This people pro didn’t want to work in HR until she had a change of heart

Negative stereotypes about HR pros—that they’re not workers’ friends, and only exist to protect the company—seem to transcend cultures.

Those assumptions were present in India, where Siya Thakkar grew up and attended university studying psychology. While Thakkar was interested in pursuing industrial organizational psychology and studying human behavior in the workplace, she still didn’t want to go into HR. “I remember saying it to my classmates and my professors: ‘No, I don’t think HR is for me. This is not something that I want to do,’” she recalled.

It wasn’t until she was studying for her master’s degree in IO psychology at the University of Nottingham in the UK, when her professor told her she’d fit well in HR, that she thought about the function differently.

“As my degree progressed, I started to see that there’s so much more to HR, the psychological safety part of it, improving the employee experience, the culture,” she said. “And I realized that HR is not what they make it look like on the outside, and how they talk about it.”

Thakkar is currently in her first full-time HR role as a people coordinator at Go City, a travel company offering discounted passes to tourist attractions based in London. She joined the company in August 2024, after being inspired by its head of people writing about emphasizing the human aspects of HR on LinkedIn and networking with her.

“I’m actually the person looking at policies, learning about employment laws, and talking about how we can improve certain processes,” she said. “And I just sometimes wonder to myself…how is it that I was the person two years ago, thinking this isn’t for me?”

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked?

At Go City, I helped redesign our onboarding process for a globally distributed team. We streamlined systems, added personal touchpoints, and reduced post-onboarding queries by 30%. The change wasn’t just operational—it created a calmer, more confident entry point for new joiners.

What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job?

That HR is just policy, payroll, and people problems. In reality, we’re cultural architects, emotional barometers, and often the first line of defense against burnout or misalignment. It’s way more strategy and nuance than people expect.

What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?

When someone tells me they felt seen, supported, or empowered because of something I did—or something I helped build. Those human moments are what it’s all about. That, and building systems that run smoother than my caffeine-fueled brain ever does.

What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why?

I’m optimistic about the rise of emotional intelligence and mental health awareness in people strategy. It's slowly becoming unacceptable to ignore the psychological needs of employees. That shift is long overdue—and it’s exciting to help embed it into policy, culture, and leadership development.

What trend in HR are you least optimistic about? Why?

“Culture-as-a-Service” vibes—companies slapping on perks or engagement platforms to fix deeper systemic issues. You can’t gamify empathy or wellness. If the foundation is shaky, no amount of virtual coffee vouchers will save morale.

Every time, for example, if someone reaches out to me [with mental health concerns], my instinct would be to remind them that we have an employee assistance program completely free of cost, please make use of it. But I would definitely make it a point to make sure that, if this is happening a lot or there’s a lot of burned out employees, I think it takes more than just an [EAP] to rely on to make people feel better. It’s about going to the root cause of it and saying: If this is happening more often, what do we change as a company? What can we do differently?