The path taken: two HR career roads—field and corporate—present their own distinct challenges and rewards - Career Development

HR Magazine, July, 2003 by Susan J. Wells

During a career that has spanned more than 25 years, Sandra Sipari's HR experience has come full circle. Sipari got her start in corporate HR. first in support positions, and quickly rose to vice president of HR at an insurance company and then director of compensation at a health care concern. She then moved out into the field as divisional vice president for a 2,000-employee health care system. But she ultimately decided to return to her corporate HR roots.

Today, as director of compensation/benefits/systems at Rexall Sundown Inc., a 1,500-employee global nutritional products company based in Boca Raton, Fla, Sipari designs base and variable pay plans and recognition programs, assesses and recommends all group benefit programs, and manages the company's human resource information system.

"I have a definite preference. I'm at a corporate level today for a reason' she says. "I found a high level of frustration at the field level because I did not have control over what was designed, developed and delivered to me for implementation."

While Sipari's preference is in corporate HR. neither career path is necessarily better; each has its challenges and rewards. And there are important differences between the two that may influence HR professionals' career and advancement choices. Knowing those distinctions, learning about the responsibilities of each role and gaining the experience necessary to succeed in either one are key steps in any HR job move.

For Sipari, going from corporate HR to field HR and back helped to frame a valuable lesson. "I think it's vitally important for HR professionals to know enough about themselves to know how, why and where they'd fit best," she says. "For me, the corporate focus of designing, developing and creating are important. For someone else, though, the getting, doing and managing of field responsibilities may be just the match!'

Defining the Differences

At a basic level, field HR is tactical; corporate HR is strategic. Corporate HR develops and plans the company's HR policies, programs, direction and goals; field HR is responsible for implementing them successfully. Corporate HR tends to see managers and employees collectively as a group or entity, interacting frequently with company executives; field HR must interact directly every day with managers and employees as individuals. Corporate HR'S focus tends to be longer-term; field HR'S role is more immediate.

"In the field, there's a big emphasis on problem solving, high visibility and day-to-day operations," says Jim Gray, SPHR, who has held corporate vice president and field management HR positions in manufacturing and financial services companies. "You're building relationships with workers and sharing data.

"In corporate, you may be constantly on call and must be accessible. You're building relationships with management and directors."

Gray, president of Jim Gray Consultants LLC, an organizational consulting practice in Charleston, S.C., says that in corporate HR "there's an obsession with the business, the trends of the business and what the implications are for the company."

Corporate's focus on anticipating the future is a constant, Gray says. "Every day you're thinking about what the organization is going to look like two to five years from now. Will we have the people we need to produce our product or service? Are our benefits structured so that we can successfully attract and retain the talent we need? These are the kinds of questions that corporate asks."

Because corporate HR professionals focus on large-scale strategic issues and are advisers to executive management, they tend to be specialists, with a deeper knowledge in one or more functional areas of HR, such as compensation and benefits, or employee training and development.

On the other side, field HR professionals must handle a variety of employee issues and so are more likely to be true generalists with a basic command of all HR functions, including stalling, employee relations, training, benefits and compensation. In effect they become resident experts because they are the one source for it all at their location. They often partner closely with an individual unit of the company.

"A line HR person should have a broad set of HR skills," says Debbie Norton, worldwide director of human resources at the Wafer Fab Manufacturing division of Texas Instruments in Dallas. "If they weren't a generalist at the beginning, after a line HR position, they are." Norton leads strategic planning and HR solutions for the division's 15,000 employees. Her field position includes succession planning, executive development, employee retention and recruiting, acquisition integration, and employee relations.

That's not to say that field and corporate are so different that their separate skills never blend. In fact, some HR professionals believe the lines between the two disciplines are blurring.

Case in point: For Bruce Olin, the various job responsibilities of both corporate and field HR play out regularly. He holds dual roles as director of labor relations at Volvo Parts North America Inc., and as director of HR for the company's 250employee facility in Columbus, Ohio. He might spend the better part of his workday assisting management with labor-grievance issues, going over merit pay budgets with facility leaders and advising supervisors on employee discipline problems.