HR Manager is a member of many steering committees.

HR Manager is a management position. He is a member of management committee. There are many management level committees --- or better known as steering committee -- in this organization, one for each critical function in the Company. Apart from Management Committee (MC), there are HR Planning committee, tender committee, Health and Safety committee, and others.

HR Manager is member to all such committees. Attending meetings is the order of the day especially when the CEO is in town.

Today’s tender committee meeting, we discussed about whether or not to award this one particular bid to this one particular bidder. The bid was about the supply vessel to support the shutdown of our platform off Andaman Sea. I was no technical guy but I could contribute to the meeting by offering views from business or HR perspectives. I was IT Manager last time. I was HR Manager from downstream last time. When I was transferred to upstream, I need to learn a lot about upstream and E&P business. The management expects me to ‘run’ immediately at the new job. By the virtue of being a member of this committee member, I manage to reduce the learning curve.

Lesson Learnt:

Learning about the business is made simpler if you join many high level meetings. No matter how technical the subject matter is, at this level, it all boils down to business decision.