The spark that ignited the passion....

As I completed my school homework I glanced towards my mother as she started to wind up her work at the table. When she asked me to help her check some figures I jumped at the chance as it was a small respite from my work! Telephone Allowance, Vehicle Allowance, drivers’ salary, LTA – terms that meant nothing to me at that time were read out to me and I confirmed the amounts against the terms. I was astounded to see that people got their telephone bills paid by the company.. till my mother pointed out that this was only for individuals in a special grade – grade? What was a grade? What I get at school? I asked… I was then rewarded with a basic explanation of what grades were and what salary structures were. My mother, an independent Management Consultant in Compensation & Benefits introduced me to the world of Human Resources – Thank you Mum!!

After college the decision to get into HR just happened, it was not influenced by my mother’s exceptional tenure in the field nor was it influenced by the prevalent herd mentality, as I said, it just happened… I started developing this deep new found love and passion for interacting with people, understanding the way their minds work, the world of numbers and salaries, the recruiting and the appraising and I knew this was where I wanted to stay!

Getting into HR was easy; study the various motivation and leadership theories from Maslow to the X & Y theory, understand the nuances of recruitment and selection, master the art of inter-personal skills, etc. Studying and reading through the various HR books was easy, understanding the terms and ways of working were easy, but what the books did not teach you was that the HR department was the department that all “loved to hate”!! How do you react to an employee saying “Oh, HR! They don’t do any work and they don’t do anything for employees – they just do what the management says!”

These retorts were not few and I soon realized that to be in this profession one needed to love HR with a deep passion and not to get depressed when these statements were flung to you. One of my earlier bosses said “Accept that people don’t like you, and go about changing their perception about you and the department.” This advice has stayed with me till date and has helped me in my tenure in HR; I have even started sharing this advice with all the new entrants into the HR stream.

Hence the spark became a flame and I dwell in the warmth of Human Resources with no regrets whatsoever…