The new HR: "kill boring

Jolene Huang, Human Resources Director, TBWA

When people ask my children what their parents do for a living, they have no difficulty in describing what their father does. But when it comes to me, their mother, they will hesitate, pause a little and somehow fail to articulate. This also goes for when I am meeting people for the first time. “So, what is your profession?” And when I tell people that I am in HR, the people business, you tend to get the “Oh”, followed by an awkward moment of silence and then you see them struggling to gather their thoughts. Most often, they assume my job is simply to recruit people.

It often amuses me more than frustrates me because I know HR has never been viewed as a glamorous role, in fact, it is one of those jobs where people would never say “When I grow up I want to be….”. What does get to me though is that people often stereotype HR people to be well, somewhat boring, uninteresting and not human (what an irony!)

To prove my point, I googled “What do people think of HR?” and I was not surprised by the results – a lot of the pages alluded to the fact that people dislike HR. There is some truth to why we are viewed as always standing on the side of the organisation, why we are more like robots churning out policy after policy etc. Not trying to be defensive here but I feel our good intentions are often misunderstood. Nonetheless, nobody can argue that there has to be balance - The ship has to stay in the best condition it can be. All this made me feel even more adamant to prove that HR can #killboring

"I can’t think of a better way to focus on the ‘human’ in HR other than trying to be a part of and understand the world our people live/work in"

Let’s face it, the basic HR functions will never change much – we still need to fulfil our bread and butter tasks or …. we wouldn’t have any world peace!. But my belief is this - it’s not the what but the how. In this day and age, whoever said that email needs to be the only way to introduce a new policy? Or that learning programs will always have to be delivered the usual classroom way? Or through e-learning? I firmly believe that the branding and execution behind HR teams and every HR initiative is just as important as the content/intent behind it.

This has something to do with human psychology – why people behave the way they do. Very similar is the concept of advertising and branding – it is about giving people a reason to buy in to an idea/product.

To begin with, whatever HR introduces and does is necessary and will impact every individual in the organisation. But if it can be done purposefully, it may bring about even better value and impact. And this is not just any theory but one that I have tried and tested and so far, it has proven to be true!

Obviously, the magnitude of how to kill boring differs in organisation’s appetite, people demographics and the nature of business. Thankfully at TBWA Singapore where I work, the business is nowhere near boring and people have an insatiable appetite to do all things interesting and ‘disruptive’ from a positive perspective. It has since become my playground for experimenting and pushing boundaries in re-sculpting the brand and work of the HR team.

Mind you, my team often hint and lament that they should perhaps be called mixologists instead of HR business partners! But secretly, I know they are having fun seeing their wild ideas come to life while still fulfilling and more often so, amplifying the value of our goals/output. With every success, pride grows and what’s pushing us forward is the firm conviction that we are the brave ones, willing to do things differently to better engage with our people and show them that we understand the work they do and the business we are in. I can’t think of a better way to focus on the ‘human’ in HR other than trying to be a part of and understand the world our people live/work in.

I may be a little smug when I say I am pretty sure people in my organisation are secretly amused and enjoy what we do in HR. I’ve overheard one employee tell another that “HR is very exciting these days hor?”. That really made my day because it’s proof that the tides are turning and our efforts paying off.

To all my HR comrades out there who agree that HR is often stereotyped as boring, uninteresting and not human – there is hope!

My humble advice:

• Focus on the how to and not the what.

• Appreciate that branding is not just for goods but is also very relevant and affects how people perceive a function like HR (i.e. transactional Vs transformational)

• Failure is a path to success, be brave and take the plunge – you will never know until you’ve tried.

Nothing beats the satisfaction of being able to deliver the true intended value of HR and how this can truly make a difference for our people and our organisation!