HR Profession: Career or Calling?

Is HR a career or calling? Your belief determines your professional behavior, and the treatment you’ll receive from management and other professionals.

 
 

 
The session “HR: Career or Calling?” held last Wednesday, May 12th was a success not only because we had good attendance and engagement from participants, more so due to the presence of our community’s esteemed HR mentors led by Mr. Sonnie Santos, Chief Advocate of #HeRo Universe and Ms. Ivy Llena, one of the senior mentors of the HeRo community who is now based in the US.
 
 
This special learning session was created because of the interest generated on the topic of meanings of work, which was first introduced as a segment in one of the #HeRoConversession events held last April.
 
 
Using the framework of Franco’s 5Cs Model which identified 5 work meanings as a starting point, the participants were given the opportunity to explore how their personal dispositions influence their attitude towards work. The results of the quick poll showed that most of the participants held the view that their work is a calling, career, and both.
 
 
Here are some of the interesting realizations during the discussion:
 
To quote sir Sonnie
 

The good and the bad of treating HR work as calling

 
The good: It will reinforce and promote a culture of ‘malasakit’, resilience, and a positive attitude in the workplace. It also operationalizes this long-nurtured notion–‘have the right person seated on the right seat and on-board the right bus’
 
The bad: Some bosses also use ‘calling’ to take advantage of their staff–  they are quick in giving staff additional work, but they drag when it comes to rewards and remuneration. These bosses would say, ‘calling’ mo naman yan, kapit lang.

 
Read more of this conversation here: Understanding what is a calling, and the associated risks
 
 
Other thoughts:
1. As we start our professional journey, we will all start in any of the three (cause, chores, and coast) but it should progress in either career or calling.
2. An HR mindset that needs to be corrected is it’s ok for other departments to be remunerated for transactions that generated income, but unethical if it will involve HR.
3. HR professionals tend to be unaware of their work’s true value or worse, they devalue their worth because of the misplaced concept of “calling”.
4. Prevailing view that HR work is a calling thus, going the extra mile is expected even if they are being properly compensated or not.
5. That having both a fulfilling career and being well-compensated in HR is quite possible to achieve, but HR makes it difficult for them.
 
 
Some recommendations raised were:
 
1. As an HR person, you can start to realize your true worth by “connecting to your core, understanding one’s self and communicating that value to others thus developing a sense of empowerment.” (from Ms. Ivy Llena)
2. Continue to bring up discussions among the stakeholders of the community’s Shared Mission: “To empower the HR professional by financially and technically equipping them to be both critical and independent thinker.” to develop a new HR mindset. (from Mr. Sonnie Santos)
3. Share the learnings to their own teams in their respective organizations to start conversations and spark interest in matters that influence the HR mindset.
 
 
It was indeed an evening well spent – full of insightful and meaningful conversations and valuable learnings from our HR Mentors and participants as well. Are you familiar with the concept of calling? Let us hear your thoughts by commenting below!