The ecstasy and agony of working as an HR professional in organizations today.
“With power, comes great responsibility.”
-Spiderman
No other profession in the world evokes such a gamut of emotions amongst the youth today, as HR profession. Be it a newbie on the threshold of starting a career or a veteran maneuvering the labyrinth of corporate ladder in quest of success. Almost everyone has an opinion about the “famed” HR professionals. May be because, for an employee, we are the face and soul of the company. Some of the most critical functions in an employee life-cycle is executed by us, like Recruitment, Onboarding, Query handling, Policy clarifications, Separation etc. So, while the trigger and rationale of the key decisions may be residing with business leaders, when it comes to designing the guidelines and execution framework, HR comes to the fore front. And fortunately or unfortunately, in most of the organizations, the communication of the outcomes for key programs like C&B, involuntary separations is also left to the HR team. In fact, the Internal Communication team itself falls under the umbrella of HRD. So that explains the power and great responsibility part which need to function in a “Yin-yang”mode. And its imperative that, these two work in a complementary fashion, otherwise success will be unattainable, both for the HR professional and the organization.
While we may dwell upon the nature of the high-pressured job and getting sandwiched between the diverse takes of manager and employee fraternity, its also heartening to know that, we have a key role to play in creating employee delight through our numerous interactions across the plethora of programs and initiatives that an HR is supposed to execute. If I look back at my 9 years of HR journey, I see lot of stories that have made the “agony/stress” worthwhile. Be it a smiling employee at the end of a difficult discussion or an employee who meets you in some corner of the world after years of initial interaction and tells you that you created an impact.
One very recent incident that comes to the fore of my mind is from a recruitment drive that I participated in, last week. Earlier I used to work at Bhubaneswar DC of my company and 3 years back, I relocated to US to take up the GEO HR role. Post my stint in US, I moved to Bangalore Development Centre. And this recruitment drive was happening in Kolkata. I was the only HR person in that event along with a bunch of technical panelists from Bhubaneswar. As I entered the room, I could see, each and every panelist was a known face, some names I could not recall, some I could. We started chatting up like old friends and each one of them, was eager to know, where had I vanished and what was I up to. It was like the years in between had never happened! We ended up taking selfies too! Such was the warmth and open-heartedness of my colleagues. They welcomed me back with open arms! Many of them narrated some incidents which honestly speaking, I could not even remember! So the gist of the story is, if you are doing your job with passion, integrity and “Humaneness”, you will be fondly remembered. For an HR professional, it is critical that we learn to view and act in every situation with lot of empathy, otherwise we will end up being Laptop/Excel HRs only and not for the people. Kindness in interaction wins hearts and creates lasting loyalty. While rudeness and transactional approach leads to disgruntled employees.
Another story that is still fresh on my mind is the kind of appreciation and adulation we receive, whenever we go that extra mile to make the families of our employees feel special. Be it though any of our family centric initiatives like “Mothers dayout”/“Bring your kid to work”/“Family day at work” or any interaction with the families in general. When the employees and their families really appreciate you genuinely, that’s the highest reward that an HR can ever receive, in my opinion. I remember, we had rolled out the initiative named, “Mothers Dayout” in our Bhubaneswar center, way back in 2011 and we were amazed at the overwhelming positive response that we received. Soon after this initiative was replicated across all the centers in India and now is a regular feature in the event calendar in my organization.
We received a huge no. of emails, appreciating this initiative, sharing an excerpt of one of them.
“This is not just a feedback but a letter of gratitude addressed to each who made this wonderful event a memorable and beautiful moment. Thanks for giving us a chance to make our Mom feel special in this very special way. I saw three things in my Mom’s eyes: Happiness, Pride and Respect; Happiness of being loved and cared in a special way, pride of being a mother and Respect for the place where I work and for the work I do. Moreover, this made my Dad a bit hopeful that soon there will be “Dad’s day out” and soon he will be given a chance to feel special. Thanks a ton again.”
Interestingly, we rolled out the “Bring your Dad to work” initiative this year!
I feel proud and privileged that I have this opportunity to make a difference, each day, in my own small way. And each such email from an employee makes all the hard work and stress really worthwhile. No monetary rewards or accolades stand higher than an email from an employee appreciating your efforts. These are the moments of ecstasy that beat down the moments of agony by a huge margin!
