Enhance Your Career Prospects in HR Management

If you find yourself working in the HR industry, you probably know that the opportunities for advancement in this field are vast. You might start out your Human Resources career as a Junior HR Assistant, but by gaining relevant experience, developing new skills, and building the right relationships, you should know that you can move into a more senior position quite quickly.

In order to recognise, and grasp, opportunities when they present themselves to you, you need to be prepared. Don’t be left behind — have a look at the ways in which you can enhance your career prospects in Human Resources, and ensure that you are prepared for making your next move when the time comes:

1. Expand your knowledge

Previously, HR professionals were mostly required to perform administrative tasks and to work with employee-related matters such as hiring processes, employee benefit queries, and staff development opportunities,as well as to serve as a channel of communication between management and lower-level staff.

Today, the duties of an HR professional have grown to incorporate much more than those mentioned above. Many HR professionals now work closely with both managers and lower-level staff; and managers often ask them to contribute to strategic planning sessions to provide valuable insight regarding how changes in company structure or strategy could influence individuals on all levels. Other duties they are now required to perform may include:

• Improving staff morale and employee satisfaction
• Ensuring that working conditions promote employee productivity
• Assisting top management in finding ways to increase organisational profitability and performance
• Developing and implementing company policies

As you can see, HR professionals are required to fulfil a diverse range of tasks within an organisation, and the best way to improve your ability to perform these tasks is to keep learning. The more you know, the more your credibility will improve, and the more likely you will be to be considered for a promotion or salary increase.

Click here to find out how you can keep on learning with a part-time HR management course from Oxbridge Academy.

2. Get back to basics – improve your administrative skills

Most of your responsibilities as an HR professional will still be administrative in nature. These tasks aren’t difficult to perform, but there are a number of ways in which you can learn how to perform them more effectively and efficiently.

One way you can achieve this is by enrolling for a skills development course that focuses on administrative task management. Such a course will teach you how to excel at admin, won’t cost you an arm and a leg, and will be great to list on your CV.

3. Network, network, network!

Networking is a popular buzzword in the HR industry these days. As an HR professional, you are required to have excellent interpersonal skills and to be an expert at maintaining relationships with staff, managers, customers, and other stakeholders.

A good place to start when establishing your professional networks is to decide what factors would make a good network connection. Will the person be able to provide you with valuable insights into the industry that you work in? Is he or she well-connected with other industry professionals?Do you have anything to offer this person in return?

Networking is all about building mutually beneficial relationships with others — help someone else, and they might just be able to help you advance your HR career in some way in the future.

4. Have a positive attitude

Simple things like greeting people with a smile, having an open-door policy, taking an interest in your colleagues’ personal lives (without invading their privacy), and having a good work ethic will be sure to show others that you have a positive attitude, and that you are a great person to work with.

If people enjoy working with you, there’s a good chance that they will be willing to help create the platform for you to advance your career in the right direction.

Ready to enhance your career prospects in the HR industry? Click here to find out how you can build your knowledge and develop your HR skills on a part-time basis from home with Oxbridge Academy.

Already qualified and looking for work in this field? Apply for one of the latest HR jobs on Job Mail.