Human Resources

Sometimes I wonder if HR is for me, despite being good at what I do. I've often thought about leaving but wasn't sure where to look. What did you guys end up going into?

HR is hard! I’ve been in the field for 7 years and so far so good. I’ve taken a new job about a year ago and this one is 10x harder than my previous positions and I’ve stood up an HR function before.

I’d like to point the finger at my micromanager boss but I’m convinced her predecessors did nothing correctly. There’s no documentation anywhere of previous practices which results in me making decisions with certain things for my manager to say, “we don’t do things like that.” The amount of times I’ve had to go back to an employee to say, “I need to amend my previous statement.”

It’s hard to get a win. I’m overwhelmed. We’re down headcount and good help. I’m at the point of the Sunday blues which I haven’t had in 10 years.

I don’t want to quit. But I need practical advice. What has helped you during these scary times in your career?

Hi, (US/Colorado), We made an error on a salaried employee’s deduction for their 401k contribution. She wanted $40 per check taken out (we match 6%) and we accidently were taking $40 ANNUALLY, so like .28 cents a check. She was told that it has been corrected from here on out but is asking if we could somehow make up that amount (around 2k without factoring in the match). What do we do? The HR manager told her that she is out of luck, I don’t love that answer.

Hi all, so I have an FMLA question...I have an employee who is having a procedure and only taking 3 days off so will be using PTO time for that. He should be back on the following Monday so while I was talking to him I was wondering if he even had to complete the FMLA paperwork. We do have the rule that if you take more than 3 sicks days you will need a dr's note when you come back, but I'm not sure yet which bucket he's going to use. My concern is if he will be well enough to come in that Monday, if he has a setback and needs more time, that's where the FMLA paperwork will come in handy.

Have you all had a situation like this and what did you do? I have usually dealt only with pregnancies and major surgeries so paperwork was a no brainer. Thanks for whatever advice you can provide.

Hi guys, has anyone taken a course, watched a webinar, or read any decent articles about managing up? Many of our leadership team, including myself, are having a difficult time helping our CEO get out of the weeds and delegate rather than micromanage so that we can do the jobs we were hired for. Will take advice as well if you've experienced similar.

I am currently pursuing my studies at a business school and will soon be starting my career in Human Resources (HR). I am eager to learn and grow in this field. Do you have any advice or tips for someone entering HR for the first time?

Edit: Can't respond to everyone but I'm reading every comment. Thank you for your input.

I have 7 years experience with 6 years in recruiting and 1 year as a HR Coordinator. I am currently for at HR generalist/assistant roles (not recruiting). While I receive a decent number of phone screens and first interviews, I haven't progressed beyond that stage. In the last 6 months of my job search, I received only one offer for a screener/recruiter position, but i resigned (run) after a month due to a hostile environment created by the owner.

I think my main issue lies in the interviews. Specifically, I struggle with

1. Confidently explaining benefits, leave, federal and state laws

2. Explaining Payroll, which is crucial as smaller companies require HR to also manage payroll

3. My accent

I have downloaded and been studying NY laws around these. i have also created top interview questions and practicing them. Also, I am working to Americanize my accent.

Is there any document or website that has direct and straightforward information around NY benefit and payroll laws? Or any other recommendation that might help?

Any advice from HR professionals who are using 2 dimensions (behaviors and results) in performance management calibration? If your response is ‘don’t do it’ please don’t respond. It’s a done deal, thanks!

For the past 20 years or so, I've developed a skill-set as a contractor that specializes in writing, evaluating, and analyzing job descriptions. Since it's always contract work, it's very unsteady.

While my work is always in the context of HR, and I have a business degree that includes HR, I don't have any generalist experience, so I'm under-qualified to do other jobs in the department.

How would you approach trying to get that kind of experience, or would you try something else entirely?

Hi all,

This is a long shot but wanted to reach out bc I don’t know what else to do. I am a Recruiting Supervisor for a private company that uses SAP/Success Factors. We’ve had issues with automatic interview confirmation emails since March of 2024 and I cannot figure it out or get anyone from SAP to provide any support. Basically our auto email triggers used to be configured so when a candidate self scheduled an interview, they received an automatic confirmation email with date and time emailed to them which showed on their profile under “correspondence” on the req. When WE booked their interview, they would not get an auto confirmation email as we sent a manual one with additional info related to the interview team, location, etc. This process worked well.

Since March, the system won’t differentiate between the candidate self scheduling and us booking their interview, resulting in unnecessary, confusing, and bad for the brand duplicate emails. The candidate is now getting an interview confirmation from us with interview details that we send manually and then instantly getting an auto email from member central as another confirmation but has less details and is leading to extreme confusion.

I am the Recruiting Supervisor and am trying to fix this problem because our HRIS team doesn’t have time (other higher priorities) and SAP I have been unsuccessful in reaching. This is a priority for me cuz of the issues it’s causing and making my team and our brand look stupid.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you!

Are the test questions the same as the questions used in their online learning platform?

If not, how are the similar and how are they different?

Any suggestions for additional study materials?

Hi All,

Long story short, I was laid off from my “one person HR department” role in a startup 2 weeks ago. I have an overall of 7 years of work experience in HR and have worked as an HR Admin, then Generalist, then HRBP, and then switched to the startup to set up HR function from scratch. The startup unfortunately went under (not completely, but they laid off 60+%).

So I have to soon start job searching. My “issue” is the following: I have got my last job via a professional connection, so did not have to play the “apply online with 1000 others” game. Therefore, I had my last interview without having been an internal referral of a director 5 years ago.

I am based in Europe, but the market is not great there either. However, my insurance is not tied to my employer, and I would be receiving unemployment until Sept 2025 in theory. Therefore, there is not so much rush to “take anything that comes your way”.

However, I know of a couple of people that recently ended up in workplaces that were opposite of great to say the least, even though they asked all the "tell me about the culture” questions.

Here comes my question: do you have any tips of questions to ask to find out if the company is decent apart from the obvious ones about work life balance, what about the culture, etc.? With the obvious ones, the hiring team figures out where you are heading at, and gives you a response that you would like to hear/ that presents the company in a positive light (been on the other side and done that as well). However, I am referring to the “off the script” questions that signal a definite “green flag (or a definite red flag) and have helped you.

Also, I am targeting HRBP roles, so if any of you has any tips regarding the questions that are normally being asked or which skills you would mostly pay attention to, that would be appreciated!

I’ve interviewed quite a lot of people, but haven’t been on the other side for a while. Now I get why one should never stop interviewing, but well, cannot turn back the time and gotta work on what I have. :)

Thank you!

I currently work for a company that has requirements for who can join the events club, and members must vote on whether or not to include you. For me, having requirements to join this events group are unusual or very non-inclusive. Everyone should be welcome to participate.

This club plans company events and supports community initiatives, both of which I am interested in.

They have not yet specified the requirements, but club members will vote on whether you can join.

Hey all!

So I’ve been in recruitment for almost 10 years and our HR senior leader let me know that HR is expanding within the company and pretty much said I can go HRIS (would focus on TA) or Compensation route. My instant thought was which is area could help me be more marketable in the future.

Thoughts? I even thought about asking to create a hybrid role that touches both HRIS and Comp - if that’s possible?

Thanks!

I was the HR Manager for a charity, and left to move up to Administrative Director for another charity. The bump in position came with a big bump in pay. My old job hired someone horrible as the COO, who decided that they didn’t need HR, they would just do it themselves. She left with much drama after being an appalling bitch to everyone, and after completely leaving all HR in shambles. They tried to dump it all on the office manager, who doesn’t know how to do it either. I have been helping them hourly after and around my work is done for my real job, and I busted my ass to get them back in shape and going again. Today I heard the Executive Director has been talking shit about me to the new Operations Director, saying among other things that I am not good with details and that she worries I want my job back, which I absolutely do not. So clearly my help and effort means nothing. Nothing people do surprises me anymore. I’m just disappointed and sad. Confronting her would not get me anywhere. Time to just walk away and let the fire burn itself out, I guess.

I sometimes find myself at odds with managers because of HR's mission and responsibilities. If a new employee's onboarding takes longer than a manager would like, for example, or HR won't sign off on a baseless termination, we are resented. Even the director at the hospital where I work expresses exasperation over my team's requirements that policies be followed. I'm tired of going home most nights feeling isolated, unsupported, or at times under attack. I would love any thoughts or suggestions for improving this situation.

Hi HR friends, I am taking my SPHR on the 11th so the next week and a half will be nothing but study and work! My company bought me the HRCI module and while I find it helpful, I am wondering how similar the practice tests are to the real one. Did you guys see a lot of drag and drop and fill in the blanks?

Please share any last minute tips you have!

Thank you! ❤️

Hi- HR professional here. Looped into a PIP email discussion today. PIP had not been served/ no PIP discussion had, but employee knew through one on one feedback their performance was not up to par.

My F up: I accidentally replied to this PIP email to THE EMPLOYEE.

This is the worst mistake I’ve made in my HR career.

It forced the manager to have the PIP convo on the fly. I issued an apology to the employee. I confessed my error to my boss.

Manager and Boss have both been very understanding, but I feel AWFUL about how that must have felt to the employee in question.

HR friends, has this ever happened to you!? How did it turn out?

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/humanresources/s/LP2jQyut2j

Well, it has been an interesting month for sure. Let's start where we left off:

I called back the state Department of Labor (WHD) and spoke to a very nice man. I relayed the information I had, and he told me that it could be worth an investigation, but one of the employees needs to come forward to file a complaint. I am still in contact with a few coworkers, but I never heard back on if they were interested. Took a pause on this because I wasn't going to pressure anyone. (We will follow back on this later 😉)

I filed my unemployment claim and it was denied (shocker). The reason is "misconduct" due to attendance. Y'all. They submitted EVERY single date that I clocked in past my scheduled time (8:30am). And I mean every day. Days I clocked in at 8:31. Days I clocked in hours later because I had an (APPROVED) doctors appointment. THEY EVEN SUBMITTED A DAY OF ME LEAVING EARLY BECAUSE THEY CLOSED THE OFFICE EARLY.

I'm shocked (but also, not so much). Obviously I'm appealing it and submitted text messages between my supervisor and I showing that I had permission for most of the reported dates. But I will admit that I often arrived a few minutes late to work. It was usually under 5 minutes, rarely 5-10. I'm also definitely not the only one, many people roll in a few minutes late. Again, this was NEVER mentioned to me that it was a problem.

I got notice today that I have an appeal hearing scheduled for July. It's a telephone hearing, but I'm nervous because I've never had to do anything like this. What do y'all think? How often do these go in favor of the employee?

Now back to the wage theft issue: apparently things are not going well at the company and employees have been told to watch what they say because leadership is eavesdropping on what is being said. The employee that sent me proof before I was fired told me that she'd take the contact info at the DOL. So... we'll see..

There's still SO much more to tell, but I already feel like I've said too much

An offer was made to a candidate and she responded with salary expectations that are well over the posted range. Why do people do this? If you wouldn’t accept the role in the range that is listed, I’m not sure why you would apply in the first place. For context, she has great experience but NOT in the field of this position. It’s more that some of her skills would be transferable. Her salary expectations are just not reasonable. I’m curious how my HR colleagues respond in situations like this.

Title basically says it. Have you taken a pay cut to enter HR? Or even to move into a different position in the field? Was it a good move and did you find yourself happier? What role are you in now & what does your salary look like?

Hi all,

I’m currently an HR Analyst with a focus on benefits, leaves, and worker’s comp. I work at a city with about 1,200 employees. My prior experience includes a year as an HR Operations Assistant and 6 months as a Leaves Specialist. I’ve been in my current role for about 5 months. Our department has been in talks of adopting an HRIS system and needing an HRIS dedicated position. I’m unsure if or when this will happen, but it’s sparked my interest to gain more experience in this area. I have Workday experience from my previous positions and currently work with UKG.

What would be the best way for me to gain more HRIS related experience in the event a position opens up? What sort of things should I focus on? Any certifications or programs that would be helpful to have completed?

Thanks in advance!