The Power of HR to Change The World

I wanted to share with you a Friday reflection about HR and what lies ahead of us. 

We established our purpose at Hacking HR very early on: to create the best HR that has ever existed. 

It has become increasingly clear throughout our evolution over the past three years that "creating the best HR that has ever existed" isn't just a fluffy, ethereal, cliché, just-for-the-sake-of-HR purpose. It is an urgent moral, business and human imperative. 

Everyone of us... of you... impacts the life of hundreds of employees. If we improve the life of even just one person at work, that person will become a better citizen of society and, hopefully, one more among us trying to create a better world.

Better HR -> Better Workplaces -> Happier People -> Better World! As simple as that. 

Imagine what would happen when we improve the lives of all our employees. 

This is why I love the concept of "Human Experience" rather than "Employee Experience". We are ONE person. We don't leave home at home when we come to work, or work at work when we come home. We are ONE and, if we have a better life at work, we will have a better life as a human as well. 

The reality is that each one of us in the HR space has the incredible power to create the conditions for our organizations to succeed and sustain that success in the long run, while simultaneously providing the "infrastructure" for people to grow, thrive and flourish at work.

We can exponentially improve the Human Experience. We can make it happen.  

We can't be pro-business if we don't help our people thrive, and we can't help our people thrive if we don't guarantee the success of our business. Our big challenge, but also opportunity, is to make sure that both organizations and people succeed. That's the craft we must excel at.  

"Creating the best HR that has ever existed" relies on the not-so-paradoxical idea that those of us in Human Resources ARE business leaders who happen to work in the people space. We ensure business success with people. That's why "creating the best HR" is a moral, business and human imperative. 

Because of our day to day busy work "operating" in the world of HR, it seems to me that sometimes we miss how important we are beyond such day to day. Yet, we must never forget that our mission in HR to create amazing and successful workplaces where people flourish is nothing short of extraordinary. But... 

The road ahead of us to fulfill our powerful promise is really hard. I won't lie.

Millions of women left the workforce since the beginning of the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of small businesses shut down, millions are unemployed, the health care system is overloaded like never before, COVID unearthed a BIG problem society swept under the rug for years: social, racial, economic and technological inequality. And, united with all these adversities, the rising mental health implications of all these challenges. 

The road ahead of us is hard. 

To "survive" and thrive in this journey we will need to summon all of our talents, abilities, strengths, capabilities, skills; collaborate, support and unite with one another much more; learn from each other like never before; work hard, while taking care of our own wellbeing; and make sure that, as we "operate" the day to day, we never miss the BIG picture: actively ensuring that organizations and people succeed as a conduit to create a better world. 

Only then will we be able to say that we created the BEST HR ever. 

We will be here to support you and help HR become its best. But, please, make sure you take action: get involved, be hungry for learning and continue to rise up to the challenges of our times.