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Working in HR? If you could start again, would you?

Steve Bridger

You're looking at me quizzically... 'Odd question', you're thinking. 'Why ask that?'

No agenda... I was just thinking out loud... those of you who are HR (or L & D) veterans; with all your experience and expertise - if you knew then (at the start of your career journey)... what you know now, would you do it all again?

Maybe you are relatively new to the profession. What would you do differently? 

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  • I have never regretted my choice and have had a couple of chances along the way to change careers but have always come back to the work I find most interesting and rewarding: HR. In the late 80s/early 90s I worked for a multinational oil company and got the opportunity to spend a few years in sales and then sales management. I did fairly well and got into the top performers club, which gave me a personal perspective on incentive schemes, but I derived much more satisfaction from my involvement in our graduate trainee scheme and from team development activities than from hitting sales targets.

    It’s all about feeling that my work matters. When I was in sales, I had to find motivation by telling myself that all my old colleagues back in head office were relying on me and my sales colleagues to keep the organisation going. I don’t have to hunt for motivation in HR. The links between what I do and the success of the organisation and quality of life of the people of the organisation are obvious.

    I have always found that working in HR has brought me close to the inner circle of any organisation. Even in relatively junior roles, you can be on the inside of planning and strategising. In nationals and multinationals this will mean being close to the local management team. In SMEs it means working at the right hand of the MD or Chief Exec. I have also found there is a special relationship between HRD and MD. You can be the safe person for them to kick ideas around, share concerns, request feedback and generally speak freely in a way that doesn’t seem to happen with the rest of the SMT.

    If you want to be any good as an HR person, you need to know your business inside out, which is your licence to go anywhere and talk to anyone.

    I have never found anything else to match the endless fascination of tending a people machine.
  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver

    "It’s all about feeling that my work matters.

    "I have never found anything else to match the endless fascination of tending a people machine."

    Wonderfully put, Elizabeth.

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