Human Resource ManagementHuman Resource Management (HRM) (HRM) in organizations impacts individual and organizational performance and can promote important behaviors at work. The visibility of HRM practices (salience and ease of observation), their utility (perception that they contribute to achieving individual goals), and their understanding (absence of ambiguity) can be important attributes for creating a strong HRM system according to (Bowen and Ostroff in Acad Manage Rev 29:203–221, 2004). In the context of organizations, the implementation of sustainable practices related to aspects of individual development and employee well-being can bring positive results for the individual and the organization (Sypniewska et al. in Int Entrepreneurship Manage J, 2023), with emphasis on engagement (Cleveland and Cavanagh in Human Resource Manage Rev 146–161, 2015) and innovation (Sypniewska et al. in Int Entrepreneurship Manage J, 2023) in the workplace. The objective of this qualitative study was to investigateWorkers workers’ perceptions of HRM, job insecurityJob insecurity (JI), work engagement (WE) andWork engagement innovative behaviorInnovative behaviour (IB), seeking singularities and personal and collective meanings of different professional categories in the context of public higher education. Fourteen workersWorkers, including technicians and teachers, with and without tenure, from public universitiesUniversities in Portugal and Brazil participated in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted online. Data analysis was performed based on thematic analysisThematic analysis (King in Essential guide to qualitative methods and analysis in organizational research. Sage publications, 2004). The results reveal that workersWorkers at Portuguese and Brazilian universitiesUniversities feel that HRM practices influence their WE and IB behaviors and reduce their JI levels. The different perceptions of the existence of the HRM system within the universitiesUniversities studied stand out, revealing the dissatisfaction or lack of perception of support from HRM in the Portuguese context, while in the Brazilian context the role of HRM is highlighted as important and present in other areas related to support for the worker, which highlights the presence of the strength of the HRM system, in its dimensions, visibility, utility and understanding, according to the model by (Bowen and Ostroff in Acad Manage Rev 29:203–221, 2004). These results generate important reflections and demonstrate the need for attention on the part of the managers of these public organizations to invest in this field.