H.R. Turnover

I was talking to a seasoned H.R. professional this past week. She was telling about her career over the past few decades and how it seemed as though every 3-5 years she would change jobs. The jobs always seemed to change due things that were mostly out of her control.

She explained to me that she felt her career was dictated more by the actions of others and less by her vision of what should happen. I asked to her to explain or give an example. I was interested and intrigued.

She went on to talk about H.R. globally and how in many organizations the H.R. person is not in on the business decisions but seems to always be the person or department that has to execute those wishes of the senior team. That helped me to understand exactly what she was speaking about and I truly started to sympathize with my friend. I asked her to list out some of the other reasons she had to change her job.

She began to list: "Downsizing, corporate move, lay-offs from the great recession, outsourced H.R., PEO was installed, company closed, boss was unbearable, company changed direction and job changed over time."

I was blown away by those reasons. It makes it hard to plan a career, to plan your life and do a great job with so many potential "pitfalls" in a H.R. career.

Defining the perfect job and finding it it are very difficult. While finding it is often the harder of the two, they are out there.

Rick Maher

CEO

Turning Point HCM

TurningPointHCM.com