Working in HR?

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Hi, Does anybody here who works in HR enjoy their job and have positive experiences? I was a HR Advisor for four years, then took a gap to have children.

For the past two years I've volunteered in a HR role and it's reminded me of all of the rubbish things about the job. I'm now in a position where I can apply for work again, but not sure whether to go back into HR or try something different.

Basically, I remembered how, although you always try to work really hard to do a good job of advising on employment law, etc, you always seem to be disliked. In HR you are often advising of limitations, and viewed as an irritation. You have to tell people they can't do things (there is a tribunal risk, it's not treating employees equally or it's illegal!). No-one thanks you for it. You just deal with negative situations all day long - friction between staff, absence management, disciplinaries and grievances, etc.

Anyone found a good, positive HR job where you are respected?

I work in an HR specialism and largely enjoy it.... wouldn’t be a generalist for love nor money....

Can you move into Talent, Comp & Bens, OD, Expat Management, HR Ops, etc?

I’m a generalist and love it! Yep there are some rubbish bits and my caseload at the moment has 4 grievances that I’m dealing with, but I enjoy the helping people bit and making a difference. I enjoy being able to explain the “no you can’t do that but you could do this” to people.
Your right there is a lot of negativity surrounding hr and as it’s not a money making department it’s is often viewed negatively, however I do enjoy it!

Hi both, There were bits I liked - being part of a team and feeling like I was the manager of my own workload. Also, not just sitting in front of a desk all day as travelling and in meetings. But much of it was stressful.

@LAwonder I like the idea of moving into a specialist role, but I only have experience as a generalist. Do you think I'd need to retrain a bit to move into those areas? I feel a bit clueless.

I'm not sure whether I've just had bad experiences, and there are better employers out there. The first place I worked was very sexist and I was a female in an environment with many male managers. They saw themselves as being more senior and I had to put up with a lot of snidey remarks and feeling like my advice wasn't being taken seriously.

At my last place, where I worked for a charity for free, they were grateful for HR advice as they had no clue and were making mistakes all over the place. But again, also hated being told they couldn't do certain things (like give a bonus to every member of staff except the one man who worked there, who was old and sick a lot. Or just give someone notice to terminate their permanent contract after their 10 year service, because their job was no longer needed). I felt like I just became an irritation.

I’ve worked in HR for 20 years and I love it! I don’t tell people what to do, I tell them what the risks are if they do things a certain way and advise on what the safest way is to do something. I’ve found that people are more open to taking your professional opinion on board if you ultimately leave it to them. I don’t want to be seen as slowing things down or being a blocker but I do want them to think things through and make the right decision but feel empowered to do it. I have found this approach makes for a better partnership but perhaps I’ve been lucky with the people I’ve worked with.

I think it’s also how you frame it. My HRBP now is fantastic, she guides and advises me strategically and leaves the operational stuff to me. But we do work as a partnership and I trust her. I talk to her about anything people related and see when I ne

For generalist roles I think you are already in a good place as your general HR experience will stand you in good stress.

I’ve worked in HR for years in generalist and specialist roles. I really enjoy it. It’s about deeply understanding your business areas, and being credible and respected enough to be a sounding board. In terms of pointing out risks, it’s more about problem solving - presenting different options with different levels of risk to address the issue.

Oops pressed send too soon...

I think it’s also how you frame it. My HRBP now is fantastic, she guides and advises me strategically and leaves the operational stuff to me. But we do work as a partnership and I trust her. I talk to her about anything people related and then get her input and guidance. She offers a different perspective and challenges me when I need to brainstorm on the direction of the department people-wise. But that’s because she’s taken time to educate me on what value she can bring.

So I would say being an HRBP is about understanding the needs of the business and showing the value of strategic HR, so that you are ahead of things when your LMs start going off-piste.

For generalist roles I think you are already in a good place as your general HR experience will stand you in good stead. I guess you need to think about what interests you in the specialist areas. It also depends largely on the organization and its culture too. Be selective about where you work and also choose your LM carefully. You can google HR topics and case studies online to see where HR has made a difference....

Good luck

Hi, Thank you for the feedback and advice.

@MyView2 The last role I had was a little different because I was on the Board of Trustees for the charity, so I did have to tell them not to do something if it was risky to the business, because I was personally liable. If we got sued I could have lost my professional qualifications and even my personal assets (like my house). It was a strange situation where the managing staff did not like the fact that the Trustees actually were the managers in a legal sense, and treated them like the helpers. I gave my advice in a sensitive, polite way of course from an employment law perspective.

Obviously I do realise that Advisers just advise. When I worked in my previous jobs, I would just give advice and record that I had done so, as it was on their heads if they did not follow it (unlike the scenario above).

@LAwonder Thank you I will definitely follow that advice.

I’m going to give a different view ! I’m in a senior generalist role and at the moment the negativity is endless grievances, disciplinary and redundancies coming out of my ears - plus pressure of COVID has made the role very stressful. If you can go for something more specialised then it’s probably much more rewarding