Have you ever heard anyone refer to HR as the parent figure of an organization? Well, most likely they’re thinking of a mother and not the father (even if they don’t say so). HR is the department that plays middleman between the employees and management of the company. To achieve this, it really takes a certain balance of skills to be perceived as the person who’s taking care of the employees while in reality you’re constantly thinking in terms of the benefits for the organization.

HR is one of the rare fields where I think women have achieved a leg up on the gender diversity debate. Unlike IT (where it still seems to be a man’s world) there are many areas where women are preferred to men in HR. But through all my experience in the field and watching the function mature, I think that men are equally as effective and relevant to the job. Here’s why.

Characteristics of the HR Function

Now, before I start getting bashed by readers, let me assure you that in my opinion HR is an extremely key function for any organization. Without it, the development of leadership talent becomes an ad hoc concept, if one at all. That said, there are some characteristics that are perceived to be the basis of all HR roles. I believe it’s from these that the assumption gets drawn that women are better suited for the function then men.

Emotional

HR is probably one of the more emotionally sensitive functions in most industries. Of course this is not the case when it comes to healthcare or education but for others like manufacturing, IT, and finance it most certainly is.

Less Competitive, Financially

In many companies, HR executives are some of the lowest paid managers in the organization simply because according to the powers that be, they’re not directly impacting the bottom line of the business.

Supporting Role

Historically, some may argue that HR’s roots come from the traditional secretarial role (which of course is highly debatable) but that also causes it to lean towards being a “woman’s role”.

Why Men Are Also An Ideal Fit for HR

OK, so first of all I’m just going to knock out the concept of men being a bad fit for HR because it doesn’t pay well. You simply have to know which company is going to value your input and make sure that you’re seen as a Decision Maker in the Organization. That and the fact that women deserve equal pay in any function negates the argument that women are happier than men in HR because it doesn’t pay as well as other functions.

Now, getting to personality characteristics. HR is by far the job based on pure emotions alone anymore. Once upon a time it was all about making sure people were happy, safe, trained etc. It used to have only the soft side to it. But these days when big data, strategic HR and analytics are becoming a core part of the job, it has a definite hard side to it. Now of course I’m not saying women are not good at the logical part of the function – I know many who would outshine the men any day. But the point here is that HR has become a well balanced role and deserves gender equality like any other function – for both men and women.

It’s a short argument but it’s a valid one:

[Tweet “#HR has matured as a department and requires an equal balance of men and women.”]

We need logic, brains, emotions and sensitivity to be truly successful. Any thoughts? Leave them in the comments below. And subscribe to the blog for more food for thought on the wonder world that is HR.