What Kind of HR Person Are You?
Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 by Frank RocheI thought I’d mix it up a little bit and try something new. I was thinking about what motivates people to be in HR and this is just a short audio post (1:55) about that. Key questions:
- Do you believe more Theory X or Theory Y?
- What’s your philosophical foundation for HR? Can be people be motivated at work, or is HR’s job to not demotivate?
- What prepared you to be in HR? And what are you doing now to improve your skills?
These are the questions that popped in my head at 5:30 this morning, when it was cold and dark. It was a good time to ponder the universe. Or at least human resources.
perrik
Oct 30th, 2007
Good questions to ponder as I sort through today’s tasks. Your first question brings up another question – what kind of HR person does *your employer* make you? I work for a hospital that’s owned by a healthcare organization, and just discovered that through our corporate portal I can browse the HR policies for the other hospitals in our system. My hospital’s policies are fairly sensible and flexible (IMO, of course), but a sister hospital has policies that clearly show a lack of trust in its employees. There’s an undercurrent of paternalism, and I imagine that the HR department is used more as a disciplinary squad than as employee advocates. Would I have stayed in HR if I had begun my career there instead of here? I enjoy helping people and my boss is an expert at thwarting bureaucracy in order to get results – what kind of mentor would I have found at a workplace with such a regulated mistrust of its staff?
Frank Roche
Oct 30th, 2007
Perrik, you make an excellent point — it is a bit about the culture. And as much as I’d like to think so, not everyone wants to or can change from a paternalistic culture to one of trust and support. There are rule followers out there, I’m just not one of them.
Rules yes, but each must make sense and be defensible. “Because I said so” just doesn’t cut it with grownups. Glad you’re doing the good work. I think there are a lot of good people in the profession, but it’s the bad ones who can make it bad for the rest.
HR Wench
Oct 30th, 2007
Perrik has an excellent point. It is one thing for me to be a theory X HR person who believes it is HR’s job to motivate employees. It is another to do what my employer expects HR to do…and it is different at every company I’ve worked at! It has certainly taught me flexibility.
What prepared me to be in HR? Honestly the best preparation was overhearing my mother (who worked out of our home while I was growing up) be assertive with problem clients. Her job was of a nature that she often had clients that literally needed a mother and latched onto her to fulfill that need. She was professional but never cold and able to keep good boundaries. She taught me it is ok to stand up for yourself and maintain boundaries even if that means ending an uncomfortable conversation with a client. What more, one can do this without getting huffy or shrill.
Philip Reed
Oct 30th, 2007
I’m not an HR professional, rather a techie, so I have no idea if my views are even valid.
On one hand, I have a deep suspicion of human nature that underlies everything from theology to politics, so Theory X would be more intellectually consistent with my other beliefs. On the other, I really like the idea of HR’s scope including “motivating” employees. This is probably because I have found myself demotivated so many times in the past, and HR has been pretty much useless in that regard. (To be fair, on only one occasion did I actively seek their help, but they were still pretty useless.)
Motivation is a complex topic, especially in technical circles. Of course some people are highly motivated by traditional compensation, but I’ve always struggled because I simply *CAN’T* be happy doing work I hate just for the paycheck. Most people fall somewhere along a continuum between “motivated by money” and “not motivated at all by money”, rather than at one of the poles. But I’m closer to the “not” pole, and that means corporations don’t know how to handle me.
By the way, if I like thinking about questions like this, does that suggest that HR might be a good career choice?
perrik
Oct 30th, 2007
“By the way, if I like thinking about questions like this, does that suggest that HR might be a good career choice?”
Worked for me. I was a techie before making the accidental and serendipitous switch into HR. I think there’s an advantage to having been in another field first, because you’ve experienced policies and implementation on the receiving end. You’ve seen what can improve morale and what just made you wince and update your resume!
Frank Roche
Oct 31st, 2007
HR Wench, now that’s a good role model. Your mother sounds like a great mom…and a great manager. And as you say you learned, HR requires flexibility. People aren’t machines, are they?
Philip, you’re HR material. You’re thinking about these things ina deep way…we neeed more like you in the profession.
Perrik, Great transition. I agree that it’s essential to work on the business side. That gives HR people perspective.