Solo HR Pros Drowning Without a Playbook

“I’ve been in payroll at my company for about 4.5 years, and I’m starting to feel really stuck. Bonus are getting smaller, work is increasing, my last two raises were 80 cents . For the past two years, I’ve been open with my manager about wanting to eventually transition into Human Resources. I recently graduated from college, and my interests are much more aligned with areas like employee relations, compliance, training, HR operations, and actually working with/helping people. My manager initial”

“I have a BA in Anthropology and happened to work part-time in HR Admin as an undergrad. It landed me this role as an HR Assistant for a mid-sized engineering firm, directly answering to our HR Manager. It's been two years and I've been helping out in all areas of HR in some capacity, but since I don't have an educational background within the field, I often don't understand why I'm doing the things that told to and if I'm doing it in the best way possible. I've been l”

“I’ve worked as an office and community manager in a real estate company for a year now, I joined as a receptionist and before I knew it I was called the office manager and told to learn from the community manager when she resigned. So, I do tasks like- Supporting the broker, team (remote and office staff) and office management. I manage the brokers enquires and direct them to the right channels (i actually do onboarding after they join our company, I provide them with all the info needed, docs,”

“Hi. This is my first post so please forgive me if I’m not phrasing this correctly but here goes. I’ve been in the HR profession for seven years. It can be isolating, I work independently most of the time (no team, just me). I’m wondering if all HR Professionals have to deal with just plain odd requests or circumstances. In my career, I’ve had: 1. Employee uses his Dad’s SIN instead of his own and then asks me to fix it with CRA. 2. Constant requests for payroll deduction loans due to (insert sob”

“Hey all! I work in Human Resources / People Operations in NYC and I'm looking to grow my professional network, ideally with people in or connected to similar roles. Wondering if anyone has recommendations for conferences, events, meetups, local chapters or groups worth joining in the city. submitted by /u/theclownermb [link] [comments]”

“Hello, looking for some personal advice if that’s okay. I’m in HR but more ER so not too well versed in TUPE process. My husband works for a small tier three contractor, only employee, other 5 are ‘self employed’ or CIS on paper but probably are inside of IR35. His employer has just let on they are moving over to the contractor. As far as I’m aware this isn’t possible for self employed if a true TUPE situation. Not even sure it’s going to be all above board. Am I correct in thinking his salary s”

“I’m starting a new role next week as a non-profit Specialist placed at a high school ($31/hr). I currently work full-time and am in graduate school, so I was hoping to get my first-week logistics squared away cleanly before my first day. ​After receiving a tentative first-week outline from my regional manager, I sent a polite email to her asking a few standard first-day questions: ​Dress code: Asking what the typical daily attire is for the site and if jeans are acceptable. ​Laptop status: Menti”

“I found out my male colleague (I’m female) with less experience and degrees, with a 5x smaller territory, who started several months before me, makes the salary I tried to make a lateral move to (I was already making that in my last role). They said it wasn’t on the table so now I make 15k less. On top of that, his incentive plan is better (45% vs 30%). There’s even more but I’m going to stop there for now. I’ve only been here 3 months. Getting glowing reviews, to the point where they’re trying”

“I have been in a remote role in HR for over 12 years. Sometimes I find it hard to really build those relationships and connections in a remote capacity. I think a hybrid role would be ideal as the best of both worlds, but I was curious as to how other fully remote HR professionals like their roles, and how you create those relationships and engagement in a distributed workforce. submitted by /u/FrumaSarah03 [link] [comments]”

“I had a post yesterday asking how I would navigate an HR meeting where I was sure I'd be fired. https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/1w5pzs5/third_meeting_with_hr_tomorrow_just_take_sick/ I attended the meeting, today's my last day, the company policy is that there's no severance for performance based firing, but they gave me about 5 paychecks' worth of severance. I asked what new issues came up since the last HR meeting for them to decide to fire me, since I know”

“I’m at a bit of a crossroads and looking at UMPI to finally get my bachelor’s. I’ve spent most of my career as a technical recruiter in large tech, but after being laid off from Meta in 2022 I moved to a small agency where my role has shifted more into HR. I’m deciding between business administration with an accounting concentration or a BA in accounting. I’m open to recruiting, TA, HR, or possibly a business role at a local hospital. Not set on becoming a CPA. Which would you choose, the BBA wi”

“I’ve been with my employer for a long time and recently started wondering if I’ve gotten too comfortable. I’ve seen other people move into better roles while I’ve stayed where I am, even though I’ve taken on more responsibilities and have good relationships with my coworkers. I’ve never actually told my boss that I’d like to move up, so I’m starting to wonder if I’m expecting them to read my mind. How would you approach that conversation after several missed opportunities, and what questions wou”

“Hi everyone, After about a year of searching I finally found a great job in health care. I have been there for only 3 months and still in probation time but unfortunately I ended up with a ridiculously toxic manager who showed me his true personality within the first month. The stress and constant tension are affecting my health really bad so I am now actively looking for another job. I thought about a trillion times but I can't stay. I value my health, life and dignity. The job itself is ac”

“After my experience today, I think the term “failing up” has proven to be quite accurate. I wonder if anyone else has had the same experiences? Today, I interviewed for a HRBP position with another company. This is a role that I currently hold, but I’m looking to leave my company. When it got to the point of the interview for me to ask questions to the interviewer, the CHRO, I asked what I thought were thoughtful questions. 1) Based on the information I received during the first round of intervi”

“Could you briefly share your career journey in HR such as how you started, what motivated you, and how you reached your current role? What does a typical day look like for you, and what are the main HR responsibilities or tasks you handle most frequently? What is the most challenging part of your daily HR work, and how do you manage or handle it? What key skills and personal qualities do you think are most important in HR, and which ones did you develop the most through your experience? What imp”

“Background: I finally got out of the federal government where I worked as an HR Specialist (GS-0201) supporting military HR programs out of a regional office. I made the change for financial and personal/career growth reasons. Hiring freezes, staffing consolidations, shutdown insecurities, and reorganizations made upward mobility in the field hopeless (secure-ish, but hopeless). New Gig: After months of failed attempts to escape the civil service (and with no private sector experience), I lucked”

“Hey everyone! I’ve been working at my current company as a co-op/intern for almost 9 months, and my current role ends in December. There’s another team in the company that I’m really interested in, so I reached out to the director and set up an one hour coffee chat with him. I’d really like to join his team after I graduate, but I also don’t want the conversation to feel like I’m directly asking him for a job. For people who have been in a similar situation, how would you approach the conversati”

“I’ve been in HR for about 3 years, first as an admin then a coordinator. Looking to become a Generalist at the company I’m at worried about the transition from an hourly income to salary. Making about 60k hourly, looking to stay around the same if not higher. I work in a team of 4, overseeing about 400 employees across 2 states. Would these salary requirements be too unreasonable? submitted by /u/Budget-Initial1359 [link] [comments]”

“Hr generalist, 120 people across ontario and quebec. The quebec side keeps growing on me. offer letters, policies, the handbook, anything an employee is expected to read and sign. i've been getting things translated one at a time as they come up, so i now have documents in two languages that were last updated at different points and i honestly can't tell you which pairs still match each other. Our hris is american and everything employee facing in it is english only. so even where i do h”

“I am a mid-level HR professional, non-manager. I feel that I was discriminated against by dept. leadership based on my disability. I, of course, will engage counsel. But, if possible, I would be amenable to a more amicable solution. My problem, is that I am not comfortable reporting the discrimination to HR as the person I would have to report it to was involved in the discrimination (AVP level). Going straight to the c-suite feels a bit extreme, and again, I’m not confident it would have a posi”

“saw someone my age get promoted to director on LinkedIn. panicked for an hour. then remembered I actually like my job and have zero desire to manage people comparison is the fastest way to feel behind in a race you didn't sign up for. everyone's timeline is different. anyone else have to talk themselves out of comparison spirals? submitted by /u/No-Communication1543 [link] [comments]”

“Hi! Hoping to see if anyone has any insight. At the end of May, my boss quit (I since have a new boss) and our HR generalist refused to do payroll so I do it now. We have 300+ employees. I do the entire payroll - the only thing my supervisor does is approve the register before I hit submit. I’ve been in the position for a year and this is my first job. I didn’t receive a pay raise when I started doing payroll. Is having an HR Assistant do an entire org’s payroll normal? I feel like it isn’t but”

“Been sitting with this question for a while. Background is HR and ops, currently leading a remote team and doing a lot of the people strategy work. Good at it. But I keep getting pulled toward the more technical side of things, specifically AI tools, automation, workflow design, that whole space. The problem is my job title and resume still read very HRy. Every time I look at roles that involve operations tech or AI implementation, the job descriptions want someone who looks like a developer or”

“I am an HRIS manager at a midsize company (500 employees) in the US. The HR department runs pretty lean in general and our technology has historically been individually managed rather than having an overall strategy. I‘ve been tasked with bringing this all under my department and partnering with IT on best practices. Cut to our HR Director bringing me in on a “tech project” but the ask is to create and implement our overall L&D and TM strategy. I was very confused by the ask as it’s complete”

“I’m 50 and currently working as an HR Manager. My whole job has been self taught since 2019 but I had 12 years prior experience as a program manager of a group home. My boss is retiring and the company will be closing in about 18 months to two years, so I’m starting to plan my next move. I’m looking at the Human Resources Management Certificate through Simon Fraser University because it’s online and flexible, and I can take one or two courses at a time. My question is: is it common for HR profes”

“19, 3 years into recruitment and already dreading work — what should I do? I’ve been in recruitment for around 3 years and started a new temp recruitment role at the end of July. The weird thing is, I don’t think I’m actually bad at the job. My output is good, I get enquiries, get candidates interested and follow the process. But I’m finding the constant chasing, ghosting, candidates not turning up and pipelines disappearing really stressful. I’ve started waking up with anxiety about work and ge”

“Hello, Figured I repost it here since it is related to HR. A benefits specialist position is open, but the benefits specialist would also be handling worker's comp, leaves of absences, absences, retirement, billing, etc for a school district of approximately 1000 people. TLDR: The benefits specialist role is incredibly workload heavy. The current benefits specialist discouraged me from applying due to the amount of stress she's in. A retiree who has been helping out encouraged me to appl”

“Do you recommend I pursue the PHR certification now or wait one more year to qualify for the SPHR certification? I have four years of experience in HR as an HR Manager. I’m currently employed, but looking for a new job and have not had much luck in the past 6 months. So I’m looking at HR certifications for a boost since I only have a non-HR bachelor’s degree. I would also be paying for this myself. submitted by /u/bring-the-juice [link] [comments]”

submitted by /u/Shot_Golf_981 [link] [comments]

“Context: i recently graduated last may with my bachelors in public health. i'm currently working in a nonprofit role in the community for the last year now. previous to this job, i worked as a medical receptionist for 4 years. i've been studying to get my SHRM-CP and plan to take the exam in the winter. in the meantime I've been applying for entry level HR roles like assistant/recruiter/pre-employment specialist and even payroll positions the last 3-4 months. so far i've gotten m”

“My current office manager is leaving, and I need someone to step into more of a front office coordinator/lead role. It’s not a traditional office manager position—they’d oversee the front desk staff, manage the overall schedule, and handle collections, etc., but they wouldn’t be responsible for HR, payroll, marketing, hiring, or most of the other things that often fall under an office manager. We are a small office & I handle a lot of this. I basically want someone to take over the front off”

“I have been an HR assistant for 7 years. The past 2 years I've been a SR HR Assistant focused on Benefits. I'm tired of being an assistant. I'm tired of being called on to cover front desk lunches, or not having a private workspace to focus, or being the last to know anything. I'm tired of getting crapped on all the time. I'm tired of it all. Today was my last straw but I am doubting my skills and don't know what to look for next. I currently work for a public school dist”

“I am currently a office manager at medical offices and now I am helping at another location. I camped for retail and turn the place around but due to the owner decision, I never feel stable. The pay is good, but I what I need to feel like I am working and not living paycheck to paycheck. So what can I do to get a remote job that will pay more and open a career for me? I am willing to work hard to fill any gaps and learn what I need to do in order to get what I want. I don’t care about the field”

“They have me as a standard user now but with large edit permissions. I am completely new, basically I'm just working as an admin assistant at my company - basic role, making like 20 an hour type job, I'm more used to organizing data in excel, filling out forms and keeping track of receipts I'm able to use excel pretty well or learn what I need to there. My boss in business development wants me to learn salesforce and eventually be the person who knows the most about it. Right now I&#”

submitted by /u/Fine_Importance_1126 [link] [comments]

“I'm looking for a new HRIS for our company. We're around 200 employees and very international, more than 14 offices around the world. I've been exploring Personio, HiBob, and BambooHR. The one I've liked the least so far is BambooHR. We currently use Deel and it's been absolutely horrible for us. We don't need an HRIS for payroll, more one with robust leave management, good reporting/analytics/dashboards, custom fields, ATS, performance management, and customer support th”

“I used to love this field, so much that I got a Masters in HR and my PHR. I’ve been in leadership, and more recently have been looking to move on to a new company due to burnout. I find that many companies are now “bundling” roles and expect one person to be an expert in EVERYTHING “related” to HR. In addition to having years of experience, they want certs, degrees, union experience, etc. Additionally, you’re expected to be an EXPERT in payroll, benefits/total rewards, talent acquisition, traini”

“So I currently work for an airline as a Regional HR Manager but my current pay is below market, considering my education level, job scope, and COL. That’s about the only thing that’s wrong though - I love my job outside of the pay. We have great benefits, including a 6% 401k match and flights of course. When I joined the company 5 years ago, I was promised a possible 10% annual bonus. I haven’t received a bonus once. I’m responsible for the budget so I know first hand they can’t pay me more righ”

“Hello, First time posting here and long term Reddit user/lurker. I’ve been in the same company for over a decade and it’s in healthcare. I’ve been through 2 restructures and have landed in departments that I never asked for. Fortunately each department has somewhat helped me expand my knowledge and have been lucky enough to have excellent managers and quite frankly good people. I’ve been in this current position for about a year now and I’ve noticed that I’ve been part of some short term project”

“Hi. I have 4 years of Hr experience and have a bachelors degree in history. I currently work in hr in canada. But i don’t have any formal education in HR. What would be the best route for me to get this certification? ⁠If i choose to do the challenge exam route, where will i find resources? Also, studying and doing these exams, does it automatically help me prepare for the knowledge and employment law exam? How much time will it take? (I can do 3 hours daily) ⁠If i do the coursework approach, wh”

“I’m a HR professional with 10 years of experience and a MBA degree from a reputed college. I’m stuck with a super toxic manager, and have lost all will to work. It’s impacting my performance and I feel horrible thinking and realising the potential I had vs what I’m doing right now. My mental health is impacted because everyday is ridden with anxiety. I wake up feeling anxious EACH DAY. Should I take a break? I don’t think jumping to the next job with this mindset is healthy, not that I’ve an off”

“I started this job in at the end of last year. By March, my director called me to tell me that her and the CNO think I should look into being the director as she is leaving the job. The CNO thought I am a strong nurse and I should look into leadership. Anyways I did an informal interview with my director where all it was was me asking her questions. Before she left she said she will give me quote on what it will look like if I did get the director job vs charge nurse job. She then told me that t”

“First shot at a leadership role at an org that doesn’t have any true HR. Last HR manager supposedly would enter employee name information into their system incorrectly…constantly, so that’s their bar. How do I impress them? Do I bring a 90 day plan? I’m a fairly young HR professional with everything you’d want in terms of academics & certs. I just don’t have too much C-suite experience. Role seems to primarily be surrounding multi-state compliance, payroll & retention. I sent over a samp”

“Hey everyone I am HR consultant with 4 years working experience but my job would be more like helping companies in employment law and create HR internal policies. Lately, I’m interested in generalist position in different country and so I can advise company closer but I’m not sure what skills are transferable? I got rejected in several final interviews said that my experience didn’t align with the job vacancy. I think they prefer someone who already accustomed to do administrative task than hire”

“Hi everyone! I'm a recent undergraduate graduate with a degree in Psychology and an emphasis in I/O Psychology, and I'm really interested in breaking into the HR field. I'm just feeling a little lost when it comes to getting my first HR job. l've been looking at some entry-level positions, but so many of them already require 1-2 years of HR experience, which makes it difficult to know where to start. I do have some office experience working as a receptionist, but I'm not sure”

“Hi there! Wanted to ask how everyone has been able to gain a strong foundation in learning employments laws and compliance that deal with US fundamentals, ACA, ERISA, FSLA, etc. I didn't study HR in college and I've only had a proper background in the operations/data side of HR while learning more about the laws with relevant employee cases. Any suggestions and ideas would be great and appreciative as I really want to have a better foundation and familiarity with the terminology and how”

“Longtime restaurant worker, stared FoH, worked BoH for 10 years as a pastry cook, baker, and eventually Head Chef before I burned out. Now I work full-time in HR/Accounting for restaurant group and part-time as a food runner at a fancy restaurant and per diem catering for a 3rd company. I'm 34 and safe to say I am exhausted. I wouldn't say I regret transitioning into the office, because my body really needed a break and I feel certain that as much as a love to cook, I don't want to w”

“Hi everyone! I am a SR HR Generalist in an HR department of one for a company of ~100. I’m looking for some guidance. The situation: Myself and a manager recently put an employee on a 60 day PIP for performance. The manager did a nice job documenting performance concerns prior to the PIP, and after the PIP was in place, I told the manager to continue to document throughout the PIP process. Manager committed to this and meeting with employee on a weekly basis. Fast forward to today (~60 days afte”

“Hi, I hope this is the correct sub. I, 30F located in North, Texas, work in corporate America as a Project Coordinator and am looking move on from my current role. I have a Bachelors degree in Psychology and a Masters in HR. I've been in my role for about 6.5 years but I'm looking to move on. Other than Project Management, and the obvious HR, what jobs are out there that I could possibly consider? I know I could search the internet but Im hoping someone will give an idea that I never wou”

“I am in employee relations. Love this way more than I ever enjoyed being an HR generalist or an HR manager. I was miserable with all the paperwork and the onboarding. I also really enjoy specializing in one thing and one thing only because it allows me to get really good at it. That said, even though I'm fully remote and I make a decent salary now, my partners make twice my salary, probably a little bit over $200,000 from what I've seen with some. I don't have a close relationship wi”

“I’ve been at companies where you get invited to meetings as a courtesy but not expected to attend, and I’ve also been at companies where any meeting you are invited to you are expected to attend and participate with camera on. It really varies but you gotta have some clue what the expectations are. At my recent company i was at for 4 years and got promoted twice at, I didn’t attend any company wide meetings the entire time there. I probably attended 50% of the total meetings on my calendar. Anyt”

“I started my role about 3 years ago. I was super excited and wanted to dive in as much as I could, so I took on any work I could. When my colleague went on leave, I offered to cover a lot of her work so that I could learn more and prove myself. Flash forward a few years, that colleague left. Their replacement was temporary and the company decided to not renew the contract. The expectation is now that I will be doing most of the work from that role, along with my actual role. I like the work and”

“Looking for some advice from managers, HR professionals, or anyone who has been through something similar. I've been with my employer for 8+ years in an operations/program management role at a big 4 in Germany. Over the last 12-18 months my responsibilities have increased significantly due to colleagues leaving, additional projects being added, and taking on work from other teams. I recently had a feedback meeting with my manager and HR, and I'm struggling to understand how to act. I do”

“Title explains it all. I have been secondary supervisor but minimally involved. How can I do a good job? It's my first time as primary. It's pure health science. Quantitative. My candidate is incredible! Can't wait!! submitted by /u/-schrodingers-dog [link] [comments]”

“Hi, I am looking for an advice on my situation. Situation with my current colleagues is very stranded so they explicitly advised me to find a new job, inside or outside the company. I have a high rank and another company is willing to offer me a lower rank but for a job I would like. They gave me 7-8 months to change job, what shall I do? Shall I wait and find a matching offer or go for something lower? I work in banking industry. Thanks all! submitted by /u/Economy-Cucumber-592 [lin”

“I’m 26 and genuinely stuck on this. I work in HR at a manufacturing company making about $59k, plus some extra pay because I usually work over 40 hours. I accepted a fully remote HRIS Specialist job at $29/hr, so about $60k/year, with a possible increase to around $31/hr after 90 days. The new role would be more specialized HRIS work: system setup, reporting, troubleshooting, GL stuff, training, and supporting clients. It would also give me an actual HRIS Specialist title and experience with ano”

“Their views of staff is generally confusing and inconsistent. They are babies, they need hand holding, they are inexperienced. But also, if they don’t catch everything, it’s never because they are new and can’t possibly know everything there is to know yet. I had a partner call me out for missing something. But the manager reviewed it. I asked how I should be expected to know something when apparently the manager didn’t know. We were on a call with HR and she went silent. The HR lady was like “w”

“[NY] HRG - how do I manage concerns with a protected veteran's workplace performance? We have a US military veteran ("Bill") in a supervisor position (private hospitality company) that is also guest-facing. While we are materially aware of his veteran status (it was on his resume), he did not include it in his EEOC declarations or on his emergency information card (ie, referencing any existing conditions or concerns that might affect him in the workplace, medication, etc, although”

“Agreed. Also, HR is in a bad spot right now too. I just got laid off. We have bills to pay too, and many of us in HR are in the same damn boat like everyone else is in here. I’d argue most if not all industries are laying people off right now. But no, everything is HRs fault….even though we don’t make any executive decisions…we just pass on the message and everyone wants to shoot the messenger.”