HRM Interview Essay Example For Students

HRM Interview Essay The person that I interviewed was Vicky Young, who works right here at York College ofPennsylvania. York College, is a private college for the liberal arts, and may be a private college,but it is as inexpensive as a public college. It has been growing by great numbers in the lastcouple of years, and with that has come many new obstacles. As the Human Resource BenefitsSpecialist at York College Miss Young has to deal with the different complications that comeVicky Young has worked for York College for the last year and seven months. Eventhough she has not worked at York College for a long time she has seen a lot of changes in thelittle bit of time that she has been here. She worked at RiteAid Corporation before she came toYork College, as well as a Benefits Representative for the west coast district of the corporation. After some time at that position, she worked her way up to become the Lead Benefits handler forthe whole west coast division for the RiteAid Corporation. When Miss Youn g got to YorkCollege, there were a lot of different problems that she had to deal with but one of the biggestwas the problem with the benefits package that they gave employees. York College has a middleman that they pay to take care of the benefits for the teachers. The problem with this is that ifthere are any changes made in the benefits at York College, it does not get changed around in thecomputer system for about five months. For those five months, the employee still expects to getbenefits so it has to come out of York College’s pocket. The insurance that the college hascovers only about two to three months of that period, so Miss Young has to find a way to fix thisproblem. This is just one example of the many problems that she has to deal with in her jobAs I stated earlier, York College has been growing and expanding faster then ever in thelast couple of years. This can be seen just by looking around the campus. You notice a lot morenew faces each year and the college i s growing to hold all these new people. They just finished anew dormitory two years ago, and they have plans to expand out into the surrounding community. This is very good for the college, but with all of this growth there are problems that come with it. Miss Young feels that because of this growth and the age of the teaching staff, there is going tobe a lot of turnover in the next five to ten years. Many of the professors at York College havebeen around for over ten years and they are getting up to the age where they are looking to retire. If a professor retires, the college has to go out and find a new person to take over that position. As with any other job when you bring in a new person, you lose a lot of the knowledge andexperience of the person that came before them. Miss Young has to deal with this problem, andhow she can make it the easiest on the staff and the customers, the students. Miss Young’s jobhas a lot of interaction with people so she will have to build all new relationships with the newemployees that come to the college. Along with the teachers, Miss Young believes that there willalso be a high turnover in the administration. The administration are the people that Miss Youngmust work with and the people that affect her job. If a new dean or president were to come in,they may have a whole different view of what part Miss Young would play in the future of YorkOne of the big problems facing Miss Young now and into the future will be the benefitpackages of the teachers at York College. The teachers are talking about a new deal where theywill still get benefits when they retire and not have to pay for it. Miss Young has to find a way tomake the teachers happy, while at the same time not just give away the college’s money. A lot ofthe time Miss Young has to almost be a middle man between the college and the teacher so shehas to do what she thinks is best for both parties and what will keep them happy. Miss Young’s days are no t always full of such immense problems. Her job changes fromday to day and that is what she loves about it. She does not have to be dealing with the samepeople or doing the same task every day that she comes into work. This keeps her job new andexciting. Although it is hard for her to categorize what a typical day’s tasks would be, shenarrowed it down to the few tasks that she usually has to do. Miss Young is responsible for thepayroll of the whole campus. This is a big job if you think about how fickle people can be overtheir pay. If you got your pay stub and realized there was some money missing, I am sure thatyou would be in Miss Young’s office very soon. She has to make sure that everyone is gettingwhat they are suppose to and there are no problems. She must also audit all of the benefitbillings. She must make sure that all of the payments are received from the employees and thatshe makes the correct payments to the company that covers the benefit package of the co llege. Miss Young must also write internal policies affecting the college and the employees. Through allof these tasks she must also answer the phone. You may not think of that as a very hard task, butwhile I was there she had three people call her. If you were in the middle of trying to getsomething important done and people kept calling you, you would quickly learn how distractingthat could be. Some of the phone calls Miss Young gets she does not know how to answer so shehas to then go and research the answer for the person. Although Miss Young does all of thesetasks in a typical day, the majority of her time is spent auditing and on the phone. She must alsoâ€Å"put out fires.† This means that she must help to solve problems or emergencies that can come upat any moment. These can cause problems for Miss Young because sometimes she will not beprepared for the problem and she will have to contact different people or get information that canBeing a human resource manager is n ot the easiest job and it is not for everyone. Thereare certain skills and abilities that you must possess that not all people have. Miss Young believesthat to be a good human resource manager you must possess a few invaluable skills. You must bean organized person. A lot of the time you are spread out over many different areas and you haveto be able to keep everything together and be able to find information if you need it. You can notbe sloppy or keep bad records or else you will get yourself into a problem when your boss asksyou for information and you can not find it. You also must be an understanding person. A humanresource manager is no longer just the person you contact if you are in trouble, or if you are beingfired but now handles many of the problems that employees have. You must be understanding oftheir problems but not be to empathetic. A lot of the time you will be either on the phone or inperson talking with people so communication skills are very important. You must b e able tocommunicate well with others and be able to get your point across to who ever you arecommunicating with. This is one of the most important traits that you must possess because somuch of your job will use this skill. Miss Young also feels that a business degree is important tobe a human resource manager. A lot of the issue you have to deal with involve business and theway businesses are run. A good understanding of how to schedule is also important because youmay have to schedule. It is not as easy as just putting someone down for a certain time eachweek. You have to deal with people who quit or get fired and you must also deal with peoplewho do not show up for work. You must become comfortable and accustomed to these problemsand how to deal with them on a regular basis. The law plays a big part in being a human resourcemanager. You must follow the different laws and how they are changing in your field. You mustbe aware if a new law is in the works or has been passed that wi ll effect you or the people you aredealing with. Miss Young reads law publications and uses the Internet in order to stay up to dateon what is going on with the laws that affect her and her job.These are the basic skills that MissYoung feels that you need to learn and possess to be a great human resource manager. Core Humanities EssayBibliography: