10K HR Hubbers | HR Hub, as seen by Christine Kropf

This year marks two important milestones for HR Hub. First, we are now 10 years old. And second, our community just got over 10K members. We are humbled and happy to celebrate together with all of you!

With our enthusiasm sky-rocketing, we reached out to a couple of HR Hubbers and asked them to share their thoughts with us. We also included the core team in this challenge. We hope you'll enjoy this series as much as we do!

Christine is currently working as a People Advisor for Accenture Romania. And she is one of the HR Hub Co-founders. She is passionate about her work and always eager to connect with other people and exchange ideas no matter of the topic. She believes that constant knowledge sharing and thinking outside the box are the best ways to make a great impact in your field.

How would you describe HR Hub to a non-member?

The place to be if you work in HR. A space where you can connect with top professionals in the HR industry, experiment new ways of working, propose or join existing projects & initiatives –  here you can find everything you need to bring your HR game to the next level.

One thing you learned through HR Hub and impacted you/your career in a positive way?

A lot of HR frameworks or trends I use as inspiration in my current practice, were first discovered or experienced through HR Hub. Some examples: “gamification”, “HR as a product”, “design thinking”, “big data/people analytics”, “agile mindset”. All these are now “the norm” in most companies including mine, but 10 years ago, when we begin to tackle them in HR Hub events, they were only starting to bloom in most organizations.

One thing you wish you could change in the HR world tomorrow if you`d have a magic wand?

The perception on the HR purpose & impact in an organization: HR is not about paperwork & payroll or mindless policies & procedures created to make things harder for employees. HR is about finding the right mix between business strategy and people development both being crucial nowadays for any organization to thrive.

The first thing I would do with my magic wand would be to update the HR university curricula and lecturers mindset on the topic. I would continue with upgrading the mindset of some of my HR fellows that still believe and act as HR is a support or administrative function. Then I would throw it away as I wouldn`t need it anymore. If the ones working in the field are on the right track, the rest will follow.

One song you associate with the HR Hub community. Why?

“Yellow Submarine”, The Beatles. I believe these lyrics define the community:

“We all live in a yellow submarine / Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

And our friends are all aboard/ Many more of them live next door”

HR Hub is a colored & positive place that brings together people from all over the world - yes, we broke the local boundaries already. Even though we are different in terms of interests, seniority, specialization, we are united by the desire to learn more, be more and improve things around us. As for our friends that “live next door”, we love to collaborate with other communities and learn from each other.

Let's celebrate 10k! Share with the HR Hubbers a personal memory related to the HR Hub community (e.g.: it can be something funny/inspirational/insightful, anything really). :)

I remember when we launched the re-branding of the community – when we migrated from Young HR Pros to HR Hub. After many weeks (or months?) of discussions, debates, hours spent on building the new the brand, site, communication strategy, we finally did it. I was at work when we post the announcement. I was so happy that I cried… in the open space.