HR Grapevine: HR professionals feel out of their depth

Drawing on the views of a number of experts including Dr Jo Burrell, this article highlights the challenges faced by HR stating that HR professionals feel out of their depth.

Dr Jo Burrell highlights that HR’s remit has expanded so rapidly and broadly that professionals are struggling to keep pace. She explains that businesses often assume HR should be the “expert” in every area they touch, simply because they hold responsibility for it. In reality, this expectation is neither realistic nor sustainable. With no slowdown in the number of tasks and responsibilities being handed to them, HR teams are reaching a breaking point—overwhelmed by the ever-increasing complexity of their roles without sufficient recognition or support from the wider organisation.

This constant pressure to act as the “expert in everything” is not only unsustainable but damaging to HR’s effectiveness. While other professions are also seeing workloads broaden, HR uniquely bears the burden of managing uncertainty and people-related challenges at the heart of organisational life. Unless businesses acknowledge these pressures and invest in better support, supervision, and realistic resourcing, HR professionals risk being left overwhelmed, underprepared, and unable to fulfil their critical role.

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