Hello! Before grad school I was briefly HR professional in the government. Now I'm exploring a startup idea and am trying to talk to people who actually work in HR/benefits before I convince myself it's a good idea.

The basic problem I'm interested in: many hourly/wage employees may qualify for government programs, tax credits, childcare assistance, healthcare subsidies, student-loan programs, paid leave, utility assistance, etc., but figuring out what they are eligible for—and then actually navigating the applications—is incredibly fragmented and time consuming. Whether because they don't know or because it's too hard, people end up leaving a ton of money and benefits on the table .

The idea I'm researching is a benefit that an employer could offer employees that acts as a kind of personal government concierge. With the employee's permission, it could use information the employer already has in HR/payroll systems (income, dependents, address, benefits elections, etc.) to identify things the employee may qualify for, alert them when something changes, and help them actually complete the process.

For example:

-a new employee is added to the company -> the system figures out they are eligible for the earned income tax credit -> the system prepopulates all of the necessary filings -> the employee approves

- an employee adds a child to their benefits -> the system recognizes the life event -> checks relevant federal/state/local programs -> tells them they may qualify for a childcare subsidy -> already has most of the information needed to help them apply from company -> employee let's service apply for them

I'm trying to gauge reaction. How does this sound? Does this solve a problem HR/Benefits teams actually encounter? Would employers view this as a valuable employee benefit (it would likely help with recruitment and financial stability)? Do you think your employer would be willing to pay? What would a vendor have to demonstrate for your company to consider a pilot?

I'm not selling anything and don't have a product to pitch. I'd just rather have HR people tell me why the idea is bad before I spend a year building it.

Thank you

I work in HR for an SME in Ireland and came across a situation recently that I found quite difficult to deal with. One of our managers clearly seems to favour one particular employee. They’ve been late several times, missed a few deadlines and taken a couple of last-minute days off, but the manager tends to let it slide.

Another employee made a similar mistake and was pulled into a meeting and given a fairly serious warning. That employee later came to HR and said they felt they were being treated differently.

I raised the inconsistency with the manager, but they basically said they know the employee well and that there are “reasons” for being more flexible with them.

There’s nothing particularly dramatic happening, but the difference in treatment is becoming noticeable to the rest of the team.

How would you handle a situation where a manager is showing clear favouritism towards one employee?

I will preface this by saying I am the minion of our HR lady and so I only have tiny brainspace. We are a mom and pop furniture and appliance business that currently operates by using Quickbooks for payroll and spreadsheets to track attendance. Our HR lady processes payroll through Quickbooks Desktop, as that's where our financial data is housed. She wants me to find an HRIS that will communicate with Quickbooks.

We're looking for a system that will allow our employees to clock in/out in the field (delivery drivers, service techs) or at their desk (sales team, back office staff). Preferably, we're hoping to find a system that will allow her to track excused vs unexcused absences/tardies. We have mostly hourly employees and six salaried employees. She'd like the payroll side to be able to handle deductions, garnishments, and liability stuff (again, I am just a minion, so all of this flies over my head). Employees are allowed to purchase things and have it deducted from their paycheck until it is paid off.

So far she has nixed paycor, and she's considering Paylocity or ADP, but I wanted to ask y'all if you had any ideas for systems that might work with Quickbooks Desktop. (Emphasis on the Desktop part, she says if we move to Quickbooks online she'll quit because it isn't suitable for the accounting side of the business).

Hey guys, I've applied for an internal transfer into a Team Relations role at my company. The company uses a center of excellence type model. The job decription lists experience in UKG and 1-2 years of work experience as nice to have. My background is in operations, but I have certifications in aPHR, SHRM-CP and am doing a Master's program in HR Management. My undergrad major was Psychology. If you were interviewing me, what would you want me to say/demonstrate to give you faith in me to grow into this role?

Also, any basic background of UKG that I can mention so I have something more to say than "thats where I request PTO" would be appreciated.

If it helps, this is a compressed version of the job description

Main responsibilities: managing offboarding/departure tasks; supporting resignation and involuntary separation processes; creating termination letters; scheduling exit interviews; maintaining personnel documentation in UKG; coordinating collection of employee belongings; handling support requests related to LOAs/name changes; data uploads/contact lists; and conducting milestone check-ins and exit interviews.

Required qualifications: 9+ months in current role, strong written/verbal communication, attention to detail, problem-solving, ability to work independently, Microsoft Office proficiency, organization/time management, and ability to manage multiple competing priorities and work professionally with leadership.

Nice to have: UltiPro/UKG or other HRIS knowledge, HR/related bachelor's degree, and 1–2 years of HR experience.

I'm in CA but would love feedback from other folks.

I have never had experience with self-funded medical plans but I'm wondering if it might be a good option for my company, and I'm curious as to the logistics of managing it as an HR of 1 for a small company.

We're a small (about 25ees) consulting firm with a mostly very young workforce. I would estimate our medical utilization across most of our employees is fairly low, but we have 5 employees who have higher than average utilization. Based on my limitted knowledge I would have to think that we might save money by going self funded. The caveat is that we *are* construction adjacent....our company doesn't perform constuction work, but most of the team is regularly on construction sites. We haven't ever had a serious injury (knock wood), and our last WC claim was a couple of years ago. So risk is historically low but we still work in slightly dangerous areas.

Is self funded too hard to manage for just one person? If you have done both, which do you prefer and why? (I have a broker for our current benefits and they do the vast majority of the heavy lifting. I love them and I truly don't do much for our benefits but I have done full manual benefits admin in my past).

Does anyone have experience where going self funded resulted in a really significant cost reduction?

Any good online resources you just love for information on this potential switch? (I've been going down google rabbit holes all weekend but if someone has a very reliable site they love, plz share!).

I have worked in HR for about 4 years, hold an HR Management bachelors and a SHRM-CP. I recently accepted a job as an HRBP for a small company (less than 200) but have previously been an HR Coordinator. Granted, my last job had a coordinator title but had more responsibility than the title indicates.

I have been in an environment where I have been able to coast and not work that hard for the past two years so I really want to make sure I am showing up at this job and stepping into the role with initiative and ownership. I know I can be successful but I have a nagging fear that I am not cut out for the job, mainly because I can't believe I am jumping from coordinator to BP. Additionally, a small part of the job will include ER, which I have never had to do in any capacity so I am mainly nervous about this part of the job. It also is a big step up in terms of responsibility and scope. Does anyone have advice for moving into a much bigger job and dealing with the imposter syndrome? Any tips for preparing for a stretch role like this?

Hi everyone,

I currently work in HR, and I’m located in California. I’m taking the PHR exam in California in about two weeks. I’ve been studying and taking practice exams for the past few months.

My main study resources have been Sandra Reed’s book and Pocket Prep. I’ve been doing pretty well on the Pocket Prep questions, and I feel like they’ve helped me understand the concepts.

Recently, I purchased HRStudyPro practice exams, and honestly, they have me questioning how prepared I actually am. The questions feel much harder, especially the scenario-based questions. There are also some tools and topics being tested in HRStudyPro that I don’t remember seeing in Pocket Prep.

Now I’m not sure if I should be worried or if HRStudyPro is simply designed to be more difficult.

For those of you who recently took and passed the PHR:

• How did you find the actual exam compared to Pocket Prep and HRStudyPro?
• Which practice exams were most similar to the real exam?
• Did you see a lot of scenario-based questions?
• Were there tools or concepts on the exam that you didn’t see in Pocket Prep?
• What would you recommend focusing on during the last two weeks?

I know people will probably say that I’ll be fine, but I’m honestly a terrible test-taker. I get anxious, my brain goes blank, and I tend to second-guess myself a lot. So I’m trying to make sure I’m preparing with the right resources instead of just doing practice questions that may not reflect the actual exam.

Any advice from people who recently passed would be greatly appreciated!

Location: California | Current HR professional

Hi, hopefully this is the right subreddit to ask this question. I’m in a new workforce role within my org/department. The role straddles between strategy and “architect”, where I’ll need to partner with the org leaders on what the right workforce mix is (full-timers vs outsourced), where they should be (location), and optimization of assignments (which workforce type should do what, and possible, what should be automated?).

I’m rather new to this so I’m wondering if there are helpful books or courses that can help inspire me with frameworks to get things started. Any advice is much appreciated!

Hi Everyone,

I was recently laid off from my role as a Learning & Development Coordinator without any prior warning. I have started applying for jobs and am exploring what my next step should be.

For those working in Learning & Development in Canada, how is the job market right now? Are companies actively hiring for L&D and LMS roles?

I am also interested in trying contract work, including short-term or project-based opportunities. My experience includes L&D coordination, LMS administration, training coordination, HR support, reporting, and program coordination.

For those who work on contracts, how do you usually find opportunities? Are there specific recruiters, agencies, websites, or other approaches you would recommend in Canada?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to join one of the big 4 as a payroll analyst. I passed the interview and received an offer, but I rejected it because I was worried that staying in payroll would limit me and make it harder to move into other areas of HR later on. For some context, my role now is basically payroll and kind of a data management-ish for employees data job? My title is Junior HR Exec to be exact.

At the time I felt it made more sense to hold out for roles such as HR analyst, total rewards etc which are areas I’m more interested in long term but have no experience in.

However, since then I’ve been struggling to even get interviews for roles outside of payroll. Most of the callbacks I get is still payroll related.

I'm now having some regret by rejecting the Big 4 offer. Would having the Big 4 name on my CV have made it easier to transition into other HR functions later, either internally or externally? Or would taking another payroll-focused role have just made me even more specialised in payroll?

Just wondering if anyone here have made such transitions?

I work in the HR/background screening space and have been looking for courses that go beyond basic HR concepts. I’m particularly interested in learning more about compliance, candidate verification, criminal record searches, employment screening processes, and how to handle screening-related challenges properly.

Would love to hear from anyone who has taken a relevant course. Was it actually useful in your day-to-day work, and would you recommend it for someone who wants to build stronger knowledge in background screening?

I have about 3 years of HR experience across HR operations and talent acquisition, along with my SHRM-CP. I know I want to remain in HR long-term.

I'm considering a part-time online master's degree starting in Spring 2027. I'm holding off on an MBA for now since I'm still relatively early in my HR career and would rather pursue one later in my career.

With AI and technology increasingly affecting HR, I'm curious what areas HR professionals think will become more important over the next 5–10 years to inform my Masters degree choice.

Hello HR Redditors!

I'm expanding the scope of my search for a Human Resources Director, and I'm excited to see how this community responds.

Selkirk First Nation is hiring a Human Resources Director based in beautiful and remote Pelly Crossing, Yukon. This opportunity could be an excellent fit for a junior HR leader who is ready to broaden their leadership experience and take on a larger HR portfolio. Or for someone who is feeling burnt out from the big city hustle and wants a quieter Northern adventure.

We're looking for someone who has knowledge of Indigenous governance and culture and is comfortable with the realities of living and working in a remote community. Pelly Crossing is approximately three hours from our capital city, Whitehorse, Yukon.

The position requires three days per week on-site in Pelly Crossing, with the remaining two days worked remotely from Whitehorse. Housing in Pelly Crossing is provided, and the role includes generous leave benefits.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a DM. You can also apply directly through the instructions listed in the job posting.

https://www.yuwin.ca/jobs/590658811-director-of-human-resources-at-selkirk-first-nation

I need some people to commiserate with me. A month ago, I thought managing multi-state US tax withholdings and local city taxes was the biggest PITA for payroll purposes. But then! We hired people in Belgium.

Nothing prepared me for the bloodsport that is Belgian payroll. First, I learned about automatic wage indexation. Did you know that in Belgium, salaries are legally tied to the consumer health index? When inflation goes up, so does your wage! Awesome for them, but good luck with your staff budget numbers lmao.

Oh, and vacation isn’t just normal PTO. There’s Double Holiday Pay, a mandatory 13th-month bonus, and an entire galaxy of tax-free statutory vouchers. Meal vouchers, eco-vouchers, sports-vouchers, culture-vouchers, the list goes on. I spent more time than I’d like to admit trying to figure out if an energy-efficient toaster qualifies as an eco-voucher.

On top of all of this, they have strictly enforced language laws, which means if your operational seat is in, say, Flanders, your entire contract MUST be in Dutch or it’s legally null and void.

I’ve learned a lot recently and none of it was fun lmao.

Now I want to hear the absolute worst labor law or other payroll complexity you’ve found yourself navigating?

Looking for feedback from anyone who has experience with Paylocity or Workday. We have a bout 1,000 employees and are considering both systems. What has your experience been like Any pros, cons, or things you wish you had known before implementing?

How do you know when it’s time to reach for a higher level role? I have been working as a Generalist for about 5 years now in the world of healthcare. About a month ago my boss the Director quit as she was having some issues with our CEO. Since then I’ve been functioning as the interim director under supervision of our Corporate HR Director. They haven’t made any decision on whether I will be promoted or if they will be hiring externally at this point in time. The Corporate Director keeps thanking me for my willingness to step up and telling me that I’m doing fine. However I’m scared and feel like I’m drowning daily because in my mind I feel like I should be looking for a manager level position at the most, based on my years of experience however I have this horrible fear of failure or being exposed as a fraud for not knowing as much as I should. For those who are far more seasoned how do you get over these feelings? Do they ever go away? What did your career progression look like ? I’m just looking for a practical pathway to success.

I’ve been tasked to find a learning platform where we can upload our own trainings and make them interactive. We have an HRIS platform and Not sure it fits this for us. Any recommendations? This is not something I’ve had to work with before. 70ish employees in life science. Thanks!

TL;DR - Monitask is a horrible software with terrible customer service and user experience.

Hello - Please report any mention of the company/ Monitask to the mod team! Unless you want to mention it in this thread.

Monitask is a shitty little company that is currently spamming this subreddit with sock puppet accounts. The accounts are several years old and fake engagement across popular pop culture subreddits.

Apparently, they’re absolutely broke though. They can’t afford proper advertising so they have to copy/paste the same verbiage with their accounts. I can only imagine their actual service is dogshit and probably hobbled together with the poorest of vibe coding.

If you want to mention it in this thread, hopefully this post will pop up on search engines and would be buyers can see how dishonest and underhanded this software is :)

Is there such thing as work-life balance when you work in HR? My last two jobs have the expectation that you need to be on call 24/7. It's frowned upon to take a sick time and even on vacation you must be available. Is this the norm?

I'm extremely burned out after 5 years of no mental break. What are your tips for getting over burn out? Is a leave of absence needed? I've applied to so many jobs and can't find anything new so that's not an option.

I'm fresh out of college waiting for graduation and I got a job as an HR manager in a company with only 3 employees. I have not been given any tasks and I haven't a clue what to do. Can someone please tell me what am I supposed to do because I feel like I'm collecting free money (which isn't so bad)

Maybe a little bit of a vent but also asking for advice..

This is my first consulting job and first fully remote role after being an HR Generalist for the last 6 years in different industries: retail, manufacturing, medical.

During the interview process I was told it was flexible pt and as clients came up, I’d get more projects. Due to the PT nature I was told to make sure my availability/calendar was up to date.

On my first week, I mentioned being unavailable Thursday and received an email from a client. Not urgent, just requesting time to schedule a meeting. I honestly hadn’t seen it because I was not at home. My boss texted me and unsent another message basically saying I needed to respond and a message within an hour should be responded to. I felt it was a red flag but I continued.

Now taking on 3-4 clients or projects, I have felt very overwhelmed with the poor communication, lack of organization and structure.

I have asked on their methods, tools, templates, etc but I am just stuck on 1-2hr venting video calls with my boss or peers instead of getting on a project management tool to break it down. I’ve requested feedback on my work and I am told that it’s all good. I’ve mentioned my inability to keep up at times to be transparent. Nothing. I noticed my boss also lacks accountability as I have requested help for other projects and have to continuously follow up or I am told “oh did you still need that?”

I guess my questions are..

Are consultants meant to be more independent?

Are consultants usually overwhelmed with the nature of the role? What is consulting typically like? Are there SOPs or are firms trusting their team to take on their own?

Hi there! One of the clients my staffing firm works with is in several states, so we have people using corp cards all over the place. If an out of policy charge occurs, we obviously notify the contractor that it will need to come out of payroll. One of our recruiters and I agree we should check each state’s individual laws, because we figure there are states that may allow an employee to refuse, or require a specific method of authorization. Our payroll processor doesn’t want spend time on this and just go with a generic written confirmation. We’re generally very compliant so I might be overthinking it but I’d much rather do the work and not risk it down the line. Thoughts?

Hi. This is my first post so please forgive me if I’m not phrasing this correctly but here goes. I’ve been in the HR profession for seven years. It can be isolating, I work independently most of the time (no team, just me). I’m wondering if all HR Professionals have to deal with just plain odd requests or circumstances. In my career, I’ve had: 1. Employee uses his Dad’s SIN instead of his own and then asks me to fix it with CRA. 2. Constant requests for payroll deduction loans due to (insert sob story here). 3. No one knows how to do anything anymore. I.e., Manager: please create this document. Employee with a business degree: you didn’t train me, I don’t know how. Maybe I am just really burned out. Are y’all dealing with just equally weird stuff daily or is it just me?

My hotel uses Workday to track disciplinary records for our colleagues. Our SOP is: colleague breaks policy —> manager addresses as immediately as possible —> manager begins disciplinary action form in workday documenting disciplinary level and situation —> HR reviews and approves, denies, or sends back for adjustment —> manager meets with colleague to discuss official disciplinary documentation —> manager submits task they met with employee —> employee completes acknowledgment task —> manager completes final task to acknowledge full completion.

A common frustration from operational leaders is that this process is too long. HR’s stance is that we need this documentation to hold our colleagues accountable because we have very high standards. I’ve heard from other HR members in the company is that this is just the way it has to be, but we consistently run into issues where tasks aren’t being completed and documentation doesn’t become “official” on their workday profile.

What do other companies do? Our operational leaders have minimal admin time to complete these things, and on top of this, have to have frequent coaching on how to document productively (appropriate language to use, enough details, dates, times). Suggestions on how to streamline the process so that it’s still getting done, but are less hoops to pass through?

Hi everyone, my team is hiring in multiple regions at the same time and we want to implement a new platform (ideally with some AI or agentic component) that can handle everything in one centralized location. If you have started using one, what differences has it made?