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19
Member Profile
What led you to Human Resources as a profession?
Mine is a long, circuitous and non-traditional path, but looking back it is not
hard to see the thread through my career that led me to HR. I wanted to help
people, mediate differences and promote change. My seemingly serendipitous
career choices all provided me valuable skills and experience relevant to my
eventual HR responsibilities. I began my career hoping to be a social worker or
counselor, with an interest in prison reform. I became a prison ombudsman, an
independent third-party investigator charged with handling prisoner grievances.
There I developed investigative, conflict management and mediation skills.
After a return to graduate school, I began to work in local government, first
as a staff director of a public commission handling civilian complaints against
the police (more investigative and conflict management work, but also legal
compliance and policy development), and then shifting to take on responsibilities
involving labor relations, staff development, and performance management
as a senior assistant to the City Manager. An exciting development in that
role was becoming engaged in joint labor/management “TQM” (Total Quality
Management) and continuous process improvement efforts – working to build
organizational capacity (and public trust) by focusing on better service to the
community while also increasing employee job satisfaction. From there it was
a short hop to organizational development, with a focus on culture change and
team development. The rest of the technical HR pieces followed – benefits
administration, compensation, and employment law compliance.
In your opinion, what is the future of HR?
I only know that we need to be in the thick of it as change agents. My intuition is
that the systems perspective that comes with the multi-disciplinary nature of HR,
coupled with our increasingly valued roles as internal consultants and strategic
partners, will make us essential players in re-defining the social contract when
it comes to employment. Technology, social networks, an increasingly diverse
multi-generational and multi-ethnic workforce, system changes in education and
healthcare – all will dramatically shape how people come to the workplace and
what they expect to find there. Organizational boundaries are likely to be ever
more permeable and workers more transient. But it is possible, too, that the
atomizing realities of our increasingly virtual world will create new longings for
place and community that healthy organizations can provide, with opportunities
for people to grow in place in ever-evolving work configurations. HR will be at
the center either way.
What would you recommend
to someone just starting out in HR?
Appreciate the true breadth of opportunities that HR offers and the multiple
doors to entry. Don’t feel you have to start in HR or specialize too soon. Be open
to opportunities to stretch. Volunteer for cross-functional teams. Look for ways
to transfer and apply your prior experiences and skills to HR. Don’t be afraid to
cross between the non-profit, public and for-profit sectors. Consider joining a
non-profit board.
What do you find is the greatest reward working in HR?
Being a trusted advisor and credible link between staff and management. Taking
seriously the role as steward of organizational values, maintaining integrity and
ethical standards. Fostering genuine opportunities for on-the-job growth. Re-
designing jobs to meet current organizational needs. Helping staff meet complex
life challenges.
What role has NCHRA played in your career?
The SPHR certification course and credential was a valuable professional bridge
from my non-traditional career path to my current position. The annual HR West
Conference and NCHRA workshops and seminars provide ongoing professional
education and networking opportunities.
HR
BIOGRAPHY
BOB BAILEY
DIRECTOR, HR & ADMINISTRATION
EVELYN & WALTER HAAS, JR. FUND
MEMBER SINCE 2004
In his role as Director of HR & Administration at the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr.
Fund (
, Bob is responsible for managing and providing the
full range of human resource services at the Fund, plus overseeing all office
operations. Bob joined the Fund after six years at the Tides Center in SF where
he was Acting & Associate Director of HR. There he gained considerable
experience in non-profit governance working with progressive organizations
across the country. Among other community service, Bob’s is currently President
of the board of directors of Community Boards of SF
),
a community-based mediation organization that has been a model nationally
since 1976. Bob has also been an adjunct faculty member at the University of
San Francisco in its Organizational Behavior program. He received his Master’s
Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School and
undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut.
