Do The Age & Physical Appearance Of Employee Really Affects The Career Growth In HR?

Respected Sir/ma\'am
Recently i was discussing the scope of HR with one of my friend, while discussing, one question arises which i would like to share with yo growth u,i.e,
\"Do the Age or physical appearance of any \"female employee\", affects the growth of her career in HR?\"
And also if possible then please try to give brief about the hierarchy of designations that the Human Resource department follows.
Please do revert, I shall be thankful to you.

Yes, it does in some sectors like marketing, Sales, hospitality Industries, Air Hostess, etc.
Pon

Hi,
I don't think age can be a deterrent factor in HR Jobs. It would rather indicate a person's sensibilities and experience. Physical appearance is also not any indicator of a good HR Person. But yes, ideally its expected from them to be smart, energetic and having good interpersonal skills.
Hierarchy depends on organizational structures. It could be following for example-
HR Coordinator>HR Executive> Assistant Manager>Manager>Sr. Manager> Assistant Vice President> VP-HR

Dear Jasikash,
In my opinion in some industries like retail, marketing, finance and service industries they prefer good looking persons and young professionals. Appearance should not matter but some service industries giving preference to pleasing personality and good looking persons.
Hierarchy of designations depends upon the organization.
But general structure can be: Associate / Assistant / Jr. Officer - Executive / Officer - Sr. Executive / Sr. Officer - Asst. Manager - Dy. Manager - Sr. Manager - AGM /Dy. GM -General Manager - AVP-VP-Sr.VP - Director

Hi. There have been studies conducted on this issue and there exists a clear link between looks, appearance and the person's relative success. That is, broadly speaking, a better looking individual gets more pay, better job, more raise, even more friends and more suitors. A recent article in ToI said that English speaking individuals get 10-30% more salaries (In India); as compared to the people who have the same profile but not-so-good english language skills.
So it will be wrong to say that such external factors don't matter. Generally also, good looking people attract more attention than the rest.

friends
I would like to know why the question is restricted to "career in HR" only?

You are quite right. Appearances do matter in personal and professional sphere

Dear Member

In my view :-

There is no denying the fact that gender and appearance does play a role in the selection process of the candidate. As far as influence of appearance and gender in HR is concern it is more to do with the organisation policy, average age/population of the organisation and the mindset of the recruiting person. A younger organisation like call centers would prefer a younger and smart HR professional whereas a more mature organisation like a manufacturing set-up would prefer a middle aged person. In a long run it is only the quality of the candidate that will determine the growth of a professional.

On the aspect of structure or hierarchy , there is no defined hierarchy. The hierarchy will be based on the type of the organisation and the strength (headcount) of the organisation. For example if the organisation is a manufacturing setup with maybe 100 odd employees then there would not be chain of HR members , maybe an assistant and a manager who would be reporting to Operations head. On the other hand if it is a service industry with a similar headcount then you may have 4/5 people in HR at various levels of Hierarchy.

Regards

Preetam Deshpande

well,age and physical appearance do matter atleast in the initial stages of career.when once one reaches a pinnacle of career and establish and carve a niche of oneself age does not matter and consequent physical appearance lso do not matter much. we can find umpteen examples of such women in the corporate world who have reached heights

Yes, appearance (Grooming) do matter in a professional life.
Ramya