The Most Underestimated Domain - HR - Sailesh Hota, XLRI Jamshedpur

My dear aspirants, if you think HRM is all about Rangolis, office picnics, engagement activities and ethnic days, then you would be absolutely right! But only if this was a stand-up comedy video.

Most of the HR activity we see day-to-day is front-end work which is highly visible. Here's some of the background work that HR Managers actually do which contribute to the growth of any organization:

1. Talent Management: Staffing, recruiting and retention are very important activities to ensure the work quality and high productivity of any company is maintained. Compensation and benefits are a major motivation for everyone. And you could get into that field. Bonus point: Friends come to you for job referrals. So, you can take revenge from Rakesh for stealing your girlfriend in 6th standard.

2. HR Strategy: These days, HR roles are shifting from employee well being to internal strategizing. Unless HR Policies are aligned with the business strategies of the organization, there won't be any exponential growth of the company.

3. Industrial Relations / Legal Compliance: An important part of HR Management is learning about the law. Labour laws are the backbone of any good manufacturing company. If you love conflict resolution and love the law, this is an area to look at. Personally, I am loving this right now.

4. HR Analytics: As the whole world shifts towards smart work, so do we. HR analytics is very important for predicting employee productivity, future salaries, trends in job shift and a lot of many things. You get to play with big data (actually medium-sized data) and make a contribution to the future of the company.

These are just to name a few. Apart from that, I see people going for technical consulting roles and general management roles from HRM because at the end of the day if you have the desired competencies then everything boils down to people management. That's the reason IIM Indore has also joined the bandwagon of late. If you are clear about doing finance or marketing then great! But if you are a little unsure about your goals and you get a chance to pursue HR, do not reject it outright. Talk to students, alumni, faculties and then make an informed decision. Also, it helps when you get more time to party than Finance and Marketing folks! (Please assume smiley here.)

Hope this helps. :)

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