Human Resources Leadership in Times of Crisis

by Harry Hutson and Martha Johnson 

Organizations are headed for more crises. Tumult and disruption in the world are more than likely. Some would say they are unavoidable, inevitable, or even guaranteed. For most Human Resources professionals, this is a fact of life. In our experience, HR deserves credit for being watchful and wired, reassuringly ready to respond in the moment to whatever just happened.

The worst crises are those without warning. Sudden financial upheaval, for example, a natural disaster, or worst of all the loss of life, produces shock that suspends our ability to react. Our emergency preparedness may not apply to the situation we face. We feel blindsided and bruised, but we must lead.

The question we pose for HR is how to be a leader in a crisis. In the research for our book, Navigating an Organizational Crisis: When Leadership Matters Most, we discovered a trove of useful advice about readiness, reaction, and recovery in an emergency. But we found too little about leadership in a crisis. And we found even less about how HR professionals can lead when it matters most.

We suggest three principles for HR based on our work:

First, be the best HR person you can be.

An organization in crisis can wallow in turmoil, misery, and suspicion. Whether fair or not, leaders will get blamed. Why? Implicit in the role of being a person in charge is the expectation that you will keep us out of harm’s way. So when harm arrives, guess what—the leadership team is guilty without being charged. "You should have seen it coming, prepared us, or (better yet) defeated it at the outset. And now you, leaders, are responsible for making things right."

For HR there are leadership duties that cannot be delegated—transactional functions that lie at the base of Maslow’s pyramid: safety (stop the damage and prevent further harm), communications (tell me the truth), compensation (pay me), and health (provide care for me and my family). Without HR leading the way, there can be no organizational trust, no healing, no hope. Conversely, if employees feel cared for they will relinquish suspicion and suspend blame.

We interviewed executives at Entergy about their work restoring power after Hurricane Katrina. It was a brutal time for employees, working around the clock, distanced from their families, unsure whether their own homes were under water. The CEO told us about things she did to show support: “We got people massages. We got people to cut hair. It sounds silly but it was just how do we help your life be a little more normal in the middle of the chaos....”
Human service is the core of HR in a crisis. It can be as basic as arranging a meal, meeting with a family, or sharing a poignant moment with an employee. The more HR leaders can provide basic care for employees the more their painful experience can be mitigated and made meaningful.

Second, suspend everyday expectations of what HR does, and lead.

HR leaders comfortable in the executive suite must face possible discomfort, assert themselves, and do more. Be first rather than a supportive second. Do not wait for top leadership to make assignments. Jump on whatever issue you see. When livelihoods and lives are on the line, permission seeking can be exactly the wrong thing to do.

Hold the following image in your head. In Oklahoma City after the Murrah Federal Building bombing, citizens started running towards the explosion. They were alert and intent upon responding. Each was a leader.

Titles are irrelevant in the heat of the moment. Turn towards problems. Fill gaps. Use the temporary suspension of the status quo to respond yourself. Do you need to be there with the front line, third shift, or field office? Are you on the spot to speak before talking points are approved? Will you make urgent decisions above your pay grade? You know what to do.

Third, care for yourself as a human being.

The crisis has impacted you along with everyone else. The blow might be short lived—a rogue wave is both sudden and passing. But the aftermath and cleanup can be long and laborious. It can be difficult to know when or if recovery occurs. HR professionals are susceptible to helper fatigue and vicarious trauma. Some would say that the effects of terrible events last a lifetime. In our interviews, leaders who described upheavals from years ago spoke as if the crises had happened yesterday.

Yes, you are in demand and, yes, there are others in worse shape than you who require your attention. There is no obligation for you to suffer injury or exhaustion in service of others. You are of little use to anyone as a casualty.

There is another idea here. The most profound discovery of our research is how leaders help organizations recover, restore and regenerate. When leaders lead from their best selves, as human beings aware of everyone’s needs in a crisis—including their own—they help themselves as they help others. And the organization as a whole is the beneficiary.

We interviewed a chief human resources officer in the New York area who received terrible news in the dead of the night. There had been an employee homicide/suicide in the company parking lot. He was deeply stricken, and he turned to his HR colleagues for personal support. He needed to process his anger and “do something good with it.” His reliance on coworkers during a tragedy prepared him—and his company—to cope with a devastating event occurring later: the 9/11 attacks.

Another HR manager told us that lessons emerge from anywhere—including mistakes.  But “good judgment comes from experience.” A crisis may indeed overwhelm an organization. It is not our message that leadership alone can save the day. We are saying that HR can increase the odds of survival in a crisis. And for HR leaders, there is the real possibility of both heightened judgment and deepened humanity.

Harry Hutson and Martha Johnson are the authors of Navigating an Organizational Crisis: When Leadership Matters Most (Praeger, 2016)