Best preparation for a career in HRM | Human resource services

Increasing competition, accelerating change and relentless restructuring have made career planning and development critical for both organizations and employees. Effective career planning is essential for employees if they are to fully achieve their career objectives. Organizations, in turn, must realize a better match between employee career aspirations and job opportunities to obtain the supply of qualified human resources needed to achieve strategic organizational objectives.

A career in HRM provides opportunities for both generalists and specialists. Remuneration for HRM personnel is improving but has generally lagged behind that for other functions. Working conditions are generally good. Increasingly employers are demanding tertiary qualifications for positions in HRM. It is also desirable to have some experience in line management before entering a HRM position.

Education and experience are the best preparation for a career in human resource management. It is apparent that, while there are some people working in HRM without academic qualifications, the increasing demands by employers for professional competence and know how make tertiary education a must. Although Australian practitioners have historically placed greater emphasis on practical experience, a clear preference for academic qualifications is emerging with about 10 per cent of HR practitioners now having post-graduate qualifications.

A question remains as to what tertiary qualifications are best for a career in HRM. There is no evidence to suggest that specialist undergraduate courses in HRM better prepare aspiring HR practitioners for their career than do other intellectually demanding courses of study. In one survey of senior HR managers, less than one third believed that specialist HR courses provided the best preparation for a career in HRM. Criticisms are also made that behavioral science backgrounds teach HR professionals to be reactive and result in a glaring ignorance of other aspects of the business.

Such deficiencies explain in part why HR managers are the least likely to become chief executive officers (CEOs). Most CEOs come from sales and marketing, finance and manufacturing and operations. HRM as a source does not rate a mention. There is also some evidence to suggest that Australian HR managers coming directly out of personnel positions earn considerably less than those coming from line or general management positions.

Probably the most beneficial entry to HRM is from a line management function. This enables the individual to better understand the problems faced by line managers and to appreciate the importance of bottom line impact. In fact, one practitioner advises that the person who joins a personnel function from school should move into other career posts and return to personnel only if that is the best place for him or her.

The significance is that young professionals working upward in the human resources field are systematically trained, by a frequent and continuous series of experiences to be reactive and rule oriented. As a consequence, too many HR practitioners prefer to be active in personnel reporting in lieu of making profitable contributions to the business. Obviously, such people are not seen as potential CEOs or given much status by their management peers To be successful, HR professionals must make the effort to become business people who happen to work in HR, rather than HR people who happen to find themselves in a business.

Credit: Human Resource Management Articles

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Abey Francis, a full time blogger engaged in the areas of management and technology. Author and Moderator of famous business management blog Management Articles and Business case Studies

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