Why is that HR is the place employees go to "vent" about their issues?

The reason is simple: HR tends to have better "people skills" and it's just easier to go to HR and have HR fight all the battles than it is to deal with the conflict directly.

Unfortunately, the sheer number of employee issues that HR deals with on a daily basis is now bordering on the ridiculous, yet if you ask any HR Generalist or Manager today what their #1 frustration is, they'll likely tell you it's dealing with employee issues, many of which supervisors and managers should've owned!

Let's face it: people issues can be messy and often require dealing head-on with conflict, so most people would just rather avoid it altogether.

However, when employees and managers continually avoid the conflicts, and HR gets too involved, what results is an enabling behavior. Over time, word gets around that HR fights all the battles, so employees just keep on coming in to HR and, as a result, HR department productivity decreases, conflicts intensify, and already fragile relationships with supervisors and department heads become even more tenuous.What You'll Learn:In this informative audio conference, learn how to sift through all the employee drama to clearly identify legitimate employee relations' issues that need to be investigated - and which ones you should push back on or have your managers and supervisors handled themselves. Additionally, you'll learn strategies for creating boundaries in HR to minimize the flow of employee relations' complaints. Specifically:

• How to determine the difference between employee concerns-and employee complaints
• Understanding the root causes to employee complaints
• Understanding how HR has turned into "The Principal's Office" - and how to change this perception in a professional manner
• The three key words to clearly define the types of employee complaints HR does own
• Introduction to The Bermuda Triangle of employee relations - and how to stay out of it
• How to implement an Employee Relations' Policy to clearly define a process for handling complaints
• Why having an Open Door Policy may not be as effective as you think
• How getting involved in "non-HR" can create the perfect storm for retaliation
• How to build supervisor and employee capability for handling issues on their own
• How to establish boundaries in HR