I often found the switch between reactive and proactive particularly hard to manage in HR roles. You’ve blocked out two days at the end of the month to design that new form/letter/process but 15 minutes in you get – “Have you got 5 minutes?”, followed by someone popping in, and straight after lunch a grievance lands in your inbox – all your plans are thrown out and you must deal with this issue- sound familiar??
It also happens when we have the proactive cycle of HR activities (payroll, pay review, promotions or performance reviews all scheduled in and repeated each month or year) coming up against the reactive (d&g, recruitment or absence issues) – tricky in a small team but especially tough when there is only one of you.
So how do we handle this without giving away our evenings and weekends or abandoning our plans to develop the HR function at the same time as responding.
It all comes down to planning.
First I would suggest a quarterly plan – start the year with a set of strategic aims and operational requirements mapped in. Structure it into a calendar to allow for the time specific proactive events, add holidays and put in generous blocks of time for achieving goals e.g. a 2 day piece of work sitting across 2 weeks so it can be completed somewhere in that time space.
Secondly Set up files for each piece of strategic delivery (electronic and physical) so the materials you need are ready to pick up as soon as you have a slot available.
Next block out time in your diary for each piece of work, and then move to complete it – no more drop ins distracting you. Even 2 hours at someone else’s desk, at home first things or in a nearby coffee shop will move your goal forward. Turn off your phone and notifications, do not be available and focus as well as you can. This gets easier the more you do it. And no crisis is so great it can’t wait 2 hours.
Finally repeat your time slots whenever you can and at the end of the quarter review your list and aims as time has allowed.
Good luck!