My 9 Wishes For New HR and Talent Management Professionals

My favorite part of the fall conference season is the fact that I get to meet a ton of HR and Talent pros and connect.

Of those, the ones I have the most fun talking to are the newbies! They are still at that point in their careers where HR is fun and exciting and they get jazzed up talking about the stuff we older — I mean experienced — HR pros no longer find as fascinating.

I usually find myself answering questions – you know the type — like, “how would you handle …?” or “what would you do …?”, etc. This gives me an opportunity to tell them how I screwed it up when I first started, and here’s how I handle it now – which are usually two very different answers.

Here’s what I wish …

So, as I reflect on this season, I come away with a few wishes for my fellow HR and Talent pros who are just joining us on this journey.

I wish new…

HR pros would unlock the doors to their departments. Wait – change that – actually take off the doors all together.
Corporate recruiters would make more outgoing calls then they get incoming calls.
HR pros would spend more than 50 percent of their time out of their office/cube walking around talking to employees and hiring managers.
Recruiters would never feel like it’s their responsibility to staff their companies. It’s not; it’s the job of of the leaders of your departments. You’re just the tool they use to accomplish it, but they’ve got to own it. Ultimately, they make the final decision, not you, which means it’s their responsibility.
HR pros never learn “soft” HR math.
Recruiters learn how to recruit before they learn how to build recruitment processes.
HR pros spend their first month (or more) in their position actually working in operations, marketing and finance. It will make you a better HR pro!
Recruiters would build relationships with their main competitor’s recruiters. This will make you better as well, and you won’t be giving away the corporate secrets!
HR pros would build more influence in their organizations than more process. One is easier to do, which is why you don’t do the other.

Instead of a wish, take someone under your wing

I guess I wish all of this stuff because it’s stuff that I had to learn over time, and if I could have one wish for our newbie HR and Talent peers, it would be that they could have all of this knowledge up front as they come in the door.

Because I can’t have that wish, I’ll throw out a challenge to my HR brothers and sisters: take a new HR pro under your wing. It doesn’t have to be in your organization, just find one and do it.

Here’s what you’ll find: they will help you more than you’ll probably help them, because helping a newbie will energize you, help you slow down on your own decision-making, and let you reflect on what you’re doing and its importance.

And because of your experience, it will allow you to go out and make some adjustments to your own shop that will have great impact on your business!

This originally appeared on the blog The Tim Sackett Project.