How this Diploma will help you get job ready in HRM?
Are you considering human resource management as a career choice? Wise decision!
Ask any CEO about the key to a successful business and you’ll probably hear a lot about people. No company can thrive without skilled, committed employees. But ensuring that a company finds the right people and gives them the training and support they need to succeed isn’t easy.
Working in HR is both challenging and rewarding. Before you pursue a program in HRM, it is important to consider what it’s like to work in the area, what the different roles are and benefits of doing so.
Overview of the Profession
Human resource management (HRM) is the process of employing people, training them, compensating them, developing policies relating to them, and developing strategies to retain them. At Learnful we describe it as getting the best out of people by keeping every member of the team engaged, productive, valued & respected. The role includes compensation, benefits, training and development, staffing, strategic HR management and other functions.
HRM has been transformed in importance over the last twenty years. In the past, HRM meant processing payroll, arranging company outings and making sure forms were filled out correctly—in other words, more of an administrative role rather than a strategic role crucial to the success of the organisation. In today’s volatile and complex business environment, human capital management is critically important to remain viable in the global marketplace. As a result, HR plays a pivotal role in organisations—because people are truly the only thing that differentiates one business from another.
Key Duties and Challenges
Numerous varied challenges confront HR professionals, who must be capable of handling situations that arise daily in the workplace. If you choose HR as your profession, patience and flexibility will be necessary as you interact with people of widely differing levels of experience, emotional intelligence, education, knowledge, skills and abilities. In the early stages of your career, you are likely to be involved in compliance-related work that demands close attention to detail, a strong knowledge of business and well-developed communication skills. At a more senior level, when setting policies and practices, you will be the ‘voice of management’ to the employees. You may also be called upon to act as an advocate for employees to management, to ensure their viewpoint is represented. Senior HR managers develop strategic HR plans and policies and collaborate with the wider management team to craft the company’s vision and mission.
Pathways to a Career in HR
Many people are eager to start a career in Human Resources. It is a fast-growing field with many lucrative opportunities for managers, HR generalists, and more. There is an unprecedented surge in demand for HR Professionals at the moment with companies needing advice on furlough, managing remote workers and post-COVID transition to the office.
Career analysts expect the number of Human Resources jobs to increase in the future, reflecting its ever-increasing importance to the business, and how HR professionals can shape and lead business. Average salaries across all HR role types are on the rise. As can be seen in the graphic below, this all makes Human Resources careers exceptional opportunities for people.
Diversity of backgrounds
Professionals frequently come to HR careers from diverse professional backgrounds. Some start in administration and then begin to focus on HR tasks. Degrees in areas such as business, sociology, and psychology traditionally transition very well to HR. Employers will sometimes hire professionals with business experience who are willing to further their education within HRM. For example, those with a strong math and science background might find employment in compensation or employee benefits. Teachers may become training and development specialists. Law-school graduates can often find positions as employee relations specialists. Professionals with strong oral and written communication skills are equally essential. Since HR professionals handle confidential information, and must be comfortable interacting with employees at all levels, companies often seek people who are mature and experienced professionals—especially for higher-level positions in HR.
Pursuing a Formal HR Education
Given the elevated importance of HRM within organisations gaining a formal HR qualification is becoming increasingly necessary to pursue a career in HRM. The requirement for certification was led by larger organisations in the bigger cities and today small to mid-sized organisations are following suit. Certified HR professionals make substantially more money than their uncertified peers, so certification is something you will want to consider as you progress in your HR career.
Benefits of a Human Resources Certificate
An increasingly popular way for professionals to move into human resources is through continued education, such as a HR professional certificate program. These ‘micro-credentials’ can offer a flexible and more targeted way to gain desired skills and knowledge over pursuing a second degree. The best programmes are ones that offer work experience, graded assignments or portfolio work as these can then be used as a great way to demonstrate to employers that you have the required skills. Learnful specialise in delivering Professional Diplomas and have over many years refined a process that provides students with not only the skills & certification but also the job search skills required to convince future employers and recruiters of their abilities.
While true for many careers, perfecting your job search skills is important, but all the more so with HRM given the diversity of backgrounds that people enter the profession from. Developing your job search skills can be critical to securing your first HRM position. Learnful offers students lifetime access to its career portal providing students with access to thousands of resources to help you impress employers, master critical business skills and build your HRM career.
Certificate courses can also help those already in human resources to upskill in knowledge they may be lacking and gain the latest HR methods, helping them advance into positions of more responsibility. The best online human resources certificate programs feature a robust, up-to-date curriculum; offer good value; and provide the knowledge, skills, and tools required to succeed in the human resources profession. Particular plaudits should be given to courses that provide graded assessments and portfolios. Learnful have identified in the diagram below what it believes are the key steps in a HRM career journey.
In conclusion
HRM is in-demand right now and comes at a very exciting time for the profession. The rise in popularity reflects its ever-increasing importance to the business. The pandemic has put a lot of strain on business, with HR often being asked to lead and make the difficult decisions.
HRM graduates from a wide variety of backgrounds can access opportunities in many industries, as all major organisations will have a HR department. Regardless of what your particular talents and interests are – from running quantitative analyses of salary trends to finding and recruiting talented new employees to making sure team members are thriving on the job – there’s likely to be a role in HR that’s right for you.
Candidates considering pursuing a HRM career should consider HRM programmes with certification, an up to date curriculum and graded assessments and portfolios. While applicable across most job types, the importance of ongoing support in the form of networking and career support is critically important to aspiring HRM professionals.