The HRchive CONTENTS

Love 'n Hate Index   >> Issue 2 - Indies     >> Issue 3 - Clientside Res     >> Issue 4 - MD / Agency Boss     >> Issue 5 - MR Software Sales     >> Issue 6 - Omnibus Researchers     >> Issue 7 - TV Researcher     >> Issue 8 - MR Recruiters     >> Issue 9 - Office Party Planner     >> Issue 10 - MR Marketing Mgrs     >> Issue 11 - Associate Directors     >> Issue 12 - Field Mgrs     >> Issue 13 - JRE & Grad Trainee     >> Issue 14 - Head of Research     >> Issue 15 - Viewing Facility Mgrs     >> Issue 16 - Pharma Res Client     >> Issue 17 - Tel Interviewers     >> Issue 18 - Aussie Researchers

Now, I know that you are imagining all HR people are power-mad, and that the thing we most enjoy is sacking people, so I am going to dispel a few myths here.

As an HR Exec in an agency it’s part of my job to create a good working environment for researchers, both aesthetically and emotionally (i.e. maintaining good morale). This is a worthy aim and a challenging one. There are occasions when life is tough. Research clients as we all know can be so demanding that it has a demoralising effect on agency staff, plus some of the roles involved in my job are by nature unpleasant – delivering bad news to people who believe in messenger-shooting – or keeping abreast of Employment Law and enforcing it on people who don’t like it, of whom there are many in market research.

So what is it that makes me love my job? To some extent it's the obvious things – careers in personnel mean interaction with people from all levels, and staying in touch with the real world. When you are influencing people’s careers and their acquisition of skills there is a frequent feeling of knowing you have made a real difference. Being trusted is also good – people generally believe that what you say is right.

MR is a sector known for its diversity and challenges and the HR function is no exception – you are dealing with a wide variety of people on a wide variety of issues, and that in itself is a bonus. But one thing that researchers generally have in common is that they're almost all terribly nice – perhaps linked to the old adage that they are not good at selling, and even faintly embarrassed by the need to occasionally be ‘commercial’. Taken to extremes, this niceness can mean that people still thank you even when you have had to tell them they have been performing poorly, or even then you have just told them they are being made redundant!

... which doesn’t make it an enjoyable task, but compared to, say, telling a merchant banker he’s surplus to requirements, dishing the bad news to a researcher is not so dangerous to life and limb.

None of this would make the job worthwhile if one didn’t have the chance to develop long-term relationships with staff. Hiring and firing is all very exciting (sic) but the real satisfaction comes from seeing people’s careers develop and knowing you have helped.

Here again MR scores well (assuming my company is not totally atypical) - people tend to stay for a long time, especially once they have a few years’ experience under their belt but also sometimes right from JRE level.

The result is a family atmosphere, and in a nutshell that is why I love my job in HR for an MR agency – we are in many ways like one big happy family. So your initial premise was wrong - I mean, you wouldn't enjoy sacking a member of your family would you? Would you??

Now there’s a thought.

Who’d be an in-house recruitment manager?

If it wasn’t for the clients, of course, any job would be pretty good - but the internal clients for this one are a particularly desperate bunch:

• they set pay ceilings which deter all the fabulous candidates, that are suddenly and recklessly disregarded when a friend of a friend of the Director comes in ‘for a chat’. If I’d had 25% extra to play with at the start I’m sure I could have found someone months ago ...
• they give us wandering job specs. ‘Well either an RE or an SRE or perhaps, even if they were really good and a real business-getter, we might go to AD. Or then again we might just take another graduate trainee instead’. Hmmm, OK, I’ll draft you some punchy copy for that one then ...
• at other times their job specs are so exacting that there may only be two or three individuals in the whole of the Western world who would fit them. Do you really need advanced SPSS, experience of pet food research and fluent Portuguese?
• they are unable or unwilling to find five minutes to give you feedback on the candidate you have finally found for them. When you finally run said Manager to ground they come out with something helpful like ‘oh he just wasn’t really quite right’.

But I don’t want to appear to blame everything on our bosses. Some things, of course, are the candidates’ fault. Some of them, for example, can only be interviewed at times when any sane person should be ingesting either toast and coffee or a nice cold Gin & Tonic - you get in early/ stay in late for the dears and then they don’t arrive - no explanation, no apology.

If only it were possible to cut out the middle man/woman and let them deal with each other.

But of course, the good thing about being in HR is that you get to meet lots of recruitment people and hear about lots of vacancies, so when you get to the end of your tether you should find it easier to move on. So where did I put that address book ...?