spider

iTrader: (1)

Not trying to be a smartar5e, just interested folowing discussions with my other half today.

I'm self-employed so don't have a lot of experience with HR staff.

Just got to thinking after talking to my girlfriend about her recent conversations with the HR department where she works (large international Telecoms company.)

Recent communications have been along the lines of:

Her: "Your intranet site says I can develop my career through internal training - can you help me with info on getting training?"
HR: "Speak to the Training dept. - nothing to do with us"


Her: "Your intranet site says I need a workstation assessment - what do I do?"
HR: "Speak to Facilities - nothing to do with us"


Her: "Your intranet site says all expenses are payable a month in arrears, but they haven't been. What's up?"
HR: "Speak to Payroll - nothing to do with us"

So, what do HR staff actually do? They can't be dealing with hiring, firing, and sexual harrassment cases all the time can they?

I admit I speak from a position of near ignorance, but what does a job in HR actually mean on a day to day or weekly basis?

Before anyone starts flaming me, I'm not intending to insult anyone, and I appreciate my g/f's company may be an exception (hope so), but I'm honestly interested following my chat with her.

Cheers,
Steve

Scooby Snacks

Not just your girlfriends company Steve - they're all like that!!

I've asked people in HR what they do and THEY don't even know!!!

jasey

A group of people who look after people that used to call themselves "personnel" and renamed themselves as a group to "Human Resources" !

Call me old fashioned but the old name seem to refer to us as people - the new name seems to think we are resources much like computers etc. It's always me why HR people

a) think this is a good Idea
b) wonder why no-one understands them

In answer to your question they're all like that. Company I used to work for had the same answer to all questions. Very helpful !

12LEE

Human Remains.

grovesy

They do f8ck all where I work apart from go on about how stressfull there job's are.

Badger Stuffer

HR people are just failed recruiters.......

fast bloke

They send out letters (mainly redundancy). If they get bored they can always transfer their (lack of any useful) skills to marketing, which also send out letters (junk mail). I believe that both departments were invented and are funded by the govt. to keep unemployable people off the dole.

BTW - Same applies to training and facilities

CarolineA

Hello Spider - I work in HR for a large Manufacturing company.

I guess all company's work differently. Our HR department covers training, Health and Safety plus all of the day to day activities of supporting a group of people.

I must admit the payroll comments are true, payroll / expenses issues are usually considered to be the job of finance and would be seperate to HR.

If you are really interested (most people aren't) the job includes:
- Looking after all HR information systems in Europe (website, quickplace's, database, e-tools etc)
- Managing the benefits for all WEC countries (includes car schemes, medical insurance, stock options, pay, pension, bonus schemes
- HR support (writing contracts, benefits, employement law advice etc) for Director's and Expat's

On a day to day basis most of the work I do is project based (Audits, review's of market data, introducing e-tools, managing major database changes, salary plans, keeping policies up to date with legislation etc.)

Day to day includes lots of queries and advice on the above topics from the rest of the HR team and employees. On average I get 50 of these type queries a day that can take 5 mins - 1 month to sort out.

To put this in perspective my role covers 24 different countries with different currencies, tax and employment laws and languages. Not easy !

Badger Stuffer - I beg to differ... I decided to move to the specialist side of HR purely because I didn't like doing recruitment!

Fast Bloke -

healeyb

You asked the wrong question - nobody works in HR - perhaps if you ask if anyone is employed in an HR role!

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

My girlfriend works in HR, specialist in recruitment. Her team reports to senior partners to specify the role the position requires, then deals with agencies to find candidates, sets up and attends all meetings/ interviews with candidate / partner. These jobs are a min £150,000 pa that she sets up. She has anywhere between 20-50 projects on the go at any one time.

Walk in the park

fast bloke

CarolineA - Thanks for typing in the jobspec that someone else working in your HR dept created before you started. (To be fair, HR do create nice jobspecs.... soon they may even be able to match them up with the job that you will actually be doing )

spider

iTrader: (1)

Thanks folks.

As I said, it was a genuine enquiry as I've not had anything to do with HR. Most people you ask who aren't in HR don't have a clue what their HR folk are supposed to do for them.

Cheers,
Steve

CarolineA

Fast bloke - I've never had a job spec, but thanks for the compliment on my job spec writing abilities

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Trust me she does all that, as I'm the one who has to listen to how her day was when I get home!!

The phone calls from about 7am in the morning and calls at 7pm in the evening get on my t1ts though!!!