Love your HR Professional. We're human too.

#HR 's role is to support and?#advocate ?for employees.

HR's role is to also support and advocate for?#management ?and?#business ?decisions.

But can both always be true? Are there sides here? And if so, what's a poor HR professional to do? Are we forever damned if we do and damned if we don't?

In today's ever changing work landscape, one thing has become clearer: the traditional (think 1980s!) role of HR as a keeper of policies and procedures is long gone. Instead, HR has emerged as a strategic business partner adding real value to an organisation and its people.

...and if it hasn't in your organisation, you need to have a long hard look at your HR function because you're missing out!

HR done badly aside, everyone seems to have an opinion on the questions and statements I've posed above - and from what I can tell, those opinions have been largely shaped by personal experience.

The truth is - and as someone with 16yrs of experience in this field, I feel I can say this - far more complicated. On behalf of your friendly neighborhood HR professional, allow me to share some insights.

1. There are occasions (not always!) when HR is tasked with walking the thin line between the employees and management, the individual and the business. And yes. It's just as uncomfortable as it sounds. It's challenging and we often get flack from both sides regardless of what we do because we can't please everyone.

2. Each situation we are faced with is often at least slightly different than the last and needs to be considered carefully. My most frequent answer when members of my team come to me for advice on how to handle a complex business case? "It depends." The answer to most issues we face isn't clear cut and HR is often able to see both sides of an argument. Moreover, our judgement calls and opinions on any matter are shaped by precedent, our personal experience and, lets face it, our own moral compass. So yes, you may receive wildly differing points of view from two HR professionals and there may not be a right or wrong answer.

3. We don't have as much power as you think we do. The truth is, HR only has as much power and authority as company management allows. At BDSwiss I am extremely lucky to work with senior management that believes in and values HR and what we bring to the table. And yet, even in this almost ideal scenario, I don't make business decisions outside my own departments. What I can do is advise, share insight and argue for what I think is the right thing to do. Which is why I sometimes joke that what I *really* do for a living, is talk. Ultimately, however, most things are a business decision that we can influence to varying degrees.

4. What we do have, is privileged access to information and insight that you might not. This absolutely shapes our thoughts and arguments. And no, we can't always share all the pertinent information we have, for any number of reasons. Believe me when I say that this privileged access is more curse than favour. It can get us in trouble because we can't always explain the full reasons behind our decisions.

5. Do we make mistakes? Yes we do. HR professionals are human beings and therefore fallible. Hindsight is 20/20 vision but in the moment, all we can do, is our best with the information and tools we have at the time.

6. We can't always admit to making a mistake. I'm a big believer in both transparency and vulnerable leadership and yet, sometimes, admitting to a mistake is part of that above mentioned privileged information. At the very least, it can hurt our credibility and therefore our ability to add value in the future. Which is not to say that I never admit to making a mistake. Quite the opposite actually. I've been known to talk openly about past personal failures and what I've learned from them - because it adds value. It's just... one of those judgement calls where "it depends".

7. We value the needs of the many above the needs of the few. And by many, what I really mean is the business. It's a harsh reality of our job that the needs of the business do sometimes trump the needs of a specific employee in a specific situation. Because if we can help keep the business healthy and functioning in the best, most efficient manner, we owe it to the rest of the employees that we represent and advocate for, to do so. Even if this negatively affects one or a subset of employees. Personally this is something I struggle with on a daily basis and these are some of the most difficult decisions I have to make. The only thing I can think of to compare it to, is a general in time of war deciding with a heavy heart that there is a number of acceptable loses that they are willing to sacrifice for an overall win.

8. We are passionate about what we do, choose to be here every day and, like the rest of you, we can choose to walk away. Believe me when I say that no one ever became an HR professional to get rich. HR professionals are extremely service oriented and as such, it's important for us to feel that we do more good than harm. That we add value. And that our personal values are aligned with the overall vision and decisions of the management and business we work for. For most of us, I do think there is a line we won't cross. I've been both lucky and unlucky in my career to come right up to that line. In other words to be faced with a business decision that I disagreed with so strongly, that I refused to do it. It's only ever happened once in 16yrs. In my case, my personal circumstances allowed me the luxury of standing by my principles: I refused to do it and was willing to walk away. It wasn't a bluff. It couldn't be. And it taught me a lot about who I am as an HR professional.

So of course the other side of that is, if we are still around and standing by difficult management and business decisions, it's because we feel that the big picture justifies those decisions. And we believe in the vision of our leadership and stand by it. Love us or hate us for it.

To conclude what has turned into the most epic LI post I've ever written. Be kind to your HR professionals. We're only human. But for most of us, we show up every day with pure intentions trying to do the best that we can, in the best way we know how. It's not the hardest job in the world, but it's not exactly a walk in the park either.