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HR Operations Supervisor not a chosen career but an exciting one
16 Plays1 year ago
From the film and animation industry, our first guest is Tien, an HR Operations Supervisor - but HR wasn’t her chosen career!
Join us to hear how she started her career and tips for joining the HR profession.
This is our inaugural podcast, we are excited to host you on this journey as we spotlight inspiring success stories, dispel myths surrounding certain professions, and provide guidance to those seeking career advice or simply curious about different lines of work. Let’s dive in!
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Transcript
Introduction to A to Z Jobs Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to A to Z Jobs, the podcast that delves into the fascinating world of careers, one profession at a time. In each episode, we'll deep dive into a specific profession, exploring its history, requirements, challenges and rewards. So get ready to expand your horizons, challenge your perceptions and discover a world of possibilities. I'm Roxy. And I'm Nate. And we're excited to host you on this journey.
Meet Tien: HR Operations Supervisor
00:00:29
Speaker
In this episode, from the film and animation industry, our first guest is Tien, a HR operations supervisor. But HR wasn't her chosen career. Join us to hear how she started her career and tips for joining the HR profession.
00:00:43
Speaker
recording. What has it we got there? Hello Tien, welcome to our podcast. Thank you so much for having me. It's brilliant. You're our first guest, which is amazing. You can help us with all the different things. Hopefully in about a hundred episodes time we can bring you back and see where you're up to, where you've developed in your career. Yeah, I love that. Yeah.
00:01:05
Speaker
After Chris Hemsworth though. Yes, yeah, that's the goal. So I will kick us off because we've done a lovely intro for you about your HR career as well. So I'll just start by asking our first question of what do you do for a living?
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, so I work in human resources based in Sydney, and that's for an animation and visual effects studio. My current job title is HR supervisor, and that's within HR operations team, and I currently lead a team of
00:01:38
Speaker
to with a third on the way, hopefully soon once I backfill. And the role consists of overseeing the operational HR function while delivering best practice HR services. And I guess that can kind of look like making sure the HR components from the onboarding process through to the exiting processes are smooth for both the employees and the business. It's a lot to juggle.
00:02:06
Speaker
So you've spoken about operations, you've given us a broad overview, but what do you do day to day? What do you actually do each morning in the office? How do things kick off and how does your day end?
A Day in the Life of an HR Supervisor
00:02:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's a lot. So in HR, I think the great thing is that there's so much variety. You never know what you're going to get in the day, one week or in a month. But so maybe I can draw down on what I actually did. My day was like yesterday, for instance. So 9am, nice and early, I had an interview for a role that I'm backfilling in my team.
00:02:39
Speaker
and they were great candidate that we had a good chat with them and then afterwards I stayed on with the recruiter and the HR manager just to talk about next steps and how we want to proceed with that candidate while also the recruitment team providing us a bit of a review on some of the recent applicants as well just to sort of give an update on where that's at.
00:03:01
Speaker
Then following that in the morning, it was payroll deadline cutoff day, which is always really fun and frantic. So making sure that some of the changes to employees contracts and compensations have been updated correctly and are in the system right before the cutoff date.
00:03:21
Speaker
just to make sure payroll can run their processes and send it off so the staff can get paid by the end of that week. So we're doing a lot of checking, we're partnering closely with payroll just to ensure that all runs smoothly and it's really important to get right.
00:03:40
Speaker
Then after that frantic frazzle, I had a quick chat with a department manager about one of her team members. They're thinking about transferring them to another studio location, which is really exciting. So I just provided some guidance and insights into what that process looks like and some considerations that she'd need to think of in terms of the entitlements and the work permit and the flight considerations to that as well.
00:04:10
Speaker
So a lot has happened. This is only 11am so had to take another coffee break just to have a bit of a circuit breaker.
00:04:20
Speaker
Um, yeah, I went and said hello to my colleague over in recruitment, just to recalibrate, get a, get recharged. Um, and once I had some coffee in me, I went and reviewed some contracts for my team that they've drafted. So it's always good to have a second pair of eyes on those things before they get issued to new hires. Um, then after that, uh, I had a touch point with my manager, uh, just about an upcoming.
00:04:50
Speaker
annual performance review for someone in the team. So just working through some of the areas of improvements or performance achievements that we wanted to highlight and just to come prepared before we have that meeting with that team member. So that was really insightful just to kind of touch base with her and bounce ideas and get on the same page about
00:05:11
Speaker
how we can help that employee improve and grow. And then at this point, I think it's mid afternoon, so having to spend some time to craft an email to one of our immigration lawyers about a particular case that we were working with, working on, I should say, and just understanding the options and getting some advice from them before we share that with the employee and the manager.
00:05:38
Speaker
And then lovely 4.30 impromptu chat with an employee who wanted to really, was really concerned about his visa. So yeah, just kind of taking that time out of the day to jump on a call with him just to address his concerns. But it ended up being an easy fix. It was definitely just one of those misread the expiry date. So, you know, thankfully we could address his concern quite quickly. Love a quick win.
00:06:08
Speaker
And last thing I did for the day was have a quick one-on-one chat with one of my team members just to kind of touch base and see how they're going throughout the day. They had some questions for me so I was there to sort of support them as well and I guess working in a kind of hybrid environment. I was in the office, she was working from home, it kind of made things a little bit
00:06:31
Speaker
You can kind of make things a little bit jarring for some people, but I guess having that virtual platform to do all of that stuff is quite handy and useful just to be able to quickly provide support both ways. And that was my day. A lot of things, a lot of people, a lot of processes. There's the delay. I was just going to say, in one day you managed to do recruitment, payroll,
00:07:00
Speaker
immigration, performance review preparation, employee queries. And genuinely that was my day. I wasn't making things up. I'm like, yes, I picked a good day to record and share what I do in a day. Yeah, it's a lot. It's very, yeah, it's a lot of variety and I love that.
00:07:30
Speaker
I miss being part of your coffee break for sure. No, it's good. It's almost like the whole life cycle as well. You know, you're going from trying to hire an employee all the way to the support of your own employees as well and taking that time in it.
00:07:47
Speaker
in a hybrid environment, which a lot of people are dealing with at the moment as well of that in in the studio in the office working from home and dealing with that communication in such an important department as well as a trial where communication is just so important. Yeah, it really is. Yeah, it's always better to keep things collaborative and just share. Yeah, just keeping in touch as much as we can because it can often get fallen off.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah. And I think in an industry like yours for visual effects that you are so right in that your job is so different every day. It's different for a lot of HR professionals, but it does get pulled by a lot of things like projects that you're working on and deadlines for those. So that payroll process could at one point just be a massive thing because of the amount of
00:08:34
Speaker
employees that go through it as well. So it's awesome. Yeah. Not for the faint-hearted sometimes.
Tien's Career Journey: Admin to HR
00:08:43
Speaker
Interesting though. So our next question is how did you get started in your profession and what was your journey?
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah, so I started in administration in a completely different industry, the nursing and healthcare industry. In fact, where I met Nathan, he was the HR manager at the time. And yeah, I was fortunate enough to work closely with him and the HR team. Even though I was in an admin role, I felt like I was very much very worked very, very closely with the HR department. And I guess from there, I gained a lot of valuable exposure and insights into how
00:09:21
Speaker
HR actually worked because it actually wasn't even on my radar as a career path. Yeah, so I really enjoyed learning the different aspects. I eventually, you know, landed a role as a HR and recruitment officer, which involved a lot of recruitment, selecting, interviewing, and even running inductions every now and again as well. And I was in that role for about two years before I decided to make a change and move on to where I am now.
00:09:53
Speaker
just because the original role wasn't in a company that aligned with my values and where I'm at now is a better alignment and a better workplace culture. And yeah, I've been in my current role for about, well, I've been in my current organization for about four and a half years. And in total, my HR kind of career is about six and a half years in total.
00:10:25
Speaker
Are you feeling inspired by everything you've learned so far? Keep that momentum going with our four-part Career Change Made Easy course. Dive deeper at thecareachancoches.com. Now enjoy the rest of the podcast. It's funny, I think in HR, I've only met probably about one or two people that really aimed for it, you know, straight after uni. And even then it was because someone in their family, in their life did it and they encouraged them.
00:10:55
Speaker
Um, it's funny, this isn't on the question. You don't have to answer it, but you know, what did you think you would do before you landed that job? Yeah.
00:11:06
Speaker
Yeah. When you were five and they said, what do you want to do for a living? Oh my God, a whole bunch of different things. When I was young in primary school, I wanted to be an artist. Then I think in like high school, I wanted to be a fashion buyer and
00:11:26
Speaker
I guess when I took on subjects in school, I always knew I had good, I always did well in business or business related topics. So I knew I had good business acumen. So when I did go to university, I studied business, but actually in IT. Yeah. And when I fell into the HR role, that's when I pivoted and really focused on that to kind of build, you know, grow and learn and build my career in HR further alongside while working in it already.
00:11:55
Speaker
It's really interesting. A lot of people don't ever, you know, they find a role that they enjoy and then start moving down that little branch. Same thing happened to me. I was never supposed to be on a film, shouting at somebody. So, you know, it's really interesting. You know, I just remember my little brother wanting to be an archaeologist and now he's an astrophysicist. So
00:12:20
Speaker
It's so different. Yeah, still within the sciences. Yeah. Before we jump to the next question, I just want to quickly acknowledge you mentioned something in there that I think is quite important, particularly for this podcast, because you mentioned values and changing a job based on
Values and Career Choices
00:12:40
Speaker
values. And I think we're going to find a lot of people that sort of stuck in that boat. You're in an environment or in a team where your values
00:12:48
Speaker
don't align. So I think it's important to really take the time as part of your assessment for any career change to really look at what values to you are the non-negotiables. Obviously I won't ask what it was, but obviously something's happened where it's even non-negotiable and that's been a real driver for change. So that's a really valid way of looking about your career career direction.
00:13:13
Speaker
It sounds like you had a bit of a roundabout journey to land into the HR space. So if you were to do whatever again, what would be an easier path? What's an easier way to get where you are now, do you think?
00:13:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you could think of it from a linear perspective, where you go to school, you study in university, do a business or commerce degree with a HRM focus, and do some internships, traineeships, and land your first graduate role just to get your foot in the door because you've got that education and the education to back you up. So I guess that you could
00:13:56
Speaker
just from a point A B to C perspective, you can see it that way as an easy path. But I think for people that I know and people like myself who just fall into HR, I started in admin and that's quite the advantage, I guess, because you get to see work with different departments and that kind of gives you a taster of different areas of the business.
00:14:24
Speaker
So, you know, for instance, when I worked in admin, got exposure to finance, HR, business development, sales and IT. So yeah, it's kind of a good starting point working admin and working branching off from those areas because you can networking with the people that are working in those areas.
00:14:46
Speaker
But like I said, initially, HR wasn't on the path for me, so I started IT and then I switched to marketing along the way too, weird. I obviously didn't have a clear direction of where I wanted to go, but yeah, once I got a taster of HR and how that functions, that was my calling. It knew that was for me and
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, then I eventually switched majors, like I said, and built my career from that alongside. And I thought that was really cool, being able to learn that and I guess take on those learnings of theories, assignments and really apply it.
00:15:26
Speaker
in a practical sense while I was working. So that was, yeah, I've been lucky to have been afforded those opportunities where I guess before I graduated, I was still afforded some roles and was able to still grow and develop my career without the qualification being a hindrance to my growth.
00:15:47
Speaker
And yeah, I guess back to your question. HR has some transferable skills and there isn't really an easy path, I suppose. It just depends on the individual and how you apply yourself to the workplace and to the role and that could lead to open up way more opportunities. Yeah, I think you're fine. I agree completely and I think life experience is exactly what you need to be in HR because you deal with different people,
00:16:16
Speaker
all day, every day, you're dealing with, you know, some people that are in far lower page, people sweeping floors, you got to make sure they're happy and make sure they're looked after as well as all the way to the top of the chain. You're going to deal with people with CEOs and, you know, other managers wanting advice. So life experience is exactly what you need to be in an HR role.
00:16:40
Speaker
Yeah, life experience and empathy, just really having that genuine passion to understand and want to help people. Definitely. And really understand the kind of questions you get asked. With a smile every time.
00:17:00
Speaker
I think it's really interesting that you say it's like learning on a job because a lot of people think that that is mostly for trades. You know, you do apprenticeships and internships and things like that, but actually everybody's still learning on the job and being able to study and do your course at the same time as doing your work.
00:17:22
Speaker
you got more out of it, you know, you you know, that's what it sounds like. I remember you doing it and telling me all I'm applying this part to this part in my day to day job as we went through it all. And I think that's actually a really good way of thinking about, you know, someone trying to change their career and trying to do it at the same time. That's maybe something that could excel or move them further and faster up because you can do the same thing at the same time. Essentially, you're studying about what you're doing.
00:17:52
Speaker
to improve yourself. It's a lot more time and effort at the time, as I remember, because you were going, I've got to accept. But it's still that side of things where, you know, you do feel afterwards that you've achieved it. You know, it's a great stepping stone in a career and also someone thinking about changing the career. Definitely. Yeah, for sure.
00:18:16
Speaker
That's awesome. So my next question would be, what is your favorite thing about your role?
Passion and Success in HR
00:18:23
Speaker
Okay, it's going to sound so cheesy. Okay, prepare for the cheese. But genuinely, it's helping people. I like solving problems. I like serving people, the workplace, my community. I'm all about that. So I think you truly have to have a passion for people and providing good customer service. And I mentioned I started an admin, but before I was retail and in a lot of customer service roles. So I think that really set me up.
00:18:51
Speaker
for HR as well because you really got to have that background know how to work and deal with different people from different walks of life. So yeah I mean sure there's moments where I feel like I want to have my introvert cocoon moments and I don't want to deal with anyone today
00:19:09
Speaker
But at the at my core, I just really love sharing knowledge, connecting with people, building relationships, because there's just you don't even know who you're going to come across. There's so many talented and creative people out there that you can really learn from and yeah, have that enrichment and just really, yeah, just really connect with them in that special way.
00:19:32
Speaker
is definitely one of the best things about HR because it does also mean you can work in other industries as well so you get to understand a few different things going from you know hospitals to visual effects and being able to meet the crazy people with visual effects and the different characters that you meet and the different you know stories you can tell
00:19:57
Speaker
You know, especially with Nathan as well when we go out for dinner, the people that are around the table will come from all walks of life and sometimes all around the world. So it's, it's such a nice environment to be a part of.
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. It's so diverse as well. I think that's really key and really important to the values that we sort of mentioned before as well, having that diversity from different cultures, different orientations, different genders, all of that, just really making people feel like they belong and really can contribute in their own way. And yeah, inclusivity is really, really key. And yeah, something that, you know, in HR, we're always trying to do better at,
00:20:42
Speaker
Brilliant. All right. It's time for the, it's time to get honest. We want to hear the bad stuff. What do you hate? What is the thing that you just dread going to work to do?
Challenges and Misconceptions in HR
00:20:56
Speaker
Well, there isn't one particular thing, but I guess just like the red tape and the bureaucracy. I know what you're thinking. HR is all about policies and like processes, right? So we should be all about this, but it can be a bit of a pain. And I guess you guys would know, especially being in previously working
00:21:15
Speaker
in people talent management roles, you're up against so many needs and requests and people rely on you. And there's just so much pressure to meet their expectations when there's restrictions or guidelines from decision makers. So yeah, that can be quite restrictive in delivering what you genuinely want for your team. I think, you know, we genuinely want good outcomes for people and often HR kind of get a bad
00:21:43
Speaker
bad rep for just being really all about the rules and very cutthroat. But for the most part, for the people that I know that work in HR, we always want the best for people and want the best outcomes. It's just that we can't always meet that expectation and can't always...
00:22:02
Speaker
a piece to everyone, I suppose. So yeah, I think that's also a bit of a bummer in the role and in this department. And yeah, the misconception of HR being seen as boring and rule following, which is, you know, which is besides the truth, it can be fun and bold and strategic, you just, it's what you make of it.
00:22:25
Speaker
Yeah. It's that comment when you go to the pub with everyone and they go, oh, be careful, they're in HR. And you're like, oh no, come on. The fun police. Yeah. But yeah, it is, it's...
00:22:44
Speaker
It's really hard trying to stick to the rules and also trying to get people in different walks of life to understand another person's perspective or the company's perspective for that matter. Yeah, I agree with you there. Do you guys have any other, you know, any thing that you weren't particularly fond of when you win those roles?
00:23:09
Speaker
I think it's when you get like a one-off question where you don't know quite how to answer it because it's not really work related because in HR people do get a little bit outside the box and they may ask you a question that's not
00:23:25
Speaker
Okay, it's more on their personal side, but you are kind of concerned about them. So you want to try and help, but where is the line? I think that for me is like, I probably just got too involved in the person's personal life to help sort them out on my side, but that was my struggle daily. Yeah, setting boundaries, I guess, because you care so much and you want, you want to help, but
00:23:50
Speaker
at the same time you gotta it's still you know a professional environment because if you go you know cross that line when's it when does it end you know when does it start exactly yeah where do you you know the amount of like tax questions you get for internationals that move across and relocation and things like that that actually you can't legally give advice on so that's a really good answer for
00:24:14
Speaker
But the other ones that are like, where do I send my kid to school? It's like, I don't know. But I'll send you towards someone who can advise you. Those ones I, yeah, work related, I could always get there. But with the personal stuff, I always.
00:24:30
Speaker
I found like I was not being a nice enough person if I didn't put them on. Yeah, you feel like that pressure to just be nice and always, you know, giving them the best, you know, giving them not what they want, but being helpful and a simple, oh, go talk to that person sometimes isn't enough. If you're guilty. Yeah, exactly. Kind of follow up and be like, how did they help? And then messaging them going, please help them.
00:24:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's the other way. My mind is stabilizing quite neatly with that as well. It's really that empathy card again. My least favourite thing in the entire world is redundancies, is letting people go. When it's performance-based, it's not fun, but it's performance, it's performance. But when it's a genuine redundancy and my heart really goes out to them, these people, suddenly their life is shattered, life is...
00:25:25
Speaker
life is changing so this is sort of I suppose what's driven me into this career coaching industry is this is where I get to play that part and give guidance and
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, so redundancy. Yeah, yucky. Hoping to try and make that process of it better for people, like a support function for it and, and giving examples and showing information about how something like that, even though it's a terrible thing, could be something that pushes you to change what you want to do. And you've been talking about doing for ages, because it is so easy to go into a company and go, yeah, my value is aligned at the moment.
00:26:08
Speaker
But the values of the company change over time, and so do yours. And so you think you've done the right thing and you've made it. But in some cases, you might need to reevaluate it. And maybe that redundancy is actually something that's pushed you across the line to then start your art business making t-shirts. They're loving it. Very true. Yeah.
00:26:32
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah, it is a negative point of HR, but I feel like it's also a good one of learning. I feel like I've learned a lot from people with the questions I get asked and how to answer them. And I feel like I've become a more, you know, empathetic person and more understanding person because of it, which is your positive side as well. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
00:26:56
Speaker
So our next question is, what advice would you give to somebody who would be just starting out in the industry or trying to change and move across to an HR role?
Advice for Aspiring HR Professionals
00:27:09
Speaker
Um, this, I have a quote that's really resonated with me and yeah. So, you know, whenever somebody sort of stuck or just unsure, and you just really need to reevaluate, recalibrate and just take a step back. This quote is, at every job you should either learn or earn.
00:27:31
Speaker
either is fine both is great but if it's neither quit." And that's a quote from Gary Tan and I just think that's just so so powerful and impactful because no matter what different phase you are in your personal life or in your career
00:27:47
Speaker
your values change, but you should always be learning. And if you can't, you earn, you're making the big bucks, so what? And then, you know, you might go through a different phase where you're like, you know what? I don't need to make the big bucks anymore. I actually want to pivot or change careers and learn something else. So I think that's always something really valuable that I kind of always think back on when whenever I'm, you know, caught in a situation, I'm not sure what to do next.
00:28:14
Speaker
I love it. I love the coat. That coat is the coat. I'm just feeling it. Put it on t-shirts. It can be your blog post photo. We'll get one of those nice things. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I completely agree. I think too many people just get comfortable and chock on with the day-to-day, but you've got to, you know, there's got to be something there. You've got to be earning and learning. I like it.
00:28:46
Speaker
Last question. Education. You've already briefly discussed how that way.
00:28:52
Speaker
So just give us a quick, another snapshot. What did you study? What helped you? What did you study and what would help get here? Okay, I studied Bachelor in Business and majored in Human Resource Management and don't regret it at all. I think I mentioned before, even though I still managed to secure a HR role before finishing my degree, I think it still enabled me to
00:29:20
Speaker
I guess take my career to the next take it further and take it to the next level because I just grew so much just from all the content and not just that I think it really just the act of studying and that discipline creates you know that structure the organization skills the
00:29:38
Speaker
collaboration that comes from the group work and yeah really managing my time a bit more effectively I think that kind of adjacent to the content and the coursework itself really helped me in my career.
00:29:54
Speaker
And of course, learning on the job, doing your own self-directed learning, looking at free or available resources online or short courses works just as well. There are just so many different avenues to enrich your learning. And as long as you apply yourself. Absolutely. And look, I did the same thing I studied as I worked and don't regret a thing. It can be tough. It can be stressful.
00:30:21
Speaker
And look, if you're not working and you are studying, I would recommend volunteering. Get out there. It doesn't have to be the same industry. Just volunteer somewhere. Meet people. Build your references. It fleshes out your CV. It gives you a holistic picture of who you are, and it gives you an opportunity to really learn. So, fantastic.
00:30:45
Speaker
You're on the ground watching what people do in volunteering. It's awesome. Yeah, I did the same thing. I studied media arts and majored in producing and now I work in the HR realm and my study and learning of it all is really just free online courses and lots of short courses and a tiny diploma.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah. So there are, yeah, lots of avenues. And I think what you said quite rightly is, you know, you give it a go and the more little courses that you do, I don't think I've ever, I've come out of some short courses and gone, you know what, that really wasn't for me. And that didn't make any sense. But then two years later, I had like a your return moment of how it applied to me somehow. So learning is never a waste of time. Never is.
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. You know, thank you so much for being our first podcast guest. Yeah, it's a pleasure. Thanks for having me. And yeah, I really hope this podcast takes off and, you know, next thing you know, you're interviewing, you know, politicians or celebrities. I really do hope that's for you guys.
00:32:02
Speaker
I hope that our nice conversations move forward and this sort of more relaxed environment is something that people have actually listened to for 31 minutes. You'll probably cut maybe a few minutes from the waffles. I'll do some editing.
00:32:25
Speaker
You've been listening to Roxy and Nate. Thanks for tuning into A to Z Jobs, and always remember it's your career and it's up to you to shape it. So dream big, make bold moves, stay curious, and keep exploring. Check out our website at thecareerchangecoaches.com for more resources, tools, and upcoming training.
00:32:45
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell so you never miss an episode of A to Z Jobs. Remember, your dream career could be just one episode away. Are you feeling inspired by everything you've learned today and ready to take the next step with your career change journey? Dive into our four-part career change made easy course.
00:33:10
Speaker
We'll help you gain career clarity, understand your transferable skills, and put them into play with application, negotiation, and interview advice. Head to careerchangecoaches.com.