralized processes, clear service delivery standards, and a focus on cost-effective operations — but still primarily focused on transactional tasks.
The third level is strategic partnering. My goal is to aid a client in becoming a strategic HR organization.
You’re not only doing compliance and providing services that add value, but you are also a strategic partner to the organization. I say to clients, “Let’s find out where those gaps in best practices are, so we can get you to that level.”
I have worked in several different locations, and there’s never been a situation where I walked in and did the exact same thing in one company that I did at another company. It is always a customized service. Even within companies with multiple locations, different locations have their own different culture.
A lot of people ask, “What does it take for me to be employer of choice?” And I say, “Well, it depends. Tell me why someone would want to come work for you.” If they can’t do that, then they are not ready to be an employer of choice.
It doesn’t matter what the HR topic is — people are welcome to reach out to me about anything. If I do not have the expertise, I can help guide them in the right direction. Ultimately, my role with GaMEP is to provide services that are tailored to fit a client’s specific HR needs.
For HR consulting assistance, contact Alfred at alfred.gardner@innovate.gatech.edu.