The One Thing That HR Really Wants For Christmas

Editor’s Note: The holiday season is here, and TLNT is again getting into the spirit with some classic past holiday posts. Look for them through Christmas Eve.

OK, before we get started, stop it.

I could have titled this “The One Thing HR Wants for the Holidays,” or “The One Thing HR Wants for Chanukah,” but I didn’t because the majority of people here celebrate Christmas, so I used Christmas.

Breathe in deep HR people (for the record we celebrate both Chanukah and Santa in my house – my kids are equal gift getters!).

So, what would it be? If you could have one thing in HR for Christmas, what would you ask for?

Four things HR might want this year

And don’t be lame – “Oh Tim, I would just ask for world peace and that Snapple brought back Compassion Berry.” No you wouldn’t, not if it was real, I mean really real!

I’m sure a bunch of HR Pros would ask for a new HRIS system. I mean, that’s what we do during the holidays, we want the biggest, baddest, fastest new electronic device that will make our lives easier and make us look 10 pounds thinner! Maybe just an add-on system like Jobvite or Sonar 6 or Rypple – they are all cool and hip! Who wouldn’t like one of those!?
I’m sure a bunch of HR Pros would ask for the ability to hire more employees! What a gift that would be, not only for the people getting hired, but for your overworked staff and hiring managers who have worked double and triple duty during the recession. It would be so nice to be back to those days when we fretted over our days-to-fill because we couldn’t find talent (so few have this issue right now).
I’m sure a bunch of HR Pros would ask for a new employment brand! Oh to be as sexy as Google, Zappos or Sodexo – wouldn’t that be a wonderful environment to work in HR? Life just seems easier when you work for a sexy brand. It isn’t actually, but that what great branding does — it makes some idiot like me think it must be easy to work in a great place like that and they should hire me!
I’m sure a bunch of HR Pros would ask for better talent for their organizations (which is technically way more than one gift, but let’s face it, some of us HR Pros don’t follow directions well!). This is the freaking Holy Grail, right! If we only had the top talent (instead of saying we only hire top talent then hire those who respond to our posts) our lives would be so much easier!

Here’s what I would want

There are so many things we could ask for in HR, but this is why I love HR. For all those gifts I listed above, and for so many more you and I could come up with, we work in a profession where we have the ability to deliver each and every one of those to our organizations.

With enough time, patience, influence, strategy and luck, there’s not one of those things I couldn’t get give my organization. Maybe that’s the best gift of all.

For the record: Visionary Leader – that’s my one gift, the one I would ask for. Those are rare; those are hard to find. Not many of us get the opportunity to work with a true visionary.

Great managers, strong leaders, charismatic personalities – yes; but a Visionary Leader? That is something few get the opportunity to experience.

What would be your one gift you want for HR this holiday season?

This was originally published on Tim Sackett’s blog, The Tim Sackett Project.