24/7 JOB…

“Good mooring madam, i hope HR is a 24/7 job so you will not say this man is disturbing my weekend”

The above was from one of my employees from Kaduna on a Saturday morning, in fact I was on my way home from the abattoir, getting ready for the Saturday cooking…

Though i was on the road, i assured him that there is no problem as I am ready to hear and attend to his issue.

Alas! It was a medical issue, will this HMOs and their healthcare providers ever let me enjoy my weekend? Anyway, I am glad I was able to resolve the case to his satisfaction but that is not the reason for this post.

The main purpose for this post is to ascertain if Human Resources Management job is a 24/7 job like my colleague asked…..

24/7 simply means 24hours in a day and 7 days in a week which typically means round the clock. Therefore, when a job is said to be a 24/7, the job is to be done round the clock… so is my HR job to be done in that manner?

From my personal experience the answer is YES!

This is because an employee can call at odd hours like 12pm and goes “please I am sorry to bother you but I got to know that salary has been paid and I am yet to get mine” when you asked such person to confirm if he/she has checked his/her bank account, the response may be “No but I could have received alert on my phone” now knowing that even if the money did not hit the account, there is absolutely nothing you as the HR person can do at that time of the day (especially when the payroll application is not domiciled in your home), would it have been out of place for the employee to wait till the next morning or working day if it was a weekend for the case to be resolved? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm this na money matter oooo, so you better activate your sixth sense before you are seen as being insensitive to your staff’s needs.

As an HR person, duty can call at any time and you are expected to be responsive and ready at all times. Suffice to mention that your spouse (if you are married) should also understand the nature of your job otherwise it may cause frictions in your home as he/she may see it that every time it is your job, you want to serve dinner and your phone rings… it is a staff who either needs your assistance or need you to do stuffs for him/her. 

You are in bed and your phone rings and a staff is at the other end and needs to be urgently attended to.

Despite all these sacrifices associated with the HR job, a lot of people still do not appreciate nor understand the role of HR in an organization!

Rather than frown at such ignorance from some employees, the HR Department is expected to make their impact more visible in the organization especially in strategic issues.

The contributions of the Human Resources Department in any organization will be treated in another post, until then enjoy your week…..

Please share your opinion, do you think Human Resources Management is a 24/7 job or not?

Cheers…