To be frustrated with HR?

[Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar]

I am slowly losing the will to live with HR and need some outside perspective, preferably from anyone who actually works in HR because I genuinely don't understand how something this simple can take this long.

For context, I already work for the council and have been offered a new job within the same council, moving from one department to another. So this isn't an external employer who has never heard of me before.

I was offered the new job on Monday 7th September. Obviously delighted. Immediately mentally left my current job and started counting down the days excitedly.

Then... crickets.

I chased HR on Thursday 16th September. They confirmed they had received everything from the hiring manager, but it hadn't actually been looked at yet.

As a result of me chasing, they sent me the onboarding paperwork last thing on Thursday 17th.

I filled absolutely everything in on Friday 18th and returned it. The DBS was something I had to arrange myself, which I did and paid for, and it came back clear same day and been sent to them. I also emailed same day to confirm everything had been completed and ask whether they needed anything else from me. All done by lunchtime on the Friday.

Crickets.

I emailed again Monday morning (21st) asking them to confirm they had everything and, importantly, whether the reference request had now been sent to my current manager.

Crickets.

I chased again late Tuesday afternoon, specifically asking for an update and confirming again that my manager hadn't received anything as far as I knew.

Crickets.

This morning (Thursday) I emailed my current manager directly to ask whether she'd received the reference request.

She confirmed she hasn't received anything.

So I emailed HR again this morning, politely asking whether the reference request was likely to be sent today.

And...

Crickets.

The particularly annoying part is that the hiring manager has specifically advised me not to hand in my notice until HR have confirmed my start date.

So I'm sitting here with a job offer, a clear DBS, all my paperwork completed, and a hiring manager waiting for me...

...and I can't even hand in my notice because HR haven't finished whatever mysterious ritual they're performing behind the scenes.

At this point I am genuinely starting to wonder whether I have somehow fallen into an administrative black hole.

I completely understand that HR departments are busy. I'm not expecting someone to sit there refreshing their inbox waiting for my emails. But we're talking about nearly three weeks since I was offered the job, and the only single bit of movement seems to have happened only because I've chased them.

I'm now getting worried that this is going to affect my start date, despite having done everything I've been asked to do promptly.

And I WANT TO START NOW. 😂

I'm mentally finished with my current job, I've got the new job, I've done the paperwork, my DBS is clear, I've got the new-work-life organised in my head...

I just need HR to send one bloody reference request.

Anyone who works in HR: is this normal? Is there some completely reasonable explanation for why this is taking so long, particularly when it's an internal council move, or have I just encountered an HR department where emails go to die?

Because I am approximately three more unanswered emails away from becoming the sort of person who sends a carrier pigeon.

That's weird; I thought Council departments were famously efficient and switched-on!

Did you have any indication of a start date?

I wonder if they would get a move on if you just emailed to say you are confirming a start date of 1st October?

I was hoping for 19th October but that would have meant me handing in my notice on 21st September so I've missed that now.
W/c 26th October isn't possible because both me and hiring manager are on holiday
So it's looking like 2nd November but I'm worried that will be delayed too as it means handing in notice end of this month which is coming around fast and I have no idea when HR are going to send the reference request and how long it's going to take my current manager to send it back.
It's so frustrating how they move at a glacial pace and I am hoping someone who works in recruitment can shed some light. Some understanding might make me feel less frustrated.

I work in HR, albeit corporate private sector and not in admin. Sounds like a slow, inefficient team, possibly stuff being dropped in handoffs between people/teams. Frustrating but it has only been 3 weeks so you’ll just have to stick at it and keep chasing.

There is also the possibility you’ve pissed someone off by chasing so much. I don’t deal with anything administrative but it grinds my gears when someone chases me continuously for something which is unimportant in the grand scheme of things (although appreciate it is important to you). Makes me want to just ignore them for a few weeks honestly when I have bigger fish to fry!

That's understandable, but pretty unprofessional

but OP hasn't chased them up that much?

She waited 10 days after her job offer to chase for the first time.

Then received the paperwork later the same day (so obviously it worked)

Sent it all back on Friday lunchtime and followed up with a Monday morning email which was ignored.

Chased again late afternoon on Tuesday

Left it until Thursday morning to first check with her line manager and then chase HR again.

That's really not that much chasing, considering HR are completing ignoring her, giving nothing back whatsoever, and it's been confirmed they haven't even sent the reference request to the current manager yet?

How long does it take to send a quick "yep, got everything, will be in touch" email, or attach a form to an email and send it off?

Honestly OP, sounds like a sloppy, disorganised team and I'd be getting pissed off. By the end of next week I'd be complaining.

It's people's lives they are messing with. If there's a hold up they should say so.

And yeah, I agree. Just ignoring someone out of spite is very unprofessional.

Do you have a specific contact in HR? I would actually just pick up the phone and be unfailingly nice - find out what the holdup is (if any)

Yes, a specific contact. I've been emailing one person.

I work in the nhs and they can be notoriously slow I guess it also depends on how much movement there is in the organisation and how many people they are supporting a move for at any given time.
id asked for a teams call to go thru everything and ask what is outstanding and see what can be done perhaps?

Based on my work at the moment they have an insane amount of recruitment at the one time and simply not enough of them to get round to it all so it's taking far longer than usual to do anything.

What’s with the crickets? If you include them in you emails I can see why that might confuse the system.

id say that’s not normal even for a large public sector department. Do they have a queing system so whilst your job might be easy it might be in a queue behind other more complex cases? Can you try visiting them? Calling somehow? Given you are moving internally you don’t need to resign technically, you are keeping continuous service - no notice. so if you are communicating clearly with everyone you should just be able to agree a start date as soon as the paperwork is done- but only if you keep both old and new managers on board they should be ready for this?

Could you get in touch with one of the people you'd be working with and see if they can push HR at their end?

No, I do need to hand in my notice.

And I need to do it by next Friday if I want to start 2nd November. So I need the HR cogs to turn a bit quicker.

I get there are complex cases but 8 weeks between job offer and start date seems a bit unnecessary

What is the cricket reference? I am very confused!

It means silence

If you believe that, you'll believe HR are there for you and on your side.

Normal for local government HR yes.

Not normal normally.

I'm confused by other posters being confused about what crickets means 🤯

If you have one contact that should make it easier to call them? I work in a council HR, though not in recruitment, and things do take ages but an internal move should be very straightforward

Yes it's inefficient and frustrating, but you're using the same contact method to one person. If they're off sick or something, they're not getting emails

Phone HR tomorrow or at the very least email the general address, not your specific person.

Id pick up the phone or walk over to their office and have a chat.

Before I took early retirement, our HR dept was specifically told to not process anyone offered a job for a month at least. Nobody could tell me why. And that's on top of the new system that they had bought in that they didn't know how to work which had already put spanners in works to delay things.

Took days upon days to get back to me about why the next step on their useless system wasn't progressing.

At this point, the hiring manager should chase it up. I'd be incredibly pissed off if I were them.

Sometimes the delay is outside of HR’s control (like managers not signing something off, or other internal reshuffling taking place). Saying that, someone in HR should keep you updated to let you know things are still moving, albeit at a snail’s pace.

Sounds annoying but id call or go over to the department physically if that's possible as clearly emailing isn't effective!
Your contact may be on leave, off sick or just useless 🤔

Who was it that said doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity?!

I'm a bit bemused by you having to get and pay for your own DBS. Its only possible for an individual to apply for a basic DBS themselves, standard checks are not available via self application and enhanced checks only are for self employed roles - standard and enhanced checks legally have to be requested by the employer.
Its very odd that they only want a basic check AND that theyve told you to apply for it and pay yourself. Can you claim the cost back? Could this be the reason for the delay potentially?

Maybe they paid the last person to leave and are delaying you starting to save money.

Who was it that said doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity?!

It's often said it was Einstein who said this but not a proven quote.

I'm another who was questioning what the crickets reference was all about 🤷