HR Career Growth: How to Move Up the Human Resources Ladder

In past decades, many people’s careers simply followed the hierarchical structure of a single organization they worked for. Today, employees inside and outside of HR tend to follow a more eclectic path at multiple organizations — and often benefit from doing so. 

In this article, we give you tips on how to grow your career as an HR professional in our current business environment.

The Modern Career Path For HR Professionals

The business environment can change rapidly. HR professionals who have a diverse set of skills and experience with multiple types of organizations often have an edge.

Purposefully taking jobs that require you to learn new skills helps you future-proof your career. With each job you take, you gain a new set of experiences and develop your knowledge. Those diverse experiences will open up more opportunities for you down the road, as different companies might require different competencies and portfolios for the same type of role.

How to Move Up the Human Resources Ladder

1. Build General HR Competencies

Most HR roles use at least a few of the same general skills. You will definitely want to get good at these things, especially in the early stages of your career:

• People skills — nearly all HR roles require you to facilitate communication between management and employees and promote an engaged workforce.
• Technology skills — human resources information systems (HRISes) aren’t going away any time soon, and it’s good to be comfortable with multiple systems.
• Data literacy — understanding and communicating workforce data is a crucial part of many HR roles.
• Business acumen — employers will be impressed if you can think of and launch initiatives that align HR activities with the business’s broader strategy or external trends in the workforce.

In addition to these general skills, you will want to learn about many different roles within human resources. A great way to gain exposure is to shadow other members of your own or another team. Maybe you can ask someone from the finance team to teach you how to process payroll or work together with a coworker to come up with an employee engagement initiative.

2. Choose a Specialty (Or Several)

This might seem like it contradicts the previous point, but specializing can be helpful, too. Ideally, you want to know something about many aspects of HR while also having deep knowledge in a specialty area, such as:

• Training and development
• Recruitment
• Compensations and benefits management
• Employee relations
• Human resources management

Spend some time researching your dream job. Even if you’re thinking of a high-level role that covers all aspects of HR, you might still need to specialize so you can get a mid-level job on your way to the C-suite. Once you have a goal, you can plan a job progression to help you gain the skills and background you need. 

If you’re not sure where you want to end up, try browsing HR job listings to see if anything sounds interesting. Look for skills that pop up in a lot of different listings and try to develop those for now.

3. Get Certifications

Certifications show employers your skills and commitment to your profession. They may be more likely to hire candidates with certifications such as an SHRM-CP (Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional) or HRCI (Human Resources Certification Institute) designation. 

These organizations offer several different certifications based on your experience level. You can check job listings to see what certifications are in demand with employers hiring for positions you desire.

For some roles, it might make sense to pursue higher education, such as an MBA program. Some companies have benefit programs that help employees pay for their education, so if you’re interested in getting a degree, you might want to look for an employer that offers this type of benefit.

4. Grow Your Network

Since you will likely want to accept different jobs with different companies in the future, it’s important to have a strong network. Your network can alert you to job opportunities before others know about them and put in a good word for you when you apply.

There are many ways to build a network today, especially with online communities. You can reach out to other HR employees on LinkedIn when you have questions about how other professionals approach an issue and comment on other people’s posts. If you read an interesting article by an HR professional, you can email the author. 

You can also build connections in person. Local meetups and in-person conferences are a good way to meet other professionals, both in and outside of HR. Mentoring newer employees in your current workplace can also be a form of networking.

Looking For Your Next HR Role?

LG Resources is a recruiting and staffing firm that connects talented HR professionals and career starters with employers. Apply for your next HR opportunity today with LG Resources.