What's it like working in HR?

[AllKnowingGerbil]

I'm considering career change and wondered what HR is like. What do you do in a typical day?

I'm currently in communications, and the internal comms has been my favourite aspect and often sits within HR. I like the idea of a career change where I can take professional qualifications.

Depends largely on the size of business you work in. I'm responsible for organising people into the best roles to facilitate the delivery of our strategy. I oversee performance management, recruitment, learning and development, operational issues and sit in the senior team. It's an sme.

I don't find the policy element or admin particularly interesting but have team members who are great at it and keep me organised.

I'm qualified to cipd level 7 which I've done while working full time. I love it but it's also draining because you can't coach or help everyone- sometimes you're managing them out, which js never fun. I really enjoy working with the legal team, even if not the activities, and feel privileged to have so much shared with me.

I think it's a great career but I also wonder if it has a shelf life. It doesn't bring you popularity as you can never really give others context for the decisions you've made. People can behave appallingly and you have no right of reply due to confidentiality. I sometimes miss just being one of the team.

Been in it for c16 years. Currently running my own HR consultancy. I've enjoyed most of my 16 years tbh. No two days are ever the same and you get some interesting problems to solve if your work involves employee relations likewise the Trade Union side of things. My background is in employment law whcih I have personally found very interesting but I also know many HR folk don't like it as it can be quite confrontational and draining so tend to focus on organisational design which is not so challenging from a legal perspective. Earning potential is very good and always lots of HR jobs out there. There isn't a great deal of comms in all fairness so if this is your favourite thing then I'd think wisely about a sideways move. Could you perhaps spend some time with your HR dept to find out a bit more? I have a masters by the way, it's pretty full on completing when working full time as well but there are plenty of HR quals that aren't so in depth so perhaps you could try one of those to see if it interests you before diving in.

I’m a Head of HR for a tech/engineering SME. I really enjoy it mostly. The biggest pro for me is the variety, no two days are ever the same and the remit is really broad (responsible for reward, performance management, employee relations, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, learning and development, organisational design, recruitment, etc, etc). I think that’s what also makes it a challenge though, you need to have good knowledge in all of those topics and can end up feeling a bit spread thin trying to focus on everything.

I would just say that you need to have a thick skin. There are times when you need to have fairly uncomfortable or difficult conversations with people around things like dismissals. I’ve had to manage a number of redundancy programmes and it’s not pleasant.
But, if you work for a good employer who values its employees, there are many ways in which you can make a positive impact within the organisation. I love being able to support people with their development and watch their careers progress.

Please don't join the carnival that is now NHS HR.

Agree with everything above, but will also add that it can be quite lonely. I worked my way up from admin assistant to HR manager and there are times when people stop talking when you enter the break room etc. Doesn't bother me, but was a bit odd when I noticed the change. Your job is to ensure company policies are being followed, even if you personally don't agree with them, not for everyone, but I find it rewarding overall

Thanks everyone! The link with internal comms was more relating to employee engagement, org culture and a bit of behavioral science. I'm not a confrontational person so maybe its not the right field for me. I'll keep exploring though as there may be areas I would enjoy.

I’ve always done generalist HR roles in smaller organisations but larger companies will have specialist roles/teams if you wanted to do something more focused like employee engagement.
You could maybe also look at reward specialist roles (responsible for pay and benefits practices). It stays away from the more contentious employee relations work, and requires some knowledge of behavioural science (particularly around understanding of how to design rewards that motivate and attract employees). I think it’s a really interesting field with scope to progress into more senior reward manager type roles. It also tends to be the best paid HR specialism.

that's a good point @ThedaBara. I was previously an HRD and really noticed this almost immediately after my promotion. I wasn't expecting that at all but it definitely does come with the territory of HR, we are considered the 'keeper of secrets' so to speak so definitely something to be mindful of.