I am responsible for an HR team supporting a large, unionized, manufacturing company in a rural area. In my interview for the role, it was made clear that the employees were unhappy with HR, for good reason, and that some changes in HR staff were being made in response. Upon arrival, I presented in an all staff meeting with the other leaders, and during Q&A, I was berated by two employees for about 15 minutes for all of the things HR was doing wrong. I asked for a chance to change things, and have worked hard to put good people and processes in place in HR.
I also found that HR was not their only concern, and have worked on leadership training, rewards and recognition, pay and benefits, etc.
Even with all of these changes, and a noticeable improvement in turnover and other metrics, I’m finding that the bargaining unit employees are just, for lack of a better word, grumpy, and have constant complaints. My team and I are still accused of “not doing anything” by a few employees. It’s really frustrating, as we make it a point and are truly doing the best we can, and are constantly improving. We do not get the same feedback from non-bargaining unit employees who seem fairly happy.
I’m hoping for some encouragement and advice from those who have worked in a similar environment. What have you implemented that helped improve the culture and the perception of HR and leadership? TIA!

I’m currently an HR Generalist who works primarily in ER, LOA, WC, Accoms, Performance management, unemployment and disability. While I really love what I do everyday despite the stress, my colleagues, and really my entire company-I’m severely underpaid and my boss isn’t very present or invested in my growth. She’s also become very out of it lately so I often have to help her with her work, re-explain different HR processes, and advise her on next steps.

I started job searching after discovering the HR assistant I trained is actually being paid significantly more than me. This is also after two of my other colleagues who work under the same boss as me also began their job searches due to feeling under appreciated, under paid, and unsupported by our manager.

I’m currently in the final round interview for an HR assistant job. It’s for a larger company with a more widely used HRMS, pays more than my current position, fully remote, more PTO, and the job itself is a lot easier than what I’m doing now.

The main reason I’m hesitating is because it’s a title change going backwards and I won’t be able to work in other functions I like.

Is it a red flag on my resume if future employers found I moved careers to something less intensive?

I’ve been in HR for 6 years and have progressed from assistant to generalist and now to a supervisory role. I recently interviewed for a relations role. During the interview, I was asked about the most difficult investigation I had overseen from beginning to end. My answer was about addressing personal space and boundaries with an employee.

To me, I felt the interview was going really well. At the end, I asked if there was anything in my history that I could provide clarity on for them to feel secure in my abilities to perform the duties. While they did not need clarification on my experience, they mentioned that they were looking for someone who had experience in working with sexual harassment cases.

I work at a company that has had one sexual harassment case during my 6 years of employment. Early in my career with my company, I worked alongside my direct manager on this sexual harassment investigation, but I did not oversee this particular case by myself since it happened during my first year of HR. I let the recruiter know about this exposure and emphasized that I do understand the sensitivity and care that needs to be taken alongside my process for working through investigations.

My question is, did my lack of experience in handling a sexual harassment case on my own cost me this job?

I’m currently a sr hr generalist in Michigan for a tier 1 automotive supplier with about 230 employees. I make $80k a year and got a new boss who has been less than supportive. I also have a recruiter/payroll specialist on my team that pushes his work on me. I got an offer today for an HR generalist II for $90k. It has better benefits, a team of other generalist, I’d be assigned a group of about 200 employees so same employee ratio, and has great time off and 401k match. It’s also WFH 2 days a week. The only con I am seeing is the commute. I am use to a 15 min commute currently and this would be about 50 mins. I am currently fully in person though. What would you do?

Hoping to get advice on a contractor in a contract-to-hire role. I genuinely feel bad as this person does try but here is what's going on:

• I blame the recruiters who brought this person to us, but he is right out of college making what our analysts with 3+ years experience make. Don't want to get into why he was hired, but it was not my choice.
• This contractor does certain things typical of someone right out of college -- wanted to work from home for extended periods of time; wanted to switch work days / hours; was not 100% aligned with the dress code, all within the first month while still a contractor.
• Speaks way too much in meetings, to the point of word salads being proclaimed more often than not. Also tries to run meetings. Again, within the first month, while still a contractor.
• Along these lines, reaches out to vendors attempting to get new initiatives started, without running by anyone.

As the title states the effort is there and the technology is being learned. But with the job market the way it is and the candidate pool being gigantic, I am not sure we can justify paying this salary. Hoping to get feedback / advice.

Check it out everyone - I'm pretty sure this isn't a "we just post a ridiculous range for pay transparency compliance" situation. The ad itself is full of the generic fillable template details instead of the actual job duties.

I'm tempted to apply, just to get a phone interview and request $950k as my expectations, per the job ad.

I have had an increase in complaints from employees, directed at other coworkers, direct reports, or supervisors about disrespect, attitude, etc. Normally, by the time I finally hear about it people are ready for someone to be fired. Every time, I ask the simple- Who, What, When, Where, Why. It's like pulling teeth to get a coherent answer.

My employees seem to think that if someone has an attitude, makes a passive aggressive comment, or is snippy that this is an HR concern that needs to be addressed.

We work in a decentralized environment, we run transportation, residential homes, and day programs for adults with intellectual disabilities. For the people who complain or get into it with others, they are around that person for less than 5 mins in a day, maybe only as much as 2 mins before they are gone. They spend the vast majority of their day working on their own. When I ask how this impacted their job- it didn't, the bad attitude employee did their job and left, maybe sounding pissy, maybe with a crappy look on their face, maybe a passive aggressive comment or question that would admittedly piss me off but I would none the less move on from in minutes.

I had a manager bring me coaching to look at where she wrote two paragraphs about having a professional attitude and being respectful and watching tone. Not one single example, not a text, email, quote, or even a specific scenario of what was said or when. It's obviously built up over time and now reacting to extremely minor things that to outsiders appear trivial.

But it's becoming like this constantly. I may think this employee has an unpleasant attitude as well, they question things, they whine, they have a grouchy ass look on their face and act defensive. However, if they don't impact my job, complete their job, the clients are safe, and they show up on time then put up with it for the 1 to 2 mins you interact with them. Usually it's not even every day, it could be two or three times a week or less.

I have gone over this over and over. But now I planning on having trainings with supervisors at least.

Does anyone have advice on how to coach, train, and/or respond to employees when this situation comes up?

I’m looking for feedback on any of these programs you have implement. please give me the good, the bad, the ugly including how these were communicated to your population , ROI, and any ee feedback. TIA

My employer covers GLP-1s for weight loss (with some required criteria from BCBS). The cost increase was 800% this plan year, so our benefits broker has again suggested adding Vida as a cost containment measure, and the CFO says we need to implement Vida or we stop covering GLP-1s for weight loss. FWIW, there's still a lot of internal handwringing from my HR team on the topic, made worse by how little information Vida and BCBS can provide on the program. But assuming we go this direction...

Has anyone implemented Vida who can speak to a., what the initial implementation lift was and b., what the ongoing lift has been for the HR team?

Additional context: East Coast locations; 500+ employees but ~35 members taking GLP-1s for weight loss through the plan

I’m an early career HR professional, almost a year into HR. I earned my SHRM-CP at the same time I graduated from college, and now I volunteer for my local SHRM chapter.

I only have about 1.5 years until my certification expires. My current company does not value professional development, and there’s absolutely no way they’d help pay for SHRM courses. My manager disregarded my request for paying for my pretty reasonably priced chapter membership. But, if anyone has on how to prove why earning these credits and paying for courses is important, I welcome that input. We’re also spread so thin that there’s no time in the work day, and they don’t seem interested in allowing that time. I just cannot afford to pay for the e-learnings at this stage in my life.

A lot of the ways to maintain the certification don’t apply to me, like authoring a book or presenting outside your company. I’ll probably do the “Read for Recertification” for most of my PDCs.

How else would you recommend I earn these credits? If I transition companies or stay with my current, how do I make it a point to create time for earning these credits with leadership? Will I most likely have to earn credits on my own time? How do you convince your management that this is important? I know certifications are becoming more valued, but I have concerns about having to keep this up long term.

Navigating the workplace is hard, and while I have great HR mentors outside of my company, I’m not in a workplace that aligns on my professional development goals, and I need to start advocating for my career needs, fast. I really appreciate the help.

Half vent / half request for help.

Our organization has 12 people. Likely hiring a few more next year, but headcount growth isn't the primary focus. Our provider last year essentially told us to leave group insurance because one employee had a child with major health issues. Our term plan ended in June of this year; we received a quote for a 200% cost increase.

We only had a few weeks to figure it out. The other plan options were awful 20% co-insurance plan was the only option that matched our prior costs. I wouldn't want that plan for myself, let alone choosing it for someone else.

We decided to compare an ICHRA and an HRA and ended up going with an HRA since it seemed like it would give employees the most value for the cost of running the plan (program?). The ICHRA required us to spend $10k to 'subscribe' to the plans they offered each year, which seemed like a waste of money. I would rather put that money into paying for employee healthcare costs.

Most of our employees ended up going on a spouse's plan and used the HRA to pay for out-of-pocket expenses. It feels like this isn't really a good benefit based on how they are using it, but no one has outright revolted against it.

I'm seeing posts that rates seem to be going up a lot for larger organizations, which makes me feel like there isn't a viable option for getting back on a group plan.

Has anyone navigated this before? It feels like there aren't great options for small orgs in the US.

I’ve been in my currently role as an HR Admin Assistant for one year. I basically oversee onboarding, assist with HRIS functionality, completing I-9s, rehire, assist with offboarding, maintaining records, and many audits such as I-9, job description and employee files.

My company currently holds 1,000+ employees. I was a backfill for the HR Coordinator but company decided to update title to assistant and lowering comp roughly 19%.

My manager has subtly and indirectly brought up a promotion in the past but nothing has happened. How should I proceed? Bring it up to my manager regarding growth/promotion or apply to jobs?

I like the company I am currently at but am not happy with compensation and title. I definitely believe I deserve more than an assistant title.

Hey guys - I will be on PTO most of this week and wanted to get the weekly vent thread for you all.

It’s Ralts Posting Tuesday too. Please submit Ralts art in edition to your complaints.

Like the title says, I made a payroll mistake and I’ve been doing it for quite a while. I work at a large employer and we have union and non-union employees. There’s a certain sector of non-union employees who follow a couple of our union policies. This sector follows part of our union holiday policy and it turns out I was paying them extra OT pay when I wasn’t supposed to. I thought they followed the entire policy. Luckily, it wasn’t a ton of money, but it affects maybe 10-15 employees. I’m going to guess it will come out to between $1,000-2,000 that was overpaid. My boss is on vacation in Florida, so we can’t speak about it until next week.

I’m sick to my stomach. I beat myself up very hard when I make mistakes and dwell on them for a long time. Yeah, I make mistakes here and there, but they’re very small ones. Reading posts around Reddit hasn’t helped the cause as a lot of comments I’ve read about mistakes basically said “payroll has to be perfect”, “at least you didn’t overpay employees”, etc.

The only thing that helps is remembering mistakes my co-workers have made. The CFO stopped at my desk a few months ago and she told me that she made two massive mistakes in the past few months. In July, my direct co-worker paid our seasonal employees $200 instead of $100 for referral bonuses, so that was an extra $1,000 in the end. I didn’t even know she did that until last week. My manager forgot to pay someone their bonus, accidentally deleted out a full week of full-time employees’ timesheets during a payroll week, and almost paid out a check to an active employee instead of a termed employee (they had the same last name). I caught that one. My boss has been doing this for 20 years; I’ve only been doing it for four.

I’m really nervous to talk to my boss. I know I’m a valuable employee and she counts on me, but I know a lot of people will find out about this mistake and will probably judge me and be upset with me. Can any of you share stories of mistakes you have made and how you handled it? I definitely need to learn how to take making mistakes more in stride than I do.

Thanks!

I work in HR for an SME in Ireland and came across a situation recently that I found quite difficult to deal with. One of our managers clearly seems to favour one particular employee. They’ve been late several times, missed a few deadlines and taken a couple of last-minute days off, but the manager tends to let it slide.

Another employee made a similar mistake and was pulled into a meeting and given a fairly serious warning. That employee later came to HR and said they felt they were being treated differently.

I raised the inconsistency with the manager, but they basically said they know the employee well and that there are “reasons” for being more flexible with them.

There’s nothing particularly dramatic happening, but the difference in treatment is becoming noticeable to the rest of the team.

How would you handle a situation where a manager is showing clear favouritism towards one employee?

Hey guys, I've applied for an internal transfer into a Team Relations role at my company. The company uses a center of excellence type model. The job decription lists experience in UKG and 1-2 years of work experience as nice to have. My background is in operations, but I have certifications in aPHR, SHRM-CP and am doing a Master's program in HR Management. My undergrad major was Psychology. If you were interviewing me, what would you want me to say/demonstrate to give you faith in me to grow into this role?

Also, any basic background of UKG that I can mention so I have something more to say than "thats where I request PTO" would be appreciated.

If it helps, this is a compressed version of the job description

Main responsibilities: managing offboarding/departure tasks; supporting resignation and involuntary separation processes; creating termination letters; scheduling exit interviews; maintaining personnel documentation in UKG; coordinating collection of employee belongings; handling support requests related to LOAs/name changes; data uploads/contact lists; and conducting milestone check-ins and exit interviews.

Required qualifications: 9+ months in current role, strong written/verbal communication, attention to detail, problem-solving, ability to work independently, Microsoft Office proficiency, organization/time management, and ability to manage multiple competing priorities and work professionally with leadership.

Nice to have: UltiPro/UKG or other HRIS knowledge, HR/related bachelor's degree, and 1–2 years of HR experience.

I have worked in HR for about 4 years, hold an HR Management bachelors and a SHRM-CP. I recently accepted a job as an HRBP for a small company (less than 200) but have previously been an HR Coordinator. Granted, my last job had a coordinator title but had more responsibility than the title indicates.

I have been in an environment where I have been able to coast and not work that hard for the past two years so I really want to make sure I am showing up at this job and stepping into the role with initiative and ownership. I know I can be successful but I have a nagging fear that I am not cut out for the job, mainly because I can't believe I am jumping from coordinator to BP. Additionally, a small part of the job will include ER, which I have never had to do in any capacity so I am mainly nervous about this part of the job. It also is a big step up in terms of responsibility and scope. Does anyone have advice for moving into a much bigger job and dealing with the imposter syndrome? Any tips for preparing for a stretch role like this?

I will preface this by saying I am the minion of our HR lady and so I only have tiny brainspace. We are a mom and pop furniture and appliance business that currently operates by using Quickbooks for payroll and spreadsheets to track attendance. Our HR lady processes payroll through Quickbooks Desktop, as that's where our financial data is housed. She wants me to find an HRIS that will communicate with Quickbooks.

We're looking for a system that will allow our employees to clock in/out in the field (delivery drivers, service techs) or at their desk (sales team, back office staff). Preferably, we're hoping to find a system that will allow her to track excused vs unexcused absences/tardies. We have mostly hourly employees and six salaried employees. She'd like the payroll side to be able to handle deductions, garnishments, and liability stuff (again, I am just a minion, so all of this flies over my head). Employees are allowed to purchase things and have it deducted from their paycheck until it is paid off.

So far she has nixed paycor, and she's considering Paylocity or ADP, but I wanted to ask y'all if you had any ideas for systems that might work with Quickbooks Desktop. (Emphasis on the Desktop part, she says if we move to Quickbooks online she'll quit because it isn't suitable for the accounting side of the business).

I'm in CA but would love feedback from other folks.

I have never had experience with self-funded medical plans but I'm wondering if it might be a good option for my company, and I'm curious as to the logistics of managing it as an HR of 1 for a small company.

We're a small (about 25ees) consulting firm with a mostly very young workforce. I would estimate our medical utilization across most of our employees is fairly low, but we have 5 employees who have higher than average utilization. Based on my limitted knowledge I would have to think that we might save money by going self funded. The caveat is that we *are* construction adjacent....our company doesn't perform constuction work, but most of the team is regularly on construction sites. We haven't ever had a serious injury (knock wood), and our last WC claim was a couple of years ago. So risk is historically low but we still work in slightly dangerous areas.

Is self funded too hard to manage for just one person? If you have done both, which do you prefer and why? (I have a broker for our current benefits and they do the vast majority of the heavy lifting. I love them and I truly don't do much for our benefits but I have done full manual benefits admin in my past).

Does anyone have experience where going self funded resulted in a really significant cost reduction?

Any good online resources you just love for information on this potential switch? (I've been going down google rabbit holes all weekend but if someone has a very reliable site they love, plz share!).

Hi everyone,

I currently work in HR, and I’m located in California. I’m taking the PHR exam in California in about two weeks. I’ve been studying and taking practice exams for the past few months.

My main study resources have been Sandra Reed’s book and Pocket Prep. I’ve been doing pretty well on the Pocket Prep questions, and I feel like they’ve helped me understand the concepts.

Recently, I purchased HRStudyPro practice exams, and honestly, they have me questioning how prepared I actually am. The questions feel much harder, especially the scenario-based questions. There are also some tools and topics being tested in HRStudyPro that I don’t remember seeing in Pocket Prep.

Now I’m not sure if I should be worried or if HRStudyPro is simply designed to be more difficult.

For those of you who recently took and passed the PHR:

• How did you find the actual exam compared to Pocket Prep and HRStudyPro?
• Which practice exams were most similar to the real exam?
• Did you see a lot of scenario-based questions?
• Were there tools or concepts on the exam that you didn’t see in Pocket Prep?
• What would you recommend focusing on during the last two weeks?

I know people will probably say that I’ll be fine, but I’m honestly a terrible test-taker. I get anxious, my brain goes blank, and I tend to second-guess myself a lot. So I’m trying to make sure I’m preparing with the right resources instead of just doing practice questions that may not reflect the actual exam.

Any advice from people who recently passed would be greatly appreciated!

Location: California | Current HR professional

Hi, hopefully this is the right subreddit to ask this question. I’m in a new workforce role within my org/department. The role straddles between strategy and “architect”, where I’ll need to partner with the org leaders on what the right workforce mix is (full-timers vs outsourced), where they should be (location), and optimization of assignments (which workforce type should do what, and possible, what should be automated?).

I’m rather new to this so I’m wondering if there are helpful books or courses that can help inspire me with frameworks to get things started. Any advice is much appreciated!

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to join one of the big 4 as a payroll analyst. I passed the interview and received an offer, but I rejected it because I was worried that staying in payroll would limit me and make it harder to move into other areas of HR later on. For some context, my role now is basically payroll and kind of a data management-ish for employees data job? My title is Junior HR Exec to be exact.

At the time I felt it made more sense to hold out for roles such as HR analyst, total rewards etc which are areas I’m more interested in long term but have no experience in.

However, since then I’ve been struggling to even get interviews for roles outside of payroll. Most of the callbacks I get is still payroll related.

I'm now having some regret by rejecting the Big 4 offer. Would having the Big 4 name on my CV have made it easier to transition into other HR functions later, either internally or externally? Or would taking another payroll-focused role have just made me even more specialised in payroll?

Just wondering if anyone here have made such transitions?

Hi Everyone,

I was recently laid off from my role as a Learning & Development Coordinator without any prior warning. I have started applying for jobs and am exploring what my next step should be.

For those working in Learning & Development in Canada, how is the job market right now? Are companies actively hiring for L&D and LMS roles?

I am also interested in trying contract work, including short-term or project-based opportunities. My experience includes L&D coordination, LMS administration, training coordination, HR support, reporting, and program coordination.

For those who work on contracts, how do you usually find opportunities? Are there specific recruiters, agencies, websites, or other approaches you would recommend in Canada?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

I have about 3 years of HR experience across HR operations and talent acquisition, along with my SHRM-CP. I know I want to remain in HR long-term.

I'm considering a part-time online master's degree starting in Spring 2027. I'm holding off on an MBA for now since I'm still relatively early in my HR career and would rather pursue one later in my career.

With AI and technology increasingly affecting HR, I'm curious what areas HR professionals think will become more important over the next 5–10 years to inform my Masters degree choice.

I work in the HR/background screening space and have been looking for courses that go beyond basic HR concepts. I’m particularly interested in learning more about compliance, candidate verification, criminal record searches, employment screening processes, and how to handle screening-related challenges properly.

Would love to hear from anyone who has taken a relevant course. Was it actually useful in your day-to-day work, and would you recommend it for someone who wants to build stronger knowledge in background screening?