Some HR professionals hear L&D and instinctively think Labor & Delivery, not Learning & Development. The same holds true for equating ER with Emergency Room rather than Employee Relations. Oh, how HR is misunderstood!
However, with one step beyond the cheap chuckle, ironically, these cross-discipline abbreviations hold some merit.
Labor & Delivery
Producing strong learning experiences is a labor of love. The creation; however, is only half of the equation. Delivery is equally important. Many instructional designers and facilitators think of our programs as our children. They contain a piece of us - a creative DNA and breath of life. We often create something from nothing and then, watch it grow to have a life of its own.
Emergency Room
Employee Relations encompass some of the most difficult elements of HR. Tough cases can feel bloody and gutsy. We enter into heart wrenching and traumatic situations. Many are career altering; some are life and death, seeing employees at their lowest point. Employees also avoid HR the way they would an emergency room until the last possible resort. There are days where we “call codes” based on industry standards and company policies, and others where we yell for a crash cart, seeking to rescue and save what is good.
Primary Care
In contrast with these specialized medical disciplines and with upmost respect for all
healing professions, HR does not wish to be a hospital. We would much rather be the equivalent of a primary care office. Let us give you a simple band-aid before you require 20 stitches. Let us talk to you about health and wellness before surgery is needed. Let’s vaccinate with compliance trainings to ward against organizational disease and have an annual physical like we do a performance review and its merit process.
To the Point
HR is responsible in various ways for the health of organizations. Allow us to be your partner early and often….we have lollipops!
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