"What do you HR people do yaar?"
This is something i wrote off without going too much into what or how it will it be perceived as; and sent it off to the complete HR vertical of my organization. Including the EVP, yes. Just thought of sharing it here, too. :)
“Tum HR wale karte kya ho??!”
This is probably the most proverbial question I encounter on a frequency too high for my comfort. In case you haven’t, you’re lucky. In case you have learnt to ignore it, please unlearn it. The reality is that this thought is out there, and circulating. In part why it is so, is because we as an HR fraternity don’t speak up as often as we need to and also because, for some reason unknown to me, we tend to be modest about our roles. Sadly, some even tend to feel inferior about it. Not done, ladies and gentleman, this is just not done.
I revisited this question today morning and went back to what I used to and still think of HR’s role (in an extremely brief capsule form. Didn’t want to torture you with the whole thesis!).
I’ve always believed that people are the most crucial resource; anywhere, anytime. It’s the only resource which is dynamic and can stretch itself beyond its expected performance and take potential to a new level. The only resource which can think for itself. A machine can give you 100% output, but it takes a person resource to take it to 120%. A big heart can any day make up for small buildings. Big empty buildings won’t take us far. Since this resource is so indispensable, it has to be priority number 1 – the rest will fall in place. And the baton holder for this is us, the HR.
Our workplace is where we spend the major chunk of our time for a major chunk of our life. To make it such that people look forward to it and think that their 8 hours or more spent here were worthwhile – is our work. What goes around comes around. The way an organization treats its people, they will return it back with interest, sooner or later. How are we treating our people today?
A change Leader might be anybody, including HR, but only the HR can be the change Agent. No other team is expected to be equipped with skills in this, as much as ours – both hard and soft. HR has an all-encompassing reach and has touch points that no other department can have. Be proud of it and use it!
Talking about reach, HR is the common cog which works in tandem with all others. We deal in relations, not transactions. And the proof of how much people love us is how we are their favourite punching bags – marketing people would die to have such high brand recall. ;-)
One of my professors used to pronounce HR as the conscious-keeper of the organization. We are expected to protect the sanctity of values, ethics and integrity. If an employee(s) does anything contrary to that towards the organization or any of its employee(s), it’s our prerogative as well as duty to bring it to light and take a stand for the same. If we don’t, not much can be expected from anyone else then.
We all love cursing government offices’ functioning and how they suck our blood and test our patience to get even the most trivial of works done. Why then, would we do the same to somebody else? Particularly, to our own organization’s employees. The strength of our processes and workflow is a reflection of not only our internal working but also the level of concern we have for our employees. It’s the biggest, direct, most tangible measure which employees use for us. We need to hold a mirror to ourselves.
The human mind listens and sees much more than we can imagine. Those minute details which we don’t really think about, let alone work upon, might be distorting the bigger picture of our contribution. What are the subconscious signals which we are sending out to our people? Through our gestures, office’s unannounced rules, small rules, group setting regulations, unwritten protocols, silences, ergonomic set up, etc. Are we paying attention to how is our organization speaking to them apart through words?
Why don’t we talk good about ourselves? Why why why?? Possibilities:
a) Modesty – it’s a virtue only till the point it’s not stretched too far. Let’s not mix modesty with claiming what’s true.
b) Low confidence – “Oh we are just HR and we just need to work behind the scenes and do it well. What can we possible boast about.” What is there not to boast about?
c) We think we are not that big – “Okay we are important but we can’t be part of the big game na.” If people berate us, think of us as a support function, consider us to be slow or inefficient (even if we are not!) – it’s all because
1. We don’t show what we do
2. We allow this to happen – for such an opinion to germinate and then spread like a creeper.
Remember, no one can make us feel inferior without our consent.
All of the above have to be done by us. Finance is too busy tallying numbers. Marketing, too busy enticing people. Sales, too busy pushing cases. Manufacturing, too busy churning out IMFL. That leaves only us, folks. If we don’t, none of this will happen. And if this doesn’t happen, well…
Disclaimer: I didn’t strategically choose Friday to send this out so as to dilute the consequences (:P) but have simply acted on a trigger in the morning. Though I have a feeling I shouldn’t have sent it out before my appraisal got signed off. ;-)