r/humanresources

After 15+ years in HR, the last several as an HR Director, I've seen that most people I know in HR didn't plan to be here. They stumbled in through a recruitment role, an admin job that evolved, or some XYZ degree that needed somewhere to land.

What I've also realized is that there's usually a moment, sometimes early, sometimes years in, where you consciously decide to stay, but because something about the work got you.

For me it was realising that HR done well is one of the few functions that can actually change how a person experiences their working or so called "Corporate Life". That is seriously something. No?

So, what was yours?

Hey, ya’ll!
I’m a few years into my HR career, and about one year the my current company. I definitely made the biggest mistake of my HR career thus far, and am in complete shambles over this and will probably feel sick to my stomach and beat myself up over this for the foreseeable future.

Long story short, I approved an increased compensation for an associate on a 12-month assignment at another location, and due to clarification and communication gaps that I take full accountability for, the increased compensation shouldn’t have happened, and the host department is now seeing the effects hit their cost center (so essentially, I way over paid someone when I shouldn’t have), and now the team is trying to figure out how to allocate for this budget.

I brought it to my managers attention when I realized my mistake, and was completely transparent with her and the HRBP of the associate and owned up to my wrongdoings here and acknowledged my lack of clarity and communication to the associates manager, and I wanted to be fully transparent with her. This assignment was a messy and poorly governed process to begin with, and I essentially got approvals for the comp from someone that back then, shouldn’t have approved them - but that’s a different story lol.

ANYWAYS…..from some of you seasoned HR pro’s, how do you deal with making BIG mistakes like this, learning from them and moving on? I’m so scared and afraid to even show my face at work, given how many people are now involved with this. Also interested to hear some of your biggest mistakes in the career field, so I can try to feel like I’m not the only person in the world that has done this.

I was an HR Assistant for 2 years. My skills were transferable and I became an HR Support Specialist at a school district. I’ve been in this role for 4-months now, but I feel lost. I thought the role would be different from my previous role, but I don’t feel challenged or feel there’s any growth. I’m even contemplating leaving HR altogether and pursue something else because my role isn’t impactful or feels repetitive. I hire people through our HRIS after hiring managers pick their people, check PAFs, and check to make sure people have the appropriate documents based on the job postings qualifications section. I even make sure people have their I9s. I worry that my skills may not be transferable and I might be stuck in HR.

Is it always going to be like this? Do you like your job being in HR? I need some insight

How do you handle feedback or conversation with an employee when you disagree with a company decision, particularly related to a complaint they made?

Speak your mind?
Toe the company line or answer generically?
Say sorry fam I did my part, and move on?

HR | Ontario, Canada

Bill 149 has been in force for a few months now and I'm genuinely struggling to find anyone who seems particularly worried about it. The pay transparency requirements seem straightforward enough on paper, but a few things are nagging at me that I don't hear people talking about much.

For the record-keeping requirement, most employers I'm aware of are saving internal drafts of job postings, but not necessarily preserving copies of postings exactly as they appeared publicly at the time they were live. How are people approaching this issue? Do people feel confident that if Ministry of Labour asked you for a complete record of every posting you've published in the last 12 months — exactly as it appeared publicly — that you could produce it for them?

I've also read that ESA complaints about job postings can be filed by anyone who sees the posting — not just people who actually applied. There's been discussion in employment law circles about job seekers systematically reviewing public postings for Bill 149 violations as a deliberate activity, and Reddit alone has quite a few threads of people actively flagging non-compliant postings.

Penalties can range from a $250 NOC for a first offence up to costs that add up quickly if legal representation gets involved. Has anyone else discussed these things as a concern, or does it feel like not a big deal?

Maybe I'm overthinking this and it's easily handled. Genuinely curious what the on-the-ground reality looks like for everyone.

Hope another one of these posts is okay, I passed the SPHR today and wanted to share the study tricks that worked for me 🥳

I have a degree in business administration, around 10 years progressive experience in HR in companies with <250 employees and my SHRM-CP certification since 2019.

I started by studying the Sandra Reed Complete Study Guide back in January and doing some Pocket Prep questions. I got about half way through reading and highlighting the SPHR relevant sections of the study guide, but by February I got lazy and basically ignored studying until April. I wish I hadn't done this and just started in March. Oh well - sometimes we get excited about things and then put them off until the deadline is looming. I got serious about studying again about a month before the exam and powered through every question in the Pocket Prep app after reading the relevant chapter in the study guide.

What was most helpful was using ChatGPT to really drill every unfamiliar concept that came up in the prep questions/study guide until I got it. It's a seriously powerful study buddy and helped me make sense of content that wasn't sinking in and retain it in a useful way--explaining it with examples I understood from my own experience, giving me mnemonic devices and mental pictures. It also gave me great practice questions and test day strategies at the end. I know AI is controversial but this is a use for good, I swear. I studied probably about 10 hours per week in the 5-6 weeks before the exam.

I scored confidently on the three final mock exams in Pocket Prep, but went into the exam feeling less confident just due to my inconsistent studying. Most of the questions are more about business strategy than what year this statute was enacted or which OSHA form has to be submitted every year. A lot of "which is the least wrong answer" and "what is the highest level / most strategic action that could be used here" type questions. In the end I'd rate it as about 10% or 20% harder than the Pocket Prep mock exams. I had taken advantage of a free second chance insurance promotion but was relieved not to have to use it.

Anyway thanks for reading and letting me share my success, I hope my experience is helpful to some of you! 😊

Hey, All!

An employee submitted a request for intermittent leave for migraines. The original request had no treatment dates listed, and the ink was different in certain areas, for instance where it listed how frequently the episodes occur. I asked the employee to resubmit with the treatment dates that he had already attended, and if there were any future appointments because he had implied that he sees them every 4 to 6 weeks now. I found out that his wife works for the same medical office and, through a completely separate conversation, also found out that he’s friends with the doctor and has attended concerts together. Would you ask for a second opinion from a different physician before approving?

Follow up question if you have any vendors that I can outsource FMLA to recommend recommendations would be appreciated.

We hired a new employee 2 months ago and he filed "exempt" on both fed and state. He filled them out in my office, and he said something along the lines of "I don't like them taking anything out of my check, how do I claim exempt?" I just told him to read the form closer and the instructions are in there.

I'm pretty certain he does not legally qualify for exempt status. (Especially since today I just received a notice from the franchise tax board that he owes about $1500 from 2022, and we have to start garnishing 25% of his paycheck).

Now another guy in our shop just resubmitted his W4 last week, claiming exempt. I reached out to him just to confirm the details because he submitted it directly through ADP. He mentioned that he saw something on tiktok about how you don't actually have to pay taxes. Sigh. He also mentioned he should probably talk to a CPA. All I said was "I HIGHLY advise discussing this with a CPA." I withheld my urge to say more.

Now, I honestly don't care how anyone else handles their taxes. Thats his financial business and his consequences with the IRS. Not my circus. (Except for the fact that it WILL give ME more work to do in the future when the tax board starts coming after them for all their unpaid taxes).

However, our controller mentioned that she thinks I'm supposed to do some sort of filing with the IRS when an employee claims exempt. Is there a formal process I need to comply with?

If this starts being a trend that runs through our employees, I just want to make sure I'm doing what I'm legally required to do, if anything at all. I'll probably reach out to our CPA as well, but I'm curious who else has seen this run through their departments, and what your experience is.

Wanted to see if there is anyone here who works in talent management doing succession planning, 9-box etc who could offer some guidance. I work in talent acquisition currently and would like to make the switch to talent management. Would love to know things to consider, certs or really any advice.

So my company has had this big push to end remote work and get employees to come back to the office full time. Nobody is particularly happy about it.

The last couple of years the office has been fairly empty and quiet most days. So people that still worked in the office got used to the quiet and space. Now the office is filled with people and virtually every desk is taken. We also had an office redesign a couple of years ago and it's open concept. There are no cubes or dividers between desks.

It seems like the people that have worked remotely the last couple of years have forgotten basic office etiquette. Like taking calls on speaker phone in the middle of the open desk areas or talking loudly in general or coming up to people and just wanting to chat for a really long time. Or leaving messes in the breakroom. Or leaving sensitive documents out in the open when they're not at their desk. We've had people walk by and grab pens or post-its from people's desks when they're not there. That happens more on the people with desks on the end.

Sometimes it seems like a couple people think if they make enough of a nuisance of themselves they'll be allowed work remotely again. But there is a good bit of conflict and resentment building between the people who enjoyed the calm office and the people who have forgotten to ne good office neighbors.

Does anyone have any recommendations for an office etiquette training/class or resources to help people adjust to being in office again and being respectful of other people's space and time and shared office space? Or any advice about how you handled similar situations for RTW?

What are some perks you give your PT employees? We changed our summer hour structure to a set bank of hours for employees who work 30+ hours . One employee and their supervisor is having a fit over it (they work 24 hrs. a week). We have 7 PT EE's (most work under 16 hr a week)

I don't want to change this structure, but are there any other perk recommended? We already offer the below:

• Sick, Personal, Vacation (prorated based on hours worked)
• Floating Holiday (prorated)
• Medical Benefits (over 30 hours or more)
• 403(b) participation & match
• Staff Recognition eligibility
• Inclusion in staff events and organization-wide activities

i’m HR for a small startup, and we’re revisiting parts of our onboarding process before making a few more hires.

Pre-employment screening came up, and i realized our current process is some how basic.

i'm wondering if its good keeping drug test simple with a standard 5-panel , or are broader panels becoming more common depending on the role?

i'm trying to avoid adding a process that slows hiring down. thanks

Edit:We’re a small healthcare operations startup

Hi! I work in HR at a CPG start up and I would like to implement midyear reviews at the company. I’ve only worked at companies where there has only been annual reviews so I’d like some help with structuring midyear reviews. Ideally something simple and not too long. Basically looking for a midyear check-in, where managers and employees can discuss the past 6 months (accomplishments, are they still on track on meeting their goals, set backs, areas of improvement, tools/resources that could help, etc.).

Any and all suggestions would be helpful! Thank you!

Anyone familiar with Connect team learning management system? TY for input

For those companies who have HR interns, what projects are they working on?

I'm not talking about 'employees who are in college interns' who do menial tasks, I'm talking students working in HR as part of a capstone project, for example.

How are you all keeping up with state paid family leave laws? Did you sign up for notification for all applicable states? Is there a system that tracks all leave law updates? There are so many and it’s hard to keep up, so I’m looking for suggestions!

How are you all handling managers that are absolute assholes to you?

I am a HRBP at a larger company, and do not have any direct leadership on site. I have been in this role for roughly a month and have one manager that has consistently made snide rude comments to me, and has most recently come barging into my office borderline yelling at me for not sending her a report because I didn’t even have the report yet. Everyone else has been great, but I am very young to be in my role and it definitely has the vibe that she doesn’t like my because i am younger. If i witnessed her speaking to any other employee, management or not, the way she spoke to me it would 100% be a write up and conflict resolution training. Since i am HR, it’s a bit funky.

Would I be in the right to have a conversation with her and make it clear that she cannot speak to anyone the way she spoke to me today, and that it is not tolerated if it is witnessed between herself and another employee? not sure how to handle this. It isn’t enough for me to go to my boss, but it is enough that if she’s willing to speak to me that way, she 100% is willing to speak to her team that way.

Former HR Manager here now in the market for HR Manager or HRBP roles.

I was unfortunately laid off yesterday. Super bad timing as I just bought a house… Anyway I was at my job for almost two years. Should I put on my resume that the employment ended due to a RIF so they don’t assume job hopping or that I was fired? I know that I personally liked it when people put that on their resumes so I don’t jump to conclusions, but idk if that’s the consensus.

Thoughts?