“What do people think HR is?” asked Tom Gardner, SVP, Human Resources (HR), at Access TCA. “Do they think we’re cops, the fun police, the folks who hire and fire people? There are also a lot of things people think we should do but that we shouldn’t do.”
At its core, HR’s role is one of support: guiding managers on policies, legal frameworks, and best practices. HR does not—and should not—perform managerial tasks such as employee discipline, performance conversations, or compensation decisions. Those responsibilities belong to managers. HR supports that process; it doesn’t replace it.
“We participate in the interview process and in job postings,” says Gardner. “We might handle the technical posting and ensure it’s legal, but it’s up to the managers to review the resumes and decide if they think the candidate is a good fit. I don’t know everything they’re looking for. What 10 or 25 things do the managers want the person to do? I can’t come up with those off the top of my head because I don’t know what they are. The manager must participate in the process.”
The Hiring and Retention Landscape
Even with boundaries being redrawn, HR’s to-do list remains extensive. Challenges in hiring, employee retention, and the need for better candidate evaluation remain major issues. He says, “We can tell you if someone can legally work in the United States, or we can tell them about their health insurance. Employee fit and early turnover are especially critical. The inability to engage new hires meaningfully highlights deeper issues in hiring and onboarding practices.”
Legacy job-seeking tools have mostly lost their effectiveness. Resumes and cover letters are becoming more generic and thank-you notes—except for the rare handwritten ones—hardly make a difference anymore. As more candidates turn to AI for their application materials, authenticity declines, making it harder for employers to understand who candidates truly are.
“I am seeing so many resumes that are the generic Indeed resume—’I filled out a questionnaire on Indeed, and it generated this resume’—and it looks like 100 percent of the other resumes we receive,” says Gardner. “Or, hey, ‘ChatGPT, spit out a cover letter that uses these keywords.’ I don’t know when I last looked at a cover letter. The exception is creatives because they usually include a link to their portfolios.”
Culture
“During my first year at Access, I was on a conference call with members of the leadership team,” he says, “when suddenly, a kid’s head popped up behind me. And the next thing I knew, my kid was on my shoulders for the entire call—and when the leadership group didn’t blink, I knew I was in the right place, with the right culture.” But HR does not own the culture, perhaps the most important reframe of all. No one person or department can own the culture. Culture is a collective responsibility, requiring active participation from managers and employees alike. HR can shape the conditions for a healthy culture, but it cannot manufacture or sustain one.
HR and Management
In many organizations, managers are promoted because they excel at their jobs. However, that doesn’t mean they should automatically become managers. “Just because you’re the top salesperson, account manager, designer, detailer, or exhibit builder doesn’t mean you should lead a department or team,” Gardner says.
Companies don’t always realize they don’t know how to manage people and end up delegating that responsibility to others, like HR. A manger is responsible to delivering good news—such as a salary increase, a promotion, or a bonus—as well as the bad.
Gardner says, “You have to be able to say, ‘You’re not good at this, and we’re letting you go.’ HR isn’t responsible for managing people; managers are. But we’re here to help and teach managers how to handle those tough conversations. We’re a resource, and it’s essential that everyone understands the difference between what managers do and what HR does.”
The Benefits Problem Nobody Talks About Enough
Perhaps the most urgent daily issue in HR today is health insurance and employee benefits. Premium increases for employees often obscure what companies are actually spending on and covering. Changes in coverage, such as removing drugs from insurance formularies without timely notice to employees, erode trust and cause employees to seek answers and alternatives on their own.
One effective practice that promotes clarity is providing employees with direct contact information for the insurance carrier, allowing them to independently resolve billing and coverage questions. This not only empowers employees but also decreases HR’s transactional workload, enabling the team to focus on higher-value tasks.
COVID-19 and Culture
The pandemic dramatically changed management practices, employee behaviors, and company culture—leaving a lasting mark on HR and leadership roles. It forced HR and leadership to take on responsibilities beyond their normal duties to keep companies running and safe. Although this overextension was necessary, it delayed the return of managerial accountability. COVID-19 significantly blurred boundaries. Because the crisis required quick, centralized responses, HR stepped in to handle tasks that managers usually handled. The unintended result: some employees began expecting HR to manage people directly. Reversing that expectation remains one of HR’s quiet but ongoing challenges.
Personal Responsibility in a Post-COVID-19 Culture
Balancing genuine employee support with expectations of personal responsibility is a continuous process. COVID-19-era HR stepped in to handle issues employees might have managed independently. Cutting back on that approach—without appearing indifferent—requires consistency, clear communication, and patience.
Communication itself emerged as a defining leadership skill during the pandemic. When managers proactively reached out to maintain connection and transparency, those conversations often evolved into something more valuable: real engagement forums that strengthened culture under pressure. That lesson shouldn’t be lost now that the crisis has passed. On the other hand, mental health and work ethic challenges that surfaced during the pandemic have not been fully resolved. They remain part of the cultural and managerial landscape that HR and leadership must continue to address.
This story originally appeared in the Q3 2026 issue of Exhibit City News, with the original magazine layout available here.
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