ASK HR: I fear that if she is hired, she will get my job. What do I do?

Q.I am a human resource manager, but as I write this, I am a distressed employee. A month ago, the management decided to hire a HR assistant and I was asked to find one. Last week, I had an interview with a suitable candidate but I have reservations about hiring her. She understands her role very well and she has held the position of HR assistant in one of my dream companies. To say the least, she intimidated me. I feel like I could be hiring my replacement. What do I do?

I hope that you truly believe in your capability and the competencies that you have as a manager. Only when you are unsure of your ability will you be hesitant to hire a competent assistant.

There are many HR practitioners who have the title of ‘manager’ but are generally engaged in administrative HR roles. I suspect that your role has a lot of the routine HR roles. This is especially so when a department is not sufficiently resourced. It should have been you pushing to hire the HR Assistant as this clearly shows your role is expanding, however, you have a supportive leadership team who clearly have seen the need to have additional resource in HR.

Your role as a HR manager is to partner with the business to add value to the respective departments by understanding their core business. This resource who understands the administrative HR will free your time to engage and focus on the strategic HR issues.

Take the opportunity to build your HR portfolio by enriching your role. There are many aspects of HR that add value to the business, but which are left untouched since HR functions are not well resourced to provide the value additions. This is a resource that you can mentor and grow to assist you as you hire another assistant in future.

You will also have peace of mind when you are out of the office as you will have a trusted resource who will ensure the HR services continue.

Many times, managers hang on to their roles for fear that their positions will be taken over by their staff, however, a good manager will mentor and coach their staff to be competent. This enables the manager to be considered for a higher role since they have developed a team that can take over their position. Your legacy as a HR practitioner in your career will be the HR team you have created and how many have also risen up to the level of manager.

It is said that you will know a good leader by the kind of team they create, hence the saying, “You are as strong as your last team”.