The Call: I received a call the other day from an individual who wanted to know the "fast track to becoming an HR Manager." Interesting question, and what I told her ticked her off to the point where she hung up on me. What did I tell her? That if she wanted an answer, she would have to subscribe to this Web site, and that, "with due apologies" I don't answer such questions from non-subscribers. I didn't get a chance to tell her that I would only answer such questions from retained clients because I am not in the business of preparing subscribers for doing their term papers at the University of Phoenix. I also didn't get a chance to tell her that in the subscriber's section, there is also an articles on becoming an HR Manager, the responsibilities in and functions of HR, written in 2002 and revised earlier this year. (Those with titles of "Administrative Manager" and "Office Manager" are also considered in these writings.)
However, because I get a sufficient number of such calls every month, here's a history and some answers which might help.
The Background: When I first became an HR Manager, except for Industrial Relations (aka union-management relations) and Compensation Analysis, there were no degree programs. There was just "Personnel" as a course and as a department in most mid-size companies. Most of us way back then became the Personnel Manager by falling into it or, having been brought in as a Training Manager, or having no other skills, being pushed in that direction. (Your question will be answered shortly.)
Contrary to what many of you have heard, HR in the 60s was not just pencil pushing benefits administration or hiring. A deep dark secret, held back from those who were about to become HR Managers was that there were some very serious problems and problem employees who you would be responsible for either in counseling or firing. Further, by 1969, we had Affirmative Action, and the FEPC, and OFCCP, and all kinds of agencies being established on both federal and state levels.
I speak from experience. Because I had two master's degrees in psychology and education, who better to counsel anyone with an "attitude problem," who had a problem with alcohol or marijuana (hard drugs or even prescription drugs in business hadn't been discovered or defined as a problem yet), or who was bothering other employees. "Fix him or get rid of him," one senior manager once said to me, and off I went as a 27-year old know-it-all to fix him. No, not like a cat who then would sit in a bread box and stare, but fix as in "cure" his attitude problem.
And fix him I did which got me a promotion a year later, a small group of senior management mentors, and one enemy to whom I owe my transfer from L.A. to San Francisco and to whom I shall be forever grateful. I also became heavily involved in this new thing called "organization development," and that along with counseling became the basis of my HR career. After five years, I became an internal consultant to the holding company. That is so unique as to not exist in today's environment.
Change: Personnel changed considerably over the years. When I started, it was probably 85-90 percent male dominated. Now, it's probably 90 percent plus female. What happened was that, somewhere about the early 80s - when Human Resources was applied to the field - administrative assistants and office managers, most of whom were women, became the new HR Managers. It was the politically correct thing to do and, if women wanted to become managers, where better to put them than in an innocuous position than Human Resources. (If English had masculine and feminine words like Spanish or French, I'll guarantee that HR would be feminine while Personnel would have remained masculine.)
The workplace changed. From typewriters to word processors to computers. From hard-wired phones which took up to three weeks to get installed to cell phones which are computers. From fear of automation to the intimidation of how fast change occurs. From careers to uncertainty from year to year. And from an end goal of retirement and playing golf to putting enough money away to survive. Whether you have these feelings, other employees do and they look to HR for some of the answers. If they don't, then one of HR's most important newly found and lost and hopefully found again functions, strategic planning, will have been lost forever.
The Answers: If you want to be an HR Manager or just want to get into HR, you should know what HR is comprised of.
Recruiting and Screening
Seeking Out Redundancy
Orienting New Employees
Compensation which relies on Job Analysis
Benefits (Health Insurance, Vacations, Sick Leave, or PTO, Retirement Plans)
Employee Relations including policies and procedures, safety, COBRA, FMLA. ADA
Training
Counseling
Walking a Tightrope Between Employee and Corporate Needs
Protecting the Company (Legalities in Personnel Administration)
Record Keeping
Terminations and Unemployment InsuranceNearly all of these broad topics are covered in the book Labor Pains, and some in more depth in the subscriber's section of this site. (Subscribers and clients click on these links)
Orienting New Employees (Throughout)
Counseling (Mostly in "Labor Pains")
List of Other Subscriber's Articles, Forms, Surveys (Open Area)
Considering that for 13 years on Monday nights, I taught a course at a local college, "Legalities in Personnel Administration," and then brought the seminar to specific industries on the West Coast, I think that if one were to read all the articles and learn how to use the documentation, you could possibly get a degree in HR. At the very least, you would be well prepared for a mid-level position in HR, perhaps higher in a small organization.
There are some caveats, however.
1. HR changes, sometimes very slowly, but never it seems as slowly as labor laws, especially on the federal level. Simple examples would be policies regarding use of cell phones while driving, and now texting while driving. Some states have laws against one, the other, or both, and some states have no laws. But then you have to check with federal laws, and with court cases. The same is true for the use of company cell phones after work. Is it time paid for nonexempt employees or not? For that you will need court cases (one right now in Arizona whose outcome may or may not apply in your state).
2. Who is exempt and nonexempt? There's a football that has been kicked around for almost eight years, yet most of the 1938 federal law remains intact. However, some states, most notably California, Washington, New York, and Massachusetts have their own laws regarding specific professions. Why is this important? If you can't answer that, you're not ready for a career in Human Resources.
3. The HR manager does not exist to keep employees happy. That link will also take you to the responsibilities of the HR Manager and the rest of the dos and don'ts.
4. You must know something about the demographics of the area in which you work because that's where your basic labor pool is found. And it is a much rarer occurrence to move somebody - even a senior manager - and his or her family, lock, tock and cable to your location. Most companies are reluctant to spend the kind of money in moving someone from, say, New York to California which can cost $15,000 plus, in olden days, often the difference between the housing costs and even down to the installation of cable (or in real olden times, phone service). Demographics in recruiting is not as simple as going on Craig's List as was recently proffered by a person in a webinar.
5. Processes. HR in any form is not a simple job. You're dealing with people. The only thing that is predictable about people is that they're unpredictable. You can't go into the office in the morning and say, today I'm only going to deal with performance reviews. Guaranteed that someone will pop in to ask a question about vacation or IRAs or the smell of alcohol on an employee's breath. There is nothing linear about the above list. It weaves round and round like electrons around an atom, and sometimes it explodes.
When I first wrote "Labor Pains: Employer and Employee Rights and Obligations," I used about 150 questions that my clients had asked me over a three or four year period. Not all are unique. In fact, a third of the questions I usually got, and about 20 percent of what I still get, have to do with who is exempt and who is nonexempt. Today, the book has about 170 questions, and while the questions have expanded and changed a little, about a third of the answers are different or at least need qualifiers. A good example has to do with termination of an employee. In any non-union company in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, one had to be extremely careful especially when it came to termination someone in a "protected class." Well, people over 40 as you may well know are no longer a protected class and age discrimination is fairly rampant. While complaints have doubled in recent years, the state and federal departments of labor don't seem to be too compelled to investigate, and no lawyers I know would be willing to take such a case unless it could become a class action and there are deep pockets in the company being filed against.
What to Do: If I had to do it all over again, I would do what I did way back when. That's because my strengths were in counseling and structure, i.e., policies and procedures based on legalities. I'm not rigid, but I do need structure in which to counsel individuals and train groups. But that's me, though it is funny that I need structure for others and to help clients, but not necessarily for my own well being.
I would still get degrees in psychology, and I recommend slightly more than one psychology course as the basis for becoming an HR manager. Human resources aren't lumps of coal. They're humans, and you walk a fine line between getting them to do the job and forcing them to do the job. "Personnel" may have been a little too impersonal, but "Human Resources" is a little too Oprah or Dr. Phil for me, and that's odd for me to say, having just based my career in psychology. But any HR or office manager will tell you that they're confronted with people with problems of alcoholism, drug addiction, other addictions, marital or other relationship problems, and then problems of not getting along with others in the work group. Dealing with these issues does not require a degree in psychology, but it helps to know when you're in over your head and it should be referred outside the company, when there are policies and procedures that can help, when your own experience and knowledge can help, and when all your have to do is provide "direction" to the individual.
I would also strongly suggest that you not forget those in the last century who made extremely important contributions to human resources and Human Resources: F. W. Taylor, Chris Argyris, Abraham Maslow, George Odiorne, Peter Drucker to name the five of the most influential. It's a shame that so many, once dead, are rarely mentioned again. To a great extent, we have become "anti-establishment," as though there are no contributors prior to our own "generation." Note how we now refer to age groups - some overlapping - as "generations." So the Baby Boomers can't possibly understand the "X Generation" or the "Why Me Generation" or the "Who Me? Generation." It's just pigeon-holing. In this context, the only things I really don't understand are Adobe CS4, the need to be tied to a cell phone, and any other generation's music - especially this one.
Oh, and why we've spent so much time on political correctness diversity. And, no, I don't need diversity to know how to help because the goal is the same in every for-profit company.
I've covered all of these elements in the subscriber's section articles and a good deal in "Labor Pains." If you really want to get into HR and still don't know what to do, read some of the more popular articles that I have written and posted. And read the postings on the bulletin board.
Subscribers: a complete discussion of the sole practitioner's role in human resources can be found by clicking here.