On a recent tea-talk, in one of the presentation segments, my MD/CEO presented our Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS) results and apparently we fared quite well as a whole for an organization. There were a few isolated surprises in the results which the big boss shared light-heartedly with everyone. However, the interesting part was in the conclusion and my big boss actually called a HR executive from the floor to confirm this - that every single employee is accountable for his or her own career success. The message was clear. HR will not be responsible in determining any individual employee's career path.
Like hello, don't we all know that already? For any employee who has a fiery ambition to climb the corporate ladder, would he or she leave his or her career destiny solely in the hands of the HR Department? I think not.
In hindsight, I should have stood up in front of the 300-strong crowd of non-executives, junior executives, senior executives, managers, senior managers, general managers and the big boss himself (the tea-talk's format is a forum for employees to voice out their opinions isn't it?) and questioned HR about the relevance of the statement made by big boss. Instead of HR supporting big boss' foregone conclusion that we should manage our own career, HR should have highlighted to us what kind of strategic role can HR play in assisting us in making the right career moves. What sort of consulting services are provided? Is there a strategic human resource framework that would allow the employees to make informed decisions on the choices that are available in the organzation's career hierarchy? I mean, isn't HR supposed to be more than just an administrative center to manage our payroll, benefits and retirement?
Of course, if I had actually stood up then, I would have make a hero of myself. Consequence is, my employee file that is currently in one of the HR's file cabinet may not be so secure anymore if I actually said what I thought now in hindsight.
Sigh, thank goodness it's all in hindsight... hahaha.
For those who are interested in Human Resources as a career, here's an interesting article.
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