Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/213549
goal setting, mid-year review, merit increases and performance appraisals. For each of these events, there would be a smaller cycle of getting managers ready, sending out reminders about changes to a process and so on. "You're always doing a mixture of training or reminding the populace of good practice," says Buckley. There would often be oneon-one meetings with potential candidates where Buckley would lay out the career progression opportunities at Cadbury. These were often chats outside the interview process in which Buckley would give candidates a different and broader perspective of the organization. He invested a lot of time in that because competitors weren't doing it consistently and it gave Cadbury an edge when it came to recruiting people, he says. "And the day is still going," Buckley chuckled. He would make sure to check in at least once every day with the CEO. "The head of HR is the confidant, supporter, coach or motivator of the president too. So it was something I saw as my responsibility to check in, to make sure things are going well." Before he went home, Buckley would do quick walks around the office with his team to find out how the day went. But all that would account for only about 70 per cent of his day. There was the 30 per cent Buckley knew he couldn't plan for. That would be the part of the day when people would walk in with questions about a policy or with a conflict they needed his help resolving. He had to keep his schedule open for these instances, because HR plays such an important role in connecting people to each other. And g citin ex R is H ng. s lway 's a nd it gi chan a gile just You need ea to b pt. ada to hgn h k oug o enArum when the problem is a conflict someone had with a report or a manager, Buckley typically saw himself as the sounding board. His job was to ask questions so people who had been too close to a situation could regain some perspective. He seldom intervened "because you're not resolving the issue necessarily. You're just masking it." No matter how many times the same conflicts or the same problem people walked into his office, Buckley didn't see these as sources of frustration. "That's part of the fun. It's constantly solving problems and issues. And even if it's the same types of issues, because it's about people, it's always different." A BALANCING ACT The employee relations part of the job certainly comes up a lot when talking about what makes HR dynamic and interesting. But it can also be an isolating aspect of the job, says Karen Mann, speaking of her time as HR generalist for a major retail chain with 100,000 employees across the country. The HR person has to carefully consider the extent to which she'll take part in the social aspects of work most people enjoy and take for granted, such as going out for drinks after work, playing on a company sports team or making friends with people at the office. If an HR person is too chummy with a manager, employees won't trust her enough to come to her with issues. And if she's too chummy with employees, senior leaders might grow skeptical of her ability to make tough decisions, she said. But the emotional toll of the job goes beyond that, Mann says. "The typical rules about having to appear calm all canadian hr profession 8 hrreporter.com HRP.indd 8 12-03-26 11:26 AM