Many times (like this one) when I have an idea to write a post I google it to see how much is already in the blo­gos­phere about it. Orig­i­nal ideas are rare in 2010. Any­way, the point here is that I googled “Why get into HR” to com­pare why peo­ple pur­sue a career in HR ver­sus the job descrip­tion and com­pany expectations.

What I found was a ton of val­i­da­tion that HR is not the ER or Human Ser­vices. Those are very impor­tant places in every com­mu­nity, but they are never located inside a com­pany, unless of course it is the nature of their busi­ness or there are clin­i­cians installed there with that purpose.

Most HR pro­fes­sion­als don’t acquire first aid skills by osmo­sis because they admin­is­ter health care ben­e­fits and FMLA. It’s clearly not log­i­cal to assume they should be respon­si­ble for alco­hol wipes, ther­mome­ters and the blood kit — or coun­sel­ing per­sonal prob­lems or be sub­jected to gory sto­ries about bod­ily func­tions, despite the fact that in so many com­pa­nies in the HR Suite, there is a sick/lactation room, mas­sive first aid kit, freezer with ice packs, red bat phone to call the police, info on sui­cide pre­ven­tion, toll free num­bers for the men­tal health help line, etc.

Orga­ni­za­tional Devel­op­ment God, it needs to change — that’s not our job.

The basic HR Gen­er­al­ist job descrip­tion is some­thing like

Respon­si­ble for all human resource activ­i­ties for the com­pany. Pro­vide advice, assis­tance and follow-up on com­pany poli­cies, pro­ce­dures, and doc­u­men­ta­tion. Coor­di­nate the res­o­lu­tion of spe­cific policy-related and pro­ce­dural prob­lems and inquiries, per­form spe­cific research/investigation into oper­a­tional issues, as requested. Pro­vide on-the-job train­ing to new employees.

Who is this reminder for?

• Any­one who got into HR because they “like peo­ple” and is now mis­er­able because of peo­ple or con­fused HR with  Human Services.
• Those who favor spend­ing hours coun­sel­ing peo­ple on per­sonal prob­lems instead of how to max­i­mize orga­ni­za­tional performance.
• Those who aspire to be the next Mother Teresa or feel they can save people.
• Ditto for those con­sid­er­ing a career in the field.
• Man­agers who send peo­ple to HR because they don’t know what to do with them or don’t want to deal with their issues.
• Employ­ees who go to HR like they used to go to the nurses office in school — to get out of assign­ments, talk to some­one or take a nap.

If you aspire to the saint­hood, don’t dial 1–800-work-n-HR to inquire about canonization.