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Human Resource is a thankless job. I’ve heard this many a times from lot of HR professionals who have experienced “ups and downs” in their HR careers, they feel ironic to be in this field altogether.
Well, I’m sure being into HR is not an easy job. It is like : there are many crying babies and limited stock of milk and you still have to manage and succeed!
In this tight rope walking activity of catering so many employees, with different problems and demands, at the same time, HR plays an important role of balancing the situations, playing the mid-hanger between the management & the staff and proving their own feet! This ain’t an easy task, we all know, but we still don’t get the right amount of appreciation for doing what we are doing. Normally, it is said “that’s your job!”
In my humble opinion we are somewhat ourselves responsible for this. I think if we want to get valued, we should value our own selves first. If we want to be thanked or appreciated, we should do that to our selves. Let’s see how:
Feel Good About Your Job: First and foremost factor, love your job! Love the HR skin you are in. It is great to be able to handle the task force of your organization. It is great to lend an ear to an employee who is in distress. It is lovely to get connected with people. It is precious to have friendships blossom which lasts even out of the organization’s campus. It is good to know all employees, the masses! All this is possible only in one role, that is HR!! Love your job, be thankful you’re in this role of managing Human Resources of your organization. It is a privilege, enjoy it!
Feel Empowered: One age old myth that still continues is : HR professionals are not empowered. I think It is mostly because of its image that HR deals with only soft side of the organization and all the other “intelligent” stuff of the business is done by other divisions like finance, marketing and business analysts! Turn the tables, bring numbers to the table and acquire that role of business partner. Understand what your organization does. Learn its portfolio, invest time in knowing your clientèle and gain knowledge of competitors!
Market Yourself: One has to market one self. As an HR you retain people, you handle their grievances, you are involved in training them, devising new policies which are employee friendly and yet it all goes unnoticed. You’ve to do a little marketing of this all. You need to share the numbers (attrition etc) in quarterly / yearly meetings, open house, any platform where you think you can talk of all this. Not in the manner to appear pompous but to reach the news in all corners of your organization. It is a must!
That said, stay humble with feet on the ground! Not because you are in HR, but because being humble is a good habit 
Image Source: Page by Mike Myatt
Nupur , a Core HR Specialist, brings 10 years of experience from IT Industry, Teaching and Training, with her. Currently associated with Diaspark Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Indore, as Manager HR-India Operations, she has worked with organizations like NSE.IT, ICSI Indore Chapter, University of Indore and SSI Limited in the past. Her interest areas in Core HR domain are Training, Employee Engagement and Retention. She has an inclination towards writing & photography and she loves singing too! A rookie mom, voracious reader, travel maniac and foodie to the core, she believes people in her life are her biggest treasure! Get connected to her using Twitter handle @imnoops | Linkedin | Facebook | HR Blog
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11 Comments
That’s a lovely piece. Thanks for sharing. In manufacturing maintenance is a thankless job, in people operations HR really is, we infanct a role of LORD Vishnu, purposeful maintenance. 😉
Thanks PJ for your lovely comment, the Lord Vishnu example is a good one
Well written article. Thanks a lot
Thanks for stopping by Venkat, hope to see you often
Great…. . Thanks for sharing
Thanks Sanjay!
Nice article, Nupur. I think one powerful point that you have rightly focused on, is to be self-driven. Being proactive and initiating and taking lead – all these qualities – be it any job – provides us internal motivation. It brings up challenges and also provides us excitement/strength to deal with those challenges. Meeting these challenges gives immense satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
Yes Advait, unless we are self driven we would not reach our goals! I agree on your thought : meeting challenges gives immense satisfaction & sense of achievement
There are multiple dev teams, test teams in an orgn but only a single HR team and so they keep mentioning this that they are not thanked…I have not seen an orgn which has policies different for HR team and diff for other teams…bonuses and awards may differ but thats a case of profit and cost centre…why do we always read pity stories in HR article seeking sympathy…remember the grass is always green on the other side. Speak to any non HR person and he will complain that HR never meet the TAT for a query be it recruitment or clarification on issues…like in my organisation HR has given a portal to raise queries and have asked people not to call HR guys directly…Humbly responsible. ..I do not agree…They do consider themselves over empowered. Above are based on my experience and I am sure there can be exceptions to this.
Hi Vaibhav, that’s exactly my point above that as an HR we need not beg for sympathy, we need not feel less empowered or we should not feel not thanked enough.
On your experience part in your org : In my org, me and team maintain a 24 hrs TAT to get back to employees, we donot have any portal via which an employee should contact us, it is simple : they can pick up the phone or come to our desks. I as an HR manager feel responsible for catering to employee needs, both emotional and career developmental. That said, there will always be set of employees who would think that we are not doing our job right and that we are not good HRs, which is okay, you can’t keep everyone happy, though we should not feel bad about it and not stop trying
Brilliant write up Nupur! Feel empowered and Market yourself are very insightful and eye openers.. Thank you..