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Human Resources is a promising career path to choose. It has many different subfields one can enter and offers a good level of job satisfaction.
However, when one chooses to take the HR route they need to have they're end goal in mind. Where do they want to end up?
Do they want to manage their own firm or work at a corporate firm? These are good questions to ask. But if you're in HR already and you want to further your career, here are some ways you can do it.
Tips to improve your career in HR
1. Choose a specialty
Specialising is a good start to improving your career. Those who specialise make themselves stand out to their employees.
You could study further in a few different aspects of HR, giving you the edge over other employees and making you invaluable to the firm or company you're working for.
Here are a few areas that you can specialise in:
- Payroll management
- Regulatory adherence
- Employee engagement
- Talent acquisition
- Employee benefits
- Promoting diversity and inclusion
- Absence management
2. Create a list of goals
Setting goals is an effective way of organising your workload and prioritising actions and tasks to complete your goals. An effective goal-setting method is using SMART goals. As someone in HR, you've most likely heard of them or even suggested them to someone else.
But here's a recap:
- Specific: You need to clearly define what your goals are so you can effectively work out what actions are needed to reach them
- Measurable: Goals also need to be measurable. Otherwise, how will you know whether you've reached them or not
- Achievable: Make your goals realistic and achievable. If they aren't, you'll have difficulty achieving them.
- Relevant: The goals need to be relevant to your work. So in this case, they need to be relevant to improving your HR career
- Time-Bound: You need to stick a timeline on it. This will give you the motivation to work towards completing that goal by the due date
3. Contribute in a positive way
HR usually forms a part of a larger team in a company. One way to further your HR career is to make a positive impact on this team by providing good, valuable input.
Contributing to the team in a positive way by making suggestions, adding constructively to discussions and bringing solutions to issues will make you stand out to your employers and be appreciated by your colleagues.
Adding to this, your teammates might appreciate your willingness to work and trust you with more. The same goes for your superiors. As you build their trust they might delegate more responsibility to you which could result in a raise somewhere down the line.
4. Build a professional network
Building a network of people around you that's organised around personal development and mentorship is also an effective way of improving your HR career.
Not only does this give you the opportunity to learn from others who have experience in the HR field, but you also build valuable relationships with others who have been in the game for a long time.
This gets your name out there and could possibly benefit you in the long run with career advancement opportunities. The best way to start building this network is by finding your first mentor.
5. Seek new opportunities
Doing this might be different for everyone, but seeking new opportunities, whether in your current job or in another sub-field of HR, might be a good step forward for you. Diving into new opportunities requires you to develop new skills to manage them.
These skills add to your value as an employee and could help you succeed in the HR industry more. In addition, taking on some new work and gaining that experience can also benefit you later on if you're looking for more work in HR. The extra experience on your resume would make it look more appealing to potential employers.
6. Focus on your own path
It's easy to get sidetracked by the successes or failures of other people. While you can learn from what they do, that's their life and the circumstances are often unique to them. Trying to copy and paste that lifestyle isn't always going to be beneficial for you.
Rather, focus on your life, your responsibilities and what you can do to improve in your career path. You'll find that your career path while in the same field might develop in a completely different way from that of your coworkers.
7. Strive for more
Being ambitious is good. Employers like to know that they're staff want to succeed, develop and grow. Set robust goals and work hard to achieve them. But be careful that your striving doesn't come off arrogantly, rude, or even greedy.
Here's a good example of how to do this. Map out what's needed to get the role of Human Resources Manager, then, aspire to attain that position of VP of HR within a designated timeframe. Working hard toward a goal is a good indicator to employers of your work ethic and ability.
8. Increase your knowledge
This tip applies to more than just improving your HR career, it's a valuable principle to follow throughout your life. Continually learning is one way to always stay a step ahead of everyone else. Adding to your knowledge keeps you sharp, witty, and effective in the workplace.
So, look for different ways to improve your knowledge of HR, that way, you'll be able to deal with issues more effectively and increase the productivity of your work making you more valuable to your organisation.
Here are a few ways to increase your knowledge:
- Read books written by HR experts.
- Have chats with your bosses to learn more about HR.
- Look up information online to study HR topics.
- Take a course specifically about human resources.
- Ask your mentor if they can teach you anything new about HR.
- Consider studying further. Like doing a graduate certificate in HR management
Final thoughts
When it comes to improving your HR career, remember that effort equals results. Apply a few of the tips above and over time you should see the results you're looking for.
Also, adapt these tips to suit your situation if need be. Enjoy!