Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/213549
W hen it comes to the life of an HR professional, there is no such thing as a "typical day." That's one sentiment shared by several HR practitioners, no matter how diverse the types of organizations and industries they work in. That's because it's a job about dealing with people and, they add, it's always interesting. THE SWEET, AND SOUR, AT CADBURY For many HR professionals, the day begins early. When Phil Buckley was doing general HR a few years ago, the first thing he did was to go through his email — even before he jumped into the shower. If a crisis had arisen overnight, the Toronto-based professional wanted to know about it early so he could reorganize his day accordingly. "Planning is such a critical component when you have so many different elements to manage in one day. And I think responsiveness is so critical to adding value. So if you come in late, and you have an issue to deal with, it's definitely aggravated," says Buckley, speaking of his year as head of HR for Cadbury Canada, before he went on to do global HR out of Cadbury's London office in the United Kingdom. Between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., Buckley would typically start the workday with an update meeting with his HR team. He would hear from the dozen or so people who reported to him to find out how their initiatives were going and offered coaching if they needed it. Then it would be time to check in with the business leads to make sure things were going well. Then there would be conference calls with the leadership team the next level up, which would include his boss and his counterpart in Mexico. At any given time, Buckley's HR team would have eight or 10 initiatives on the go. Many of them were tied to the yearly cycle of canadian hr profession hrreporter.com HRP.indd 7 7 12-03-26 11:25 AM