HRD (Human Resource Division) is not Hema Rangdhen Drub

When I say people I work in Human Resource Division, they give me dry smile and say ‘Hema Rangden Drub. ‘In this past that used to offend me but not anymore. Working few years in district made me accustomed to such things. In the district, Dzongkhag Education Officer (DEO) will be called Deadly Eating Officer. His assistant will be called Another Deadly Eating Officer (ADEO). Indeed, every officer would be known by initials of their posts. People would imagine funny full forms for the initials. ‘Hema Rangden Drub’ is what people really think we do while the truth is we exhaust ourselves fulfilling wishes of others and not getting opportunity to fulfil self-wish which is good in a way. If HR personnel has authority enough for ‘Rangden Drub’, it may spoil the whole mechanism of internal procedures( if not careful). 
Recently, a business administration graduate came to my office for internship and in the course of conversation, she told me her wish was to be HR manager. On asking why, she told me lots of fantasies she read in the college. I too read that in the institute. Besides, she said she really loves to help people. I wanted to tell her that the job of HR is more complicated than helping others. If you are in love of helping others, you better be health officer or doctors. Better if you can walk in NGOs and charitable professions. You can’t do HR job if your aim is only helping. But I didn’t tell her that for fear of killing her dreams. She probably might have got a hint when she found out people shouting at me.
In Bhutan, HR is just more than a decade old from erstwhile personnel management. HRM has also not really walked so far from it. As HR Officer, we are just competent enough of doing administrative jobs. Our executives also don’t give profession the importance it deserve. As of now, they think that we are sort of police who will do dirty jobs of punishing and regulating the employees. If they are too hesitant to take administrative actions or corrective actions against erring employees, they will pass buck to HR. Worst, some of line managers have tendency of saying in public that he never supported penalty imposed while in private, he would be the one recommending harsher punishment. 
While works HR do or is expected to do will be more than Slokas of Kajur and Tenjur, let me point out some of reasons why HR work is complicated. First the recruitment. For HR officer, it is happiest moment to hand over appointment order to selected candidates with congratulatory words. I always look forward to it. But process leading to it is full of emotions. For every candidate selected we rejected at least three candidates. How do you tell them you are not selected when they call you or when you call them? It is not that they are not competent (though some are hopeless). It’s just that they couldn’t impressed panel members in short period of time. Besides, what they know is not enough. They should be able to infer what interviewers with myriad of backgrounds want them to know. Then there is lingering guilt on whether we did enough to be fair because no matter how you regulate, you will never know what is going inside head of panel members or who influence them. 
The next is performance appraisal. An employee thinks he is the best work even though he can be alcoholic or regular absentees from the work. They always think they deserve more. On other hand, organisation will have their own objectives and limited resources. The goal of organisation and employees hardly complement each other. As a HR professional, you ought to look for welfare of the organisation as well as employees. So how do we tell those poor performers that they are not performing well? They will have thousand justifications to back up their thinking. How do we tell them, they don’t deserve a raise? How do we differentiate what they get in case of various position levels. Even cleaning lady thinks she deserves as same as that of chief executive. From her perspective, she is absolutely right as she could be best cleaner ever in the organisation. Worst how do you lay off the people. Although the civil service is place of job security, you still has to lay off some people for various reasons. It is difficult to look into eyes of crying employee and say ‘I am sorry. We have let you go for this and that reasons.’
And there is tricky part called training. Training in Bhutanese context probably is most coveted and least understood subject. Some people think, they should be given training because of boss’s recommendation. Some think they should get because they serve at remote places. Some felt they should get because they are senior most. In absence of adequate resources and in presence of multiple stakeholders, the real objective of the training is lost. Worst, almost all employees think training is reward tool because of our system of paying some financial perks. Competency development plan in Bhutan is still premature baby and it will remain for sometimes due to various reasons. 
While I have more experiences to share, above are mostly encountered issues in my context. To conclude, HRD is not Hema Rangdhen Drub. Its Hema Rodhen Drub. I am telling this because its a fact. I will not justify because I don’t want meaningless pity thrown at me. You will understand when you sit on the chair of HR personnel.