The origin of an HR initiative goes back to the 1920s, where the goal was to ensure the “welfare of factory workers”. While the ultimate destination of any HR initiative is to align the company’s and the employees’ satisfaction, HRMs are expected to be the one who gives feedback. Now, there’re many feedback methods and I am not an HR expert to discuss those well. But from an employee perspective, I want to share my expectations from an HR manager.

Managing people is definitely one of the toughest jobs in today’s business world. While some employees are burning out themselves for the company, others love exploring challenges. The HR manager, however, has to deal with all sorts of employees. S/He needs to observe it all. Behaviours, organizational skills, satisfaction level, efficiency etc. This requires the skill of listening and observing carefully. An HR manager needs to be careful. I have come across HR managers who only listen to the people with good designation. No, you can not do it. You can not categorize your employees based on their designations. You need to treat everyone as a “human resource” of the company who is contributing in the business. So, you have to listen, you have to observe, you have to be careful. In short, you have to care; equally.

Employees do not want a reward structure tbvh. Yes, rewards are exciting, it can motivate you (to take challenges or to burn out for the company even more); but its not sustainable. Look back to the performer of the year. He was happy when you handed him the crest of recognition. Next year, he is unhappy too. He’s unsatisfied. Rather, recognize your employees’ hardwork with a smile, with a sentence of appreciation; everytime you feel s/he is contributing. Motivate them through kind words, ask them if they had to push their limits to achieve a milestone, empathize them. Do not hand over “certificate of recognition” for pushing their limits to achieve milestones. Talk, talk and talk. Kindly.

Good HR managers have certain level of communication skill. Communicate clearly, without being aggressive. That’s the hard part of a system, where you prioritize money over men. Often, the company’s money is at stake and the HR manager need to showcause/fire/”have a talk” with certain employees. What should be the priority to an HR manager? Money, or men? The title speaks for itself. An HR manager is supposed to manage human resources, not monetary resources. That’s the responsibility of a finance manager. An HR manager must be an empath. Even while firing, s/he has to think about how the employee’s brain will process the act and speak accordingly.

Negotiation is another act where I have found HR managers being aggressively rude. S/he has to align both the company’s and the employee’s expectations. Again, listening and empathy are the keys here. You have to listen to why the employee is expecting what s/he is expecting. “We are giving you an opportunity, so you have to accept the amount we offer or else we wn’t give you the promotion.”, is not how you empathize with your employee. I went through a recruitment process, successfully proved my worth in several interviews, gave a competative exam, sat for a viva and you are trying to tell me I don’t deserve the “opportunity” you’re providing? Don’t make the other person feel invaluable, don’t make zir feel low. You can negotiate as much as you want, just be kind as people are expected to be; even the normal regular life people. Communicate, why you can’t offer more, in an uplifting manner.

In my country, employees crave for a good HR manager. Who will listen, who will care, who will protect and be fair. Performance feedback is important. But there are bad feedback too. Dear HR managers, practice giving out the good to the world, to your employees, to the human resource you are responsible for. Don’t just evaluate your employee. You need evaluation too. Don;t just put on training materials to your employee’s workload. you need to train yourself too. Don’t just give feedback on the performance of the employees. you need performance feedback too.