92 Best HR Quotes to Motivate Employees in 2023

You found our list of the best HR quotes.

HR quotes are phrases about managing and motivating employees effectively. These sayings often come from influential figures and HR thought leaders. The purpose of these quotes is to give human resource professionals the motivation and mindset to perform effectively.

These sayings are similar to daily work quotes, hard work quotes, quotes on job satisfaction, and team building quotes.

This list includes:

• funny hr quotes
• motivational hr quotes
• quotes on human capital
• recruitment quotes
• inspirational human resources quote
• quotes about empathy
• people skills quotes
• quotes about communicating
• company culture quotes

Here we go!

Funny hr quotes

1. “The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.” — Robert Frost
2. “I will always choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” — Bill Gates
3. “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” — Rita Mae Brown
4. “The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.​” — Stanley J. Randall
5. “When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.” — Henry J. Kaiser
6. “Be like a postage stamp. Stick to a thing till you get there.” — Josh Billings

Motivational hr quotes

7. “Human resources are like natural resources; they’re often buried deep. You have to go looking for them; they’re not just lying around on the surface.” — Ken Robinson
8. “The way you ask for criticism and react when you get it goes a long way toward building trust—or destroying it.” ― Kim Malone Scott
9. “It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
10. “A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did well under pressure.” — Henry Kissenger
11. “Treat employees like they make a difference and they will.” — Jim Goodnight
12. “Before you are a leader, success is about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is about growing others.” — Jack Welch
13. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
14. “You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.” — Sam Rayburn
15. “We rise by lifting others.” — Robert Ingersoll
16. “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands– one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” — Audrey Hepburn
17. “You cannot mandate productivity; you must provide the tools to let people become their best.” — Steve Jobs

Quotes on human capital

18. “Where people aren’t having fun, they seldom produce good work.” — David Ogilvy
19. “The most important thing that we entrepreneurs have is our human capital. If we exhaust it, we make bad decisions.” — Arianna Huffington
20. “In the long run, your human capital is your main base of competition. Your leading indicator of where you’re going to be 20 years from now is how well you’re doing in your education system.” — Bill Gates
21. “When people are your greatest asset, like at Deloitte, investments in human capital should be considered in the same way other companies might invest significantly in product R&D.” — Cathy Engelbert
22. “It’s about getting the best people, retaining them, nurturing a creative environment & helping to find a way to innovate.” — Marissa Mayer
23. “Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to one another. And, when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” — Daniel Pink
24. “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” — Jim Collins

Recruitment quotes

25. “If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood, sweat, and tears.” — Simon Sinek
26. “I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
27. “Nothing we do is more important than hiring people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not strategies.” — Lawrence Bossidy
28. “Recruitment IS marketing. If you’re a recruiter nowadays and you don’t see yourself as a marketer, you’re in the wrong profession.” — Matthew Jeffrey
29. “Recruiting talent is no different than any other challenge a startup faces. It’s all about selling.” — Vivek Wadhwa
30. “True leadership isn’t about having an idea. It’s about having an idea and recruiting other people to execute on this vision.” — Leila Janah
31. “Managers live and die by their recruitment.” — Paul Scholes
32. “Time spent on hiring is time well spent.” — Robert Half
33. “I look for two things when I hire a new employee: ambition and humility. Without a proven track record of initiative and ambition, it’s likely the person becomes a drain rather than a contributor to the company — even the really smart, talented ones.” — Justin McLeod
34. “You need the right people with you, not the best people.” — Jack Ma
35. “Hire character. Train skill.” — Peter Schultz
36. “Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for the love of it.” — Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational human resources quotes

37. “Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” — Richard Branson
38. “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” — Rumi
39. “Make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, has a meaningful impact and is contributing to the good of society.” — Larry Page
40. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
41. “If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk.” — Benjamin Hooks
42. “High expectations are the key to everything.” — Sam Walton
43. “Human resources isn’t a thing we do, it’s the thing that runs our business.” — Steve Wynn
44. “Human resources are the most valuable assets the world has. They are all needed desperately.” — Eleanor Roosevelt Quote
45. “The body may be bought with a paycheck but the heart is earned with a purpose.” — Angela Lynne Craig
46. “Imagine how work would feel for you if, instead of people coming to you with anxiety and desperation, they shared their gratitude for making their lives easier and for being there when they most needed support.” — Laszlo Bock
47. “You don’t build a business – you build people – and then people build your business.” — Zig Ziglar

Quotes about empathy

48. “Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.” — Mohsin Hamid
49. “The greater good is achieved by not only telling people what they need to know, but also filling them with a sense of empathy and love.” — Abigail Disney
50. “Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change.” — Max Carver
51. “Resilience is, of course, necessary for a warrior. But a lack of empathy isn’t.” — Phil Klay
52. “Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place.” — Daniel H. Pink
53. “Empathy is simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of you’re not alone.” — Brene Brown
54. “I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.” Maya Angelou
55. “Compassion is empathy plus action.” ― Kim Malone Scott
56. “We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.” — Carl Rogers
57. “Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.” — Seneca
58. “Sometimes all a person wants is an empathetic ear; all he or she needs is to talk it out. Just offering a listening ear and an understanding heart for his or her suffering can be a big comfort.” ― Roy T. Bennett

Check out this list of ways to increase employee empathy.

People skills quotes

59. “Human beings are complicated, thorny, messy things. But those unquantifiable qualities are also what make magic happen.” ― Laszlo Bock
60. “Relationships, not power, drive you forward.” ― Kim Malone Scott
61. “The human has to come first, use technology to create a better bond with the human.” — Katrina Collier
62. “Getting along with others is the essence of getting ahead, success being linked with cooperation.” — William Feather
63. “The best way to get along with people is to not expect them to be like you.” — Joyce Meyers
64. “Not everyone thinks the way you think, knows the things you know, believes the things you believe, nor acts the way you would act. Remember this and you will go a long way in getting along with people.” — Arthur Forman
65. “Getting along well with other people is still the world’s most needed skill. With it…there is no limit to what a person can do. We need people, we need the cooperation of others. There is very little we can do alone.” — Earl Nightingale
66. “A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.” — Dwight D Eisenhower
67. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
68. “It’s a wild thing, that people have the ability to help each other by just relating to one another.” — Natasha Lyonne
69. “Your smile is your logo, your personality is your business card, how you leave others feeling after an experience with you becomes your trademark.” — Jay Danzie

Quotes about communicating

70. “People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.” — John C. Maxwell
71. “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” — George Bernard Shaw
72. “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.” — Andy Stanley
73. “If you believe people are fundamentally good and worthy of trust, you must be honest and transparent with them. That includes telling them when they are lagging behind in their performance. But having a mission-driven, purposeful workplace also requires that you approach people with sensitivity.” — Laszlo Bock
74. “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” ― Ernest Hemingway
75. “Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.” — Paul J. Meyer
76. “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” — Peter Drucker
77. “Communication works for those who work at it.” — John Powell
78. “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” — Tony Robbins
79. “Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.” — Jim Rohn
80. “Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to communicate unto you if your positions were reversed.” — Aaron Goldman
81. “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” — Epictetus

Company culture quotes

82. “Part of company culture is path-dependent – it’s the lessons you learn along the way.” — Jeff Bezos
83. “Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you’ve got.” —Peter Drucker
84. “Like people, when companies work to foster a culture of collaboration, communication becomes second nature.” — Doug McMillon
85. “Ultimately, what any company does when it is successful is merely a lagging indicator of its existing culture.” — Satya Nadella
86. “The company culture is about being human, being good to other people.” — Logan Green
87. “Every time I see high-trust cultures, I see a lessening of adversarialism.” — Stephen Covey
88. “Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with a passion.” — Brian Chesky
89. “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.” — Simon Sinek
90. “Corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the entrepreneur.” — David Cumming
91. “There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.” — Richard Branson
92. “Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees.” — Tony Hsieh

Conclusion

Human resource staff are leaders of company culture and employee engagement, however sometimes these folks need a pep talk themselves. Hearing HR quotes can help put professionals in the mindset to build an empowered, engaged, collaborative workforce.

For more tips, check out these guides to HR blogs, motivation books, HR skills, HR software and human resources books.

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