12 Months, 10 lessons…

I clocked a year at Cowrywise few days ago, and while reflecting on my review and how the last year has been, these are the lessons I picked up.

1. People are Important: This is the nucleus of my career as an HR professional, that people are important to processes and strategies, and without people, there is really no organisation.
2. Strategy-driven activities give better results: Human resources could be mistakenly viewed as largely operational. Think about it, you handle Recruitment, Selection, Payroll, Onboarding and other Operational activities , and they all might seem like “just” activities if they are steered without direction, thus sometimes it is important to ask, what is your why? Why are you having a day onboarding instead of 2? Why is your payroll done in house? What’s the advantage of a trainee program over a normal recruitment process? Etc.
3. Every “Next” comes with responsibility: Do you remember when you longed to be an adult? To be able to do some things yourself, without any one supervising or micro-managing you and how joyous you were when you finally clocked 18 or 21 only for adulting to welcome you to a mammoth of responsibilities? That’s how the career world is. Every next level comes with additional responsibilities, either it is the next level of pay, next level of rank, next level of title or whatever the “next level” is. If you are not ready for the responsibilities, don’t long for the next level.
4. Measure what matters: In the HR  field, a term thrown around often is HR analytics, we talk a lot about retention rate, about attrition rate, quality of hire, time to fill, and other exciting ratios that make us feel good, but it is also quite pivotal to ensure you are measuring the right thing. For instance, if because you want  a quick “time to fill”, you rush a recruitment process and end up with the wrong talent, that would in the future be a dent on your quality of hire, which might affect your retention rate negatively, You get?
5. Generational gap is real: I have written one or two posts about this before but I just felt to reiterate, managing talents in the 21st century is a different ball-game and recognising that there is a huge difference between different generations, their disposition towards work, and towards life as a whole, would help you a lot when interacting with them at your workplace.
6. Emotional Intelligence is more practical than theoretical:  This year, I must have googled “emotional intelligence” at least a hundred times and read more than a dozen articles alongside a couple of books, but you see? Emotional Intelligence is more practical than theoretical.A couple of times, I make a not so perfect call, or replay conversations and realise what I could have done better, or not done at all, and ensure I apply these lessons when another related situation arises. Trust me, we all make mistakes, and act impetuously in response to uncontrollable emotions. what is important is learning from them.

7. Don’t hold “things” too tight: It felt rational to flow into this. As a professional, you are going to make mistakes, get feedback, unpleasant hurting feedback, and they are going to hurt. Sometimes, people would do bizarre things to you, somethings that you probably would have reacted differently if it wasn’t a career setting, but it is work, and the job has to get done so you have to learn to take the highway, trust me, you would need this a lot.

8. Learning is continuous: I honestly think the ability to learn, learn fast and apply what we have learnt is a skill everyone should have. It is totally okay not to know, but as Aristotle said, he that knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool. There are things you would not know, and it isn’t your fault that you didn’t know those things, what you do when the reality dawns on you is what matters most.

9.Learn about your industry: Either you are an HR professional or not, it is always advantageous to stay abreast of what is going in your industry. Not only does this distinguish you internally, it also makes you an exciting conversation starter at networking and career events or do you think it’s Big Wiz, Tems and O2 arena that people always talk about?

Always ensure you are in alignment with your major stakeholders: I had to end with this because I think it was the biggest lesson I learnt. Sometimes, in your head, you are doing a lot of amazing things, mind-blowing maybe, you might even get occasional well-done and pats on the back here and there, but trust me, if it doesn’t align with your stakeholder’s expectations, then all you are doing is just activities.

It's been an amazing 12 months, I have grown a lot, learnt a lot from my colleagues, the management and from the industry. The tech space is quite intriguing, the talent are unique and different solutions are springing up from different corners everyday. The last one year has been about building the best place to work, the next year would be about reinforcing this “building” process and exploring expansive opportunities.

If you think you are dogged, tenacious, creative, growth-hungry, data-driven, experienced and matured enough to join our train of stellar talents, the send your resume to people@cowrywise.com with a cover mail detailing your skills, abilities and where you think you fit in. You never can tell, what’d happen after.

P:S- After milestone posts like this, I often have people send me inquisitive dms. Later this month, I would be sharing hands-on experiences with upcoming HR professionals in an encompassing 2-day workshop. You can sign up here if interested.

P.P:S- You can catch up with my former milestone related posts here

What questions do you have for me and which of the lessons stood out for you? Do share below.