Dear All,
I have been an HR Assistant for more than 6 years now working in the academe. Last Monday, I was told by my HRD Head that the Executive Vice-President & Human Resource Director wanted to have me appointed to Secretary of the HR Director. Currently, he has a secretary (executive secretary but is not happy anymore with her performance so he wanted to have 2 secretaries (1 as hi executive secretary) & (1 as his hr Director secretary (Me).
My concern now, will this appointment will not drag me away from HR career, is this a promotion or demotion? They insist that secretary of the HR director has higher pay and higher rank than HR assistant. Please enlighten me. I am now confused. Thank you.
From Philippines, Quezon
I have been an HR Assistant for more than 6 years now working in the academe. Last Monday, I was told by my HRD Head that the Executive Vice-President & Human Resource Director wanted to have me appointed to Secretary of the HR Director. Currently, he has a secretary (executive secretary but is not happy anymore with her performance so he wanted to have 2 secretaries (1 as hi executive secretary) & (1 as his hr Director secretary (Me).
My concern now, will this appointment will not drag me away from HR career, is this a promotion or demotion? They insist that secretary of the HR director has higher pay and higher rank than HR assistant. Please enlighten me. I am now confused. Thank you.
From Philippines, Quezon
1. Ask them to help you with a Job Description
2. With a list of KRA
3. Cross check the above with you current JD and KRA
4. Ask them if they can give you a different Job title if you are not comfortable with an Executive Assistant Title, with the same JD.
5 Tell them that you are not comfortable with the title and not the profile.
From India, Mumbai
1482. With a list of KRA
3. Cross check the above with you current JD and KRA
4. Ask them if they can give you a different Job title if you are not comfortable with an Executive Assistant Title, with the same JD.
5 Tell them that you are not comfortable with the title and not the profile.
From India, Mumbai
Bhakti Narang,
That is my problem. This is the scenario, my hrd head is new. just nearly 2 years. she is the wife of the evp & hr director. I made all the communications of the hr and d evp. i made my own jd and i cannot express myself that easy, ive been so close to them n to the family. huh, i wonder what else to do..nywy, thank you so much
From Philippines, Quezon
That is my problem. This is the scenario, my hrd head is new. just nearly 2 years. she is the wife of the evp & hr director. I made all the communications of the hr and d evp. i made my own jd and i cannot express myself that easy, ive been so close to them n to the family. huh, i wonder what else to do..nywy, thank you so much
From Philippines, Quezon
In my opinion, it is an opportunity to work directly with the Director HR and has a lot of learning potential. As an HR Assistant (your current job), you may be having an exposure to only a small portion of the overall HR function in your organization. As a Secretary, you will probably be required to coordinate not only with different sections of your HR department, but also with other functions (like operations, finance & business development etc..) & deal with higher level executives of the company. This will give you a chance to have a helicopter view of the entire organization besides learning about the HR strategy. You may be required to work on M I S & thus learn about data analysis & HR statistics.
Surely, you will have to put in long hours of work & be available to the HR Director all the time. If you are a career conscious person, you should feel obliged to your HR Director for having picked you up for this job.
From India, Delhi
Surely, you will have to put in long hours of work & be available to the HR Director all the time. If you are a career conscious person, you should feel obliged to your HR Director for having picked you up for this job.
From India, Delhi
Hello Naomi.forrosuelo,
You do have a problem....so to say.
Going by what you mentioned, BOTH you & them [HR Director & HRD Head] are right--from each other's perspectives.
Taking the different aspects one-by-one, it's correct that the chances are HIGH that this will drag you away from HR career. However, their counter--'secretary of the HR director has higher pay and higher rank than HR assistant'---is also right.
It all depends from 'which side of the situation' one is looking @ it.
What you need to FOCUS ON is:what do YOU want & the direction YOU want YOUR career to take.
Based on what you mentioned, it SEEMS as though both the Head & Director own the company--pl confirm.
Another point that CAN be needed to suggest more accurately is: IF the existing secretary isn't working properly, then why is she being tolerated instead of being FIRED? Practically, it doesn't make business sense [or 'common sense' for that matter] to add another person for the same function FOR THE REASON you mentioned. Is there something else to the whole thing?
Another way of looking @ this is: Do you have the OPTION of REFUSING? What would be the likely consequences FOR YOU? Especially since you mentioned that you are close to them?
IF you don't have another option, for whatever reason(s), EXCEPT ACCEPTING the Offer, then try to make the BEST BARGAIN out of the situation: Ask for the HR Role also to be added to your Job Responsibilities, without being stuck with ONLY the typical secretarial functions of taking notes, typing letters, Minutes-of-Meetings, etc--IN WRITING pl. The reason why I am suggesting this is: once you move away from the core HR role, then getting back into it again--here or in another company WOULD be TOUGH, if not impossible.
All the Best.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
You do have a problem....so to say.
Going by what you mentioned, BOTH you & them [HR Director & HRD Head] are right--from each other's perspectives.
Taking the different aspects one-by-one, it's correct that the chances are HIGH that this will drag you away from HR career. However, their counter--'secretary of the HR director has higher pay and higher rank than HR assistant'---is also right.
It all depends from 'which side of the situation' one is looking @ it.
What you need to FOCUS ON is:what do YOU want & the direction YOU want YOUR career to take.
Based on what you mentioned, it SEEMS as though both the Head & Director own the company--pl confirm.
Another point that CAN be needed to suggest more accurately is: IF the existing secretary isn't working properly, then why is she being tolerated instead of being FIRED? Practically, it doesn't make business sense [or 'common sense' for that matter] to add another person for the same function FOR THE REASON you mentioned. Is there something else to the whole thing?
Another way of looking @ this is: Do you have the OPTION of REFUSING? What would be the likely consequences FOR YOU? Especially since you mentioned that you are close to them?
IF you don't have another option, for whatever reason(s), EXCEPT ACCEPTING the Offer, then try to make the BEST BARGAIN out of the situation: Ask for the HR Role also to be added to your Job Responsibilities, without being stuck with ONLY the typical secretarial functions of taking notes, typing letters, Minutes-of-Meetings, etc--IN WRITING pl. The reason why I am suggesting this is: once you move away from the core HR role, then getting back into it again--here or in another company WOULD be TOUGH, if not impossible.
All the Best.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
Dear Tajsateesh,
My HRD head and his husband (the evp & HR director) are co-owner of the company. This is a family owned company, a corporation., both of them are stockholders.
Yes, it is like i don't have the option to refuse, but to accept. would it be possible if the appointment won't only as secretary but like this:
"Concurrent to your position as HR Assistant, you are hereby appointed as Secretary of the HR Director effective___. blah..blah" Is this okay?
another thing, my hrd head is asking my job descriptions, i have attached here my current job descriptions, IF you don't have another option, for whatever reason(s), EXCEPT ACCEPTING the Offer, then try to make the BEST BARGAIN out of the situation: Ask for the HR Role also to be added to your Job Responsibilities, without being stuck with ONLY the typical secretarial functions of taking notes, typing letters, Minutes-of-Meetings, etc--IN WRITING pl. The reason why I am suggesting this is: once you move away from the core HR role, then getting back into it again--here or in another company WOULD be TOUGH, if not impossible.
Can i possibly ask for your help to look into the attached JD. Would it be okay to maintain this JD and to add the secretary of the hr director JD, and what do you suggest? Thank you so much. You all really helped me into weighing things.
From Philippines, Quezon
My HRD head and his husband (the evp & HR director) are co-owner of the company. This is a family owned company, a corporation., both of them are stockholders.
Yes, it is like i don't have the option to refuse, but to accept. would it be possible if the appointment won't only as secretary but like this:
"Concurrent to your position as HR Assistant, you are hereby appointed as Secretary of the HR Director effective___. blah..blah" Is this okay?
another thing, my hrd head is asking my job descriptions, i have attached here my current job descriptions, IF you don't have another option, for whatever reason(s), EXCEPT ACCEPTING the Offer, then try to make the BEST BARGAIN out of the situation: Ask for the HR Role also to be added to your Job Responsibilities, without being stuck with ONLY the typical secretarial functions of taking notes, typing letters, Minutes-of-Meetings, etc--IN WRITING pl. The reason why I am suggesting this is: once you move away from the core HR role, then getting back into it again--here or in another company WOULD be TOUGH, if not impossible.
Can i possibly ask for your help to look into the attached JD. Would it be okay to maintain this JD and to add the secretary of the hr director JD, and what do you suggest? Thank you so much. You all really helped me into weighing things.
From Philippines, Quezon
Dear Tajsateesh, I have attached my current JD, which I wish you could make a review on it as to whether is it okay to add my secretarial JD Thanks
From Philippines, Quezon
From Philippines, Quezon
Hello Naomi.forrosuelo,
The JD looks OK--from the HR function angle. But there's no mention of the new role that's being planned for you--maybe you can add it.
Coming to your query: "Concurrent to your position as HR Assistant, you are hereby appointed as Secretary of the HR Director effective___. blah..blah" Is this okay?
Suggest don't make/indicate the Secretary of the HR Director as your Designation. You COULD have a tricky situation if & when you plan to leave later for a better job--there will be a dilemma on what designation to give you. Better would be to INCLUDE/ADD the new role to your existing one.
Suggest use the following wordings.
"In addition to your Primary responsibility as HR Assistant, you will henceforth be also responsible for the Secretarial functions/activities as Secretary of the HR Director effective___. blah..blah".
Also, suggest that you ensure the existing secretary REPORTS TO YOU. Else, there COULD BE chances of clashes of interest/work assignments later. If she reports to you, YOU could decide your priorities as you go along & assign any lower-priority tasks to her & you can focus on larger things.
Also, just a thought....can you squeeze-in a change of designation from 'HR Assistant' to...let's say.....'HR Executive' or some such thing from them? The idea is to ensure that the rest of the company too recognizes that your responsibilities have been increased/raised--though the actual effect depends on the total staff/employee strength.
All the Best.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
The JD looks OK--from the HR function angle. But there's no mention of the new role that's being planned for you--maybe you can add it.
Coming to your query: "Concurrent to your position as HR Assistant, you are hereby appointed as Secretary of the HR Director effective___. blah..blah" Is this okay?
Suggest don't make/indicate the Secretary of the HR Director as your Designation. You COULD have a tricky situation if & when you plan to leave later for a better job--there will be a dilemma on what designation to give you. Better would be to INCLUDE/ADD the new role to your existing one.
Suggest use the following wordings.
"In addition to your Primary responsibility as HR Assistant, you will henceforth be also responsible for the Secretarial functions/activities as Secretary of the HR Director effective___. blah..blah".
Also, suggest that you ensure the existing secretary REPORTS TO YOU. Else, there COULD BE chances of clashes of interest/work assignments later. If she reports to you, YOU could decide your priorities as you go along & assign any lower-priority tasks to her & you can focus on larger things.
Also, just a thought....can you squeeze-in a change of designation from 'HR Assistant' to...let's say.....'HR Executive' or some such thing from them? The idea is to ensure that the rest of the company too recognizes that your responsibilities have been increased/raised--though the actual effect depends on the total staff/employee strength.
All the Best.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
Hai Naomi,
You just accept the offer. Because you can learn more than what you are doing at present. It is the position where you can be very close with the HR Director and learn major aspects of HR very quickly. You can show your Experience as HR Assistant or Executive in your CV since you will be knowing all the activities of HR department.
Regards,
RK
From India, Mumbai
You just accept the offer. Because you can learn more than what you are doing at present. It is the position where you can be very close with the HR Director and learn major aspects of HR very quickly. You can show your Experience as HR Assistant or Executive in your CV since you will be knowing all the activities of HR department.
Regards,
RK
From India, Mumbai
Dear Naomi,
your concerns are accruate, however you need to weigh your pros & cons such as money, experience, gaining sight of both sides of the fence etc..
1st yes EA's do get a better pacakage ( i know this, since i come from the same back ground)
if you ask me, ill take the oppurtinuty since,1. i get to work closly in the HR Directors office and get to be in all his meetings, see 1st hand how he handles issues etc..
i think youll learn more and get paid more in a shorter span of time, besides the HR executive position will always be there when you want to get back. :)
From India, Bangalore
your concerns are accruate, however you need to weigh your pros & cons such as money, experience, gaining sight of both sides of the fence etc..
1st yes EA's do get a better pacakage ( i know this, since i come from the same back ground)
if you ask me, ill take the oppurtinuty since,1. i get to work closly in the HR Directors office and get to be in all his meetings, see 1st hand how he handles issues etc..
i think youll learn more and get paid more in a shorter span of time, besides the HR executive position will always be there when you want to get back. :)
From India, Bangalore
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