By Phil Wilson, CHRP, SHRP
leadership matters
Some Advice on
Starting an HR Career
On June 7, scores of Certified Human Resources
Professional (CHRP) candidate hopefuls will be sitting
down to write the National Knowledge Exam – a crucial
first step in earning the CHRP designation.
These days, the CHRP is becoming “table stakes” to entering
the human resources profession. In fact, according to last year’s
PayScale survey (Fuel for HR Careers), among employers listing
jobs on the Hire Authority HR job board, demand for the CHRP
has jumped 94 per cent between 2007 and 2013. Seventy per cent
of HR jobs now require the designation.
Earning the CHRP will get your foot in the door, but it’s what
you do once you land that first HR job that will set you apart.
A very important decision is to determine whether there’s any
particular area of human resources you want to specialize in. Once
you attain an entry-level position – whether it is in recruiting,
compensation, employee relations, payroll, etc. – it is critical to
learn that discipline in depth and seek out client interactions to
help you gain a better understanding into how the role fulfills cli-ent
needs.
Once you have gained three or four different experiences in var-ious
HR disciplines, it will help you decide if you would prefer to
become a specialist in an area that you are passionate about or if
you would prefer to become a generalist. You can have a great ca-reer
with either choice.
Whether you choose to specialize or be a generalist, how far you
go will depend on how well you know the business you’re in.
In 2010, the Human Resources Professionals Association
(HRPA) and Knightsbridge Human Capital partnered on The
Role and Future of HR: The CEO’s Perspective, a whitepaper ex-amining
how Canadian chief executives perceive the role of senior
HR executives.
While all agreed that senior HR executives are valued contrib-utors
and trusted advisors on equal footing with executives from
other business areas, CEOs also expressed how important it is for
the senior HR executive to have a thorough understanding of the
business. As one CEO said, “The senior HR executive needs to
be a business person first and an HR leader second.”
I agree: a good HR professional’s job is to maximize the effec-tiveness
of people to deliver results, and to do that you need to be
fully integrated with the business you support – and that requires
full understanding of how the organization generates revenue as
well as its challenges, opportunities and competitors.
Photo by Ollyy / Shutterstock
A GOOD HR PROFESSIONAL’S
JOB IS TO MAXIMIZE THE
EFFECTIVENESS OF PEOPLE
TO DELIVER RESULTS, AND
TO DO THAT YOU NEED TO BE
FULLY INTEGRATED WITH THE
BUSINESS YOU SUPPORT.
Learn as much as you can about the business, learn the jar-gon,
understand the acronyms, seek out mentors and build your
network – it will all be critical to your success and lead you to a ful-filling
and rewarding career.
There are no ideal or mapped out paths from a career perspec-tive.
Be open to learning all that you can about the business and
the human resources profession.
And to those of you writing your NKE in June, I wish you the
very best on your exam and in your career. ■
Phil Wilson, CHRP, SHRP is chair of the Human Resources
Professionals Association (HRPA).
8 ❚ MAY/JUNE 2014 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL