As much as I love writing about my HR experience I also love going through HR blogs I follow to help me learn from experts and mostly to know what’s on top of their mind every day.

I am amazed to see these story tellers presenting their own perspective and the experiences that they share are deliciously unique. And that’s what makes us different. And every day I am getting more motivated and inspired by these thought leaders through their writings.

Like this week, Steve Browne wrote about HR being dynamic, challenging, uplifting, passionate and messy!! And what he said is true;

HR should be inclusive, intentional and individualistic!!  We should meet people where they are – not where we think they should be!!

I love this statement. I was thinking about how we can take this literally. A while I wrote for the  Women of HR sharing my experience of travelling and meeting employees at different office locations and creating an impact. Everyday work in HR can be busy and hectic with a lot of queries, answering employees follow ups, handling grievances and  above that tracking data or preparing reports. Ugh… time just flies like anything.  It seems we literally don’t have time to get out of our seat and meet our employees! And no wonder, employees say ‘HR is an Alien’.

Yes, I literally heard this from one of my employee telling HR is an Alien, because that’s true from his experience. He gets only the mails from HR, and normally doesn’t get a response whenever he calls the HR department.  And why? Because they just work only from Corporate office. Too bad isn’t it!

This tells that we are not making any impact at the grass roots level by meeting our employees, knowing their life at everyday work or listening to what they have to say.

I have seen this happens especially if you work in a company with a huge manpower and a number of offices spread across the country where you may not be in a situation to meet every employee and make an impact individually. But most often in such scenarios HR fails to even go to other office locations and make their presence felt once in a while. Just to make employees feel that we are one among them.

At least during the special occasions when it really matters, for example during community events or celebrations, entitlement award ceremonies, something other than an open house meeting, where you can interact with your employees in a fun atmosphere and connect with them. They really value the time that you spend with them.

At some point in my career I realized that I should travel to all city office locations rather than sitting at the corporate office.

Results: I gained an in-depth knowledge on how the whole business runs. I was able to understand the difficulties faced by employees at the grass roots level where the work is really done. I got to know where the real revenue was generated.

Impact: Queries were addressed and received quick resolution even before they were reported. There were reduced doubts and concerns from employees later on. They seemed happier and more engaged and had a renewed respect for HR.