1. Are You A Pet HR?
Human Resources Profession is all about where service comes before self, hence HR is not
just about creating value for self but for others. The said philosophy can some times be a
nightmare for some HR professionals as its feasibility varies among the organization
culture. Since the evolution of HR profession the HR skippers role have been in to various
transition & transformation. The current trend is that the HR position should be revenue
generating business partnership role and the HR function should be a profit centre, as
Entrepreneurs always invest in results and in performance driven organizations, you are
valued for your performance & not for whom you are. You know that in time you will be
like an old tiger that will lose the edge in hunting. One day, you will not perform to die a
natural professional death.
Majority of CEO’s & Top Guns in the Corporate World feel that HR professionals are not
that trustable & dependable for business decision and hence they consider the HR as a fall
guy. The fact is that at the time of recession they will use the scapegoat shoulder of HR
function for layoff, whereas in boom they will have a selfish attitude that they are the only
value added contributor who has done a business turnaround hence deserves maximum
profit sharing with neglecting & taking for granted the HR contribution.
No doubt that HR function have their deep roots spread across the organization with good
network, reach & close connection with employees and the HR function has the cross-
functional knowledge about entire business process & objective. The fact remains the same
that HR professionals are rarely considered for CEO or MD position, as HR professionals
prefer values over valuation whereas other business functions consider valuation over
values. The other business functions have belief that profit always wins over values
because they has eternal faith with respectful compliances for profit maximization. These
business functions have the key performance indicators with a deep interest in business
performance figures, which has respect of measurable management ratio analysis in
business terms with a value in balance sheet. Their has been a shift of business objective
from revenue generating to profit maximization i.e. from top line (sales) to bottom line
(profit), therefore now a day there is a transition from Techno-marketing/commercial
professional to pure Financial professional (CFO’s) to head the organization.

2. The HR professional has always adhered to the values because Entrepreneurship of good
character is important. It helps them to distinguish between right and wrong, and gives
them the courage to pursue what is right, even at some personal cost. Due to these cultural
belief some HR professional are not able to be successful in some sectors and real estate of
one of those sectors where appointment of HR professional is one of the fund raising due
diligence requirement and after fund raising the HR professionals feathers are cut for the
cost management business HR initiatives. These sectors prefer pet HR professionals for a
cosmetic HR function with short-term business objective and no long term vision where
they are asked to make and break their own rules and HR professionals are a toothless tiger
kept for the housekeeping HR responsibilities job portfolio.
Key Learning Point:-
In corporate jungle survival depends upon our appetite to learn to be dependable rather
than being dependent otherwise high salary has high job insecurity. Being a pet HR is not
always inevitable therefore HR professional should have resilience quality. They should be
aware that business hunting is all about delivering solutions for problems and to become a
successful HR professional they need to develop first the life plan and then formulate the
business plan. The young HR professional should be too cautious while selecting the
professionally virgin unorganized sector career avenue. It requires patience & experience
to become a seasoned business HR professional who has mature confidence to handle
adverse work culture because you can replace person but you cannot replace the
experience. On the other side of coin again some candidates do not have a choice for their
career avenue and they have their career ladder moving along with the forceful tide of the
corporate jungle.
Author
Dilip S. Satpute.
Human Resource Generalist Shared Services Centre Professional.
Email-Id: - dilipsatpute@gmail.com
Cell: - +91-09967545485.