Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the blog written by group members of Human Resources UK.
On Monday I managed to successfully navigate to London despite the fire outside Cheltenham train station, the faulty warning lights, the delayed trains and tubes and the sweltering heat to meet up with the rest of the Discuss HR writers. We spent our time overlooking the Thames putting the world to rights, but more importantly we discussed the results of the recent survey and how we can implement this to the blog.
I am also delighted to announce that next week’s guest writer will be published author Janice Caplan who many of you will know. So look out for her article on Thursday 11th August. In the meantime, today popular Discuss HR writer Dawn Clarke looks at whether HR has changed through her career, or whether it is her perception that has changed. (Ed Scrivener)
The Good Old Days …….
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| Is this the right view of how HR used to be? |
I’ve been in HR for over twenty years now and about a year ago I decided to take stock of my life and in particular my career in HR. We read so much these days about how HR must be strategic and ‘partner’ with the business and I have always agreed with this however when I think back to the ‘good old days’ ……… I do feel a little nostalgia. Should we really feel bad about wanting to care for people as much today as we used to??? Many of us do what we get paid to do however is it what we actually believe in? I wonder if there are any other ‘nostalgics’ out there?
When I first started working in HR I was an HR Officer (we didn’t have Advisors in those days). I had recently completed my CIPD studies and landed myself a great job in a service industry. I worked hard, learned a lot and had fun. Redundancies in those days were almost unheard of in my sector, TUPE was not a significant issue on the HR scene and we really did spend much of our time with employee development and satisfaction. It was a job seeker’s market and most sensible employers knew that and were prepared to invest in their people. In some industries, the old ‘training boards’ still existed. Mr Ulrich had yet to enlighten us with his Business Partner Model and we were called Personnel rather than HR. I really did love my job and over time I worked for a few different companies and in the process worked my way up to HR Manager. At this level I was more involved with the business side of things and started looking at HR from a slightly different perspective however I still loved my job and I got a real buzz from knowing everybody in the business.
I have always been a person to embrace change and was incredibly enthusiastic when I got the opportunity to use HR to make a difference to the business. I got a real sense of achievement from improving ways of doing things, saving money and inputting into business strategy.
My first experience with ‘globalisation’ was working for a company with ambitious growth plans and some of the growth was through acquisition. My first experience of TUPE!!! HR was still a great place to be for me because I was part of a successful, growing company. As the Company grew and grew I started to lose touch with employees and decided that the company I had joined no longer existed and decided to move on. That was about 10/12 years ago.
The last 10/12 years of my career in HR have been unrecognisable in comparison to the first 10. In this hugely acquisitional business world, I have been acquired and disposed of and in the process of disposal have closed down one business completely. Having been acquired for the purpose of the purchasing company taking on our European distribution channels, the employees were no longer required and I had to close the whole site down about a year later despite the fact that we were a very profitable business. Some of the people I was responsible for had been in the business since they left school and knew nothing else. Still I thought, this is business and people have to learn to manage change. I did set up a very comprehensive outplacement programme with the management of personal change at the heart of it. I really did feel for some of those people but I was still excited about working the business side of HR.
I then worked for a company with heavy Far Eastern competition and therefore a real business need to cut costs. Improve processes by introducing lean and aggressively cut the overtime bill. Again I completely understand the business imperative. It was either make these changes or everyone would potentially lose their jobs. So we did it. Of course we had some considerable resistance but we were determined and we pressed ahead and to be fair most of the employees did understand the need for change even though they didn’t like it. Survival of the business was the number one objective.
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| Is HR now too remote? |
It was after this particular role that I started to question my choice of career. At an intellectual level I understand the need and rationale about almost every redundancy I have had to make and I have always supported the businesses I have worked for. I also believe that I have always done not just a good job but an excellent job. However I started to question the human and emotional side of this thing that we call ‘business’ and wondered if I was a bit too good at my job. Most of the people savings had come from me and they were substantial savings but then that was why I was paid ‘big bucks’. I thought about the good old days and realised that I missed them. Oh for those good old days that will never come back because business is only about one thing and we all know what that is. It’s that thing that makes the world go around. Have I become a cynic? I don’t know, perhaps realism just gave me a really big kick up the backside. The fact is that today’s business world is like a speeding (and perhaps out of control) train. Can we still make money and treat people well. Of course some businesses are able to do that so what makes them so different? Maybe that’s another blog!
And me? Well I will continue doing what I do because I’m good at it. I will still give 110% commitment and will carry on doing what needs to be done to keep the business profitable because I also need to have a job. I will however never lose the ‘compassionate/human’ side of myself and in many ways I hope that will help me to continue taking feelings and emotions into account when I have to make difficult people decisions.
Are my questions about HR or about capitalism in general? In this brave new world where strategic business partnering is the new HR mantra I do wonder if I am the only HR person to question how we have developed as a profession and whether or not all progress is positive. I hope I’m not!
About the author
Dawn is an experienced HR professional with strong development and internal consultancy experience. She takes a practical approach to HR tunring strategic plans into operational reality. Dawn has experience in a variety of industries with a track record of commercial success by engaging people and making work a fun place to be. On a personal note she is a huge Liverpool FC fan, well someone has to be!
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Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK. Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 11th August and we are delighted to welcome guest writer and published author Janice Caplan.
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