"Hey, remember that thing that was a hot potato yesterday?" Kate Harvey asked Sara Bowman. "Well, drop that, and pick up this other potato." As the associate director of human resources in the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI), Kate has a busy and dynamic job. And so does Sara, senior recruitment consultant in University Human Resources and Kate's recruitment "buddy."

Sara and Kate got together recently to discuss their collaborative partnership, which helps them conceive, process, and approve about 70 HR transactions per year and strategize together on HR projects and multi-layered personnel actions.

The problems
Kate and Sara have distinct professional challenges that their buddy partnership helps alleviate. Unit-based HR partners, as many of us know, face a barrage of competing and shifting demands as priorities and dynamics evolve. "The HR partner can really feel stuck in the middle, translating and communicating between University HR and their leadership," said Kate.

Meanwhile, University HR staff deal with the perception of being the impersonal gatekeeper of personnel transactions, rather than collaborative partners with context and expertise to share. "I don't need to be protected from the truth," said Sara. "Tell me what it is that you are up against, so I can help you. We are all on the same HR team."

A solution: collaboration among HR professionals
"HR partners should feel empowered to inform and educate their leadership in order to support them," said Sara. "But if you don't feel empowered, collaboration with other HR professionals on campus can help you get there." Kate agreed. "I rely on Sara to help me explain HR process and policy to people in my unit in a way that will be palatable to them, or at least that they will understand," she said.

Advantages of working together
Kate and Sara described some postive outcomes of their working relationship that could be relevant to other cross-unit HR collaborators:

Efficiency. When HR professionals join forces, everyone has the opportunity to weigh in with the best possible solutions. Sara says it's especially important to collaborate from an idea's inception: "If you have a process with steps A through G, and you talk to me early, I might be able to get you from C to G and skip D, E, and F. But if we wait too long to talk, the time for efficiency may have passed." Likewise, Kate says that collaborating with Sara can provide "new pathways that weren't even on my radar."

Context and perspective. Sara appreciates hearing from Kate about VPRI's priorities so that she has the context to make better-informed decisions, not just for VPRI but for all university areas. Kate appreciates Sara's university-wide frame of reference that helps them both make decisions that will create as much benefit as possible. "Sometimes I use Sara to check my gut on a decision when I am the only one in my unit making it," she said.

Support and professional camaraderie. "Having a good buddy allows you to vent a bit," said Kate. "It's nice to have a sounding board when there is nobody in your unit you can talk to about a sensitive issue."

"Everything HR-related is going to come to you," said Sara. "We can't all remember everything. It's impossible. So having people you know are going through the same thing at the same time helps it feel more manageable."

Call to action
When HR partners reach out to each other for information, advice, and support, we can build professional relationships that help us feel less isolated, more efficient, and more satisfied in our jobs. Take some time to consider how you might connect with an HR professional in a different unit to build community or improve our work processes!

Tips for Collaborating in HR

Here are some suggestions Kate and Sara have for HR partners looking collaborating across teams or units:

• Partner from the beginning of a project to the end. The earlier your collaboration begins, the more context each person will have for the project. And your coordination and mutual support will grow the longer you're involved in the same work.
• Be transparent. Let your collaborators know what challenges you're facing. Be honest when you don't know something or you need help with a process. This creates trust. "I appreciate that I know I'm getting the full picture from you," Sara told Kate. "I trust you are telling me what's relevant to know so I can give you the most effective solutions."
• Prioritize tasks and projects, flexibly. We often have more work than time. Figure out together which pieces of the work are must-haves and which will necessarily take a back seat. As priorities change, tell each other and make a new plan.
• Set aside time for collaborative work. It's hard to reap the benefits of collaboration when you don't actually collaborate. You might choose a time to sit down together, in person or virtually, to create just one item like a shared template or a single workflow, that will make your jobs simpler.

University HR is working to provide structure for collaborative interactions through the HR Community of Practice. We hope that you'll also find your own opportunities to combine efforts, and share your successes and challenges with us! 

If you have thoughts about HR collaboration at the University of Oregon, please email hrcp@uoregon.edu.