My experience with HR is limited to my interaction with HR professionals at work. I am looking to move into the HR field and have made that decision based on the fact that I enjoy working with people and I care about helping people and supporting management. I have a few friends at Operations Manager and Director levels in the logistics world that have explained some of the ways they’ve had to work with HR and what HR have done to support them over the years but I’ve never had the opportunity to hear it from the other side of the coin. What I mean is I have never had a relaxed banter with an HR professional about what it is about HR that they find interesting or enjoy the most, or the more challenging points of working in HR. Without going into specific could some of you take the time to share some stories or advice about what you feel are the highlights and the downsides of working in this field?
Thanks in advance,
Jess
Replies
Hi Jess,
I've never been in an official HR role, I've been a member of a large L&D team that was part of a HR team and I've been through team mergers and a HR centralisation but I've never felt like a HR practitioner. That said I've worked around HR for long enough to be able to share some observations and experiences.
First the positive:
HR have within their remit (depending on organisation), employee engagement, employer branding, employee experience, recruitment and talent, performance management, capability and people development. I also believe HR through these things have a huge part to play in the culture of the organisation and how it feels to work there. Wow....you tell me I can get a role that can have this much impact and positive influence then I want to be a part of that :-)
The not so positive:
Unfortunately HR aren't known for all of the above things, they are more commonly known for making sure you get paid, creating and enforcing policies and for things like disciplinaries and tribunals. There is the widely accepted view that HR are only responsible for compliance and governance and are only seen when there are people management issues etc. I've also found HR to be quite political and policy driven which has come at the expense of agility, experimentation, openness and transparency.
I (like others far more knowledgeable then me) believe HR needs to re-invent itself to focus on doing the 'human' things far better and focusing on making a real difference in organisations. Creating the environments, conditions and cultures that represent the 21st century and allow organisations and their employees to be the best they can be. It's not a question of saying IF this is what HR is about then I want in it's about making HR like this through our actions - we can't rely on others to do this we all need to play a part!
Neil Morrison who writes a blog called Change Effect recently posted this blog below which I recommend you take a look at:
HR: A 10 point agenda for change
What do others think? Do you agree / disagree? What can you share about working in HR?
I looked at that link and a few connected to it. I haven't laughed so hard in ages as I did at the line, "You catch fleas on a home visit..." That just made my day! :)
I haven't been there yet thankfully - hope it wasn't someone talking about my house! I have three cats :)
Hi Jess
There is a very interesting and lighthearted discussion going on over Twitter at the moment as a result of this article http://www.xperthr.co.uk/blogs/employment-intelligence/2013/01/hr-m... you might find it useful, amusing or just downright shocking!
The upside for me is when I make a difference on a personal level, sure it's great to be strategic but I think seeing the effects of something or helping someone make a change is great.
The downside is inevitably delivering bad news, I was talking to an HR director (externally) on Monday and he said 'if you ever enjoy that stuff it's time to get out'
Hayley
Great discussion Jess and I'm sure you'll get some honest answers here. I'll hold off adding some thoughts and will see if anyone else wants to get the ball rolling and share what they enjoy or find challenging about being part of HR.