Keep standing to view the top

It's so often easily pointed out on how as Human resources professional it is indispensable to ensure we stay connected with the employees and no denying how bare essential but at some time you have to question is it the duty of HR to dig out information from employees and help them out ?

In an interaction with a senior HR professional I posted this question to which she pointed out one thing which was very crucial was that it is essential we don't stoop too much into a simple issue relating to a particular case and if we do that we are not able to act as the link between organization and the workforce but rather we end up taking sides and thus we leave ourselves short of Hara-kiri, but if we dint do that properly where will we go?

Here came the answer that the responsibility was there but it is also to remember the level because only if you are standing up only you can see the top of a tower and in this context the tower refers to a business and pinnacle refers to the peak performance so in order to do this it is essential petty things are cleared out and important issues are focused.
A famous incident she said to connect with that was of a famous Indian conglomerate where there was the position of AGM was open and the existing HR mangers were given a chance to see if they fit the bill and one senior manager with over two decades of experience was shortlisted and when asked the question what will he change for better efficiency he started pointing out individual cases of employee grievance rather putting it as a complete picture to make it appear big and get the solution and thus he was put out of running highlighting how pointing out small things can lead to !!!

Cheers
Arvind