Strategic workforce planning, leadership development, organisational culture and succession planning all take a back seat when the majority of your time is consumed by workplace issues. Put simply, you’re not leading the people agenda. You’re firefighting it.
That was the stark reality highlighted in a recent discussion with senior HR professionals, where some estimated that 70% to 85% of their time is consumed by grievances, disciplinary issues, workplace conflict, absence management and complex employee relations cases.
For a profession that has spent years establishing itself as a strategic business partner, those figures should give organisations pause for thought. Every hour spent managing the consequences of workplace issues is an hour not spent developing leaders, strengthening culture, improving retention or planning for the future.
So, if HR is spending the majority of its time managing problems, who is driving the people strategy?
During a recent HR Heads webinar, Louise Mortimer, Founder of Academy HR and creator of the S.P.A.C.E Professional Resilience Model, challenged HR leaders to think differently about the growing volume of employee relations work. Her argument was simple and compelling: many organisations have become highly effective at managing workplace problems, but far less effective at understanding what causes them.
What if the problem starts much earlier?
It’s easy to point to external factors. Employee expectations continue to evolve, hybrid working has changed how teams connect and communicate, and employment legislation continues to create challenges for employers.
All of these factors play a role.
However, one of the most thought-provoking themes in Louise’s work is that many employee relations cases don’t begin as employee relations cases at all.
Instead, they often start much earlier, with conversations that never happen, concerns that go unspoken or relationships that slowly begin to fracture. By the time HR becomes involved, the visible issue might be a grievance, conduct concern or performance matter. Beneath the surface, however, there is often a much longer story.
Trust may have been damaged. Expectations may never have been clear. A difficult conversation may have been avoided because a manager lacked the confidence to have it.
As Louise explains, organisations can become focused on the behaviour they can see rather than the context behind it. A drop in performance, increasing absence, disengagement or resistance to change can be treated as isolated issues when they may actually be signals that something deeper is happening.
From firefighting to prevention
This creates a cycle that will feel familiar to many HR professionals. An issue emerges, a process is triggered, positions become entrenched and the situation escalates. HR gets involved and valuable time and energy are spent managing the consequences. By then, the opportunity for early intervention has often been lost.
And that’s where the real frustration lies.
It’s not simply the volume of employee relations work. It’s the opportunity cost.
Every hour spent managing a grievance is an hour not spent developing leaders. Every day spent navigating conflict is a day not spent focusing on workforce planning, organisational development or cultural transformation.
In many ways, organisations have become increasingly effective at treating symptoms while missing the underlying factors that created them in the first place.
This is where Louise’s S.P.A.C.E Professional Resilience Model offers a useful lens. The model encourages leaders to look beyond immediate workplace challenges and understand what may be influencing an individual’s experience at work.
It focuses on four key influences: Social Connection, Personal Ethos, Career Fulfilment and Environmental Security.
Together, they shape how people respond to challenge, uncertainty and change. When one of these areas falls out of balance, the effects can appear in behaviour long before anyone recognises the underlying cause.
A previously engaged employee may become withdrawn because they feel disconnected from their team. Someone resistant to change may actually be responding to uncertainty rather than challenging the direction of the business. A high performer who suddenly seems distracted may be dealing with pressures affecting their confidence or sense of security.
The lesson isn’t that leaders should lower expectations or avoid accountability. Quite the opposite. High-performing organisations still require clear standards and effective performance management.
What the model highlights is that accountability and empathy are not opposing forces. The most effective leaders know how to balance both.
Perhaps the real issue is leadership capability
Many managers are promoted because they’re exceptional at what they do. They deliver results, possess valuable expertise and understand their function inside out.
But leading people requires a different skill set.
Emotional intelligence, self-awareness, active listening, coaching and the confidence to have difficult conversations don’t automatically develop alongside technical expertise.
When those skills are missing, managers naturally default to process. Policies feel safer than conversations. Procedures provide certainty where people issues feel complex and uncertain.
Yet culture is rarely shaped by policy.
Employees experience culture through their relationship with their manager, through the quality of conversations they have, the level of trust they feel and whether they believe concerns can be raised safely and addressed constructively.
Those everyday interactions often determine whether issues are surfaced early or allowed to grow into formal disputes.
Creating the conditions for strategic HR
Perhaps the real opportunity lies in helping HR move from reactive case management back to strategic people leadership.
The organisations that break free from constant firefighting tend to have one thing in common: they see employee relations not simply as an HR issue, but as a leadership capability issue.
They invest in helping managers have better conversations, build stronger relationships and identify concerns before they escalate. They create environments where curiosity comes before judgement and context is explored before conclusions are reached.
The result isn’t simply fewer ER cases. It is more capacity for HR to focus on what it does best: strengthening leadership, shaping culture, improving retention and supporting organisational growth.
If senior HR leaders are spending more than 70% of their time managing employee relations matters, perhaps the goal shouldn’t be to become more efficient at handling cases.
The goal should be to create fewer of them.
Because the organisations that get ahead are rarely those with the most robust grievance processes. They’re the ones whose leaders spot issues earlier, have better conversations and build the kind of trust that prevents small problems from becoming large ones.
Perhaps that’s the real measure of people leadership.
Not how effectively we manage problems when they escalate.
But how often we prevent them from escalating in the first place.
Here’s the Challenge
If your HR team suddenly had 70% of its time back, what strategic priorities would it focus on?
And what would need to change in your organisation to make that possible?
Continuing the Conversation
The themes explored by Louise clearly resonate with HR leaders across sectors. Whether it’s the growing burden of employee relations work, the challenge of developing confident people managers or the need to create more resilient workplace cultures, many organisations are wrestling with the same questions.
What are you seeing in your organisation? Are your leaders equipped to identify and address issues before they escalate, or has reactive firefighting become the norm?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
And if increasing ER demands, organisational change or leadership challenges are stretching the capacity of your people team, bringing in an experienced interim HR leader can provide the breathing space needed to reset, stabilise and refocus. Sometimes the most valuable support isn’t simply helping to manage today’s challenges, it’s creating the capacity to focus on tomorrow’s priorities.
Whether strengthening leadership capability, supporting transformation or navigating complex people issues, interim expertise can help HR move from firefighting back to what it does best: leading people strategy.
