Do you believe in life after HR?This is a very interesting topic raised earlier this week by @bettybblonde on Twitter, who originally asked the following question: "What do people do 'after HR'? How many people manage full career changes into something new?"
I'm very interested to find out how this question resonates with XpertHR's readership.
What are your views on where HR professionals go if they choose to leave the profession? Are you considering taking such a leap yourself? Or have you already left HR, or do you know someone who has?
Sticking with HR?
Interestingly, our recent XpertHR benchmarking survey on HR careers suggests that the majority of UK HR professionals well be inclined to stick with HR:
- Three-fifths would choose HR again, if they could have their career over.
- And - as the chart below shows - only one in 10 says they are "not at all confident" that "there will be good job prospects for HR professionals in future years" (XpertHR Benchmarking subscription required).
I'd love to hear from you if you have an opinion on or even direct experience of this topic (and anonymous responses are of course entirely acceptable, if you'd prefer). Please get in touch by leaving a comment in the box below, or contact me via Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.
My thanks to @bettybblonde for her kind permission to share this question with XpertHR's readers.
UPDATE 1 (Friday 3 February 2012): From HR Director to tattoo artist?
We have our first example of a possible future career option for HR professionals: How does the transition from HR director to tattoo artist sound?In an almost spooky example of serendipity, within minutes of my publishing this post to the XpertHR blog, leading India-based HR blogger @GautamGhosh posted the following message on Twitter report of one possible career transition from HR (entirely coincidentally, I might add):
Wow! Dell's HR Director in Bangalore Kayomarz Shroff has quit to become a fulltime tattoo artist! (according to his FB update!)@GautamGhosh has also very kindly tweeted links to images of Kayomarz Shroff's Facebook announcement, and to examples of his handiwork as a tattoo artist. Here's the relevant tweet from @GautamGhosh:
Here's his announcement and updated work on FB :)My thanks to @GautamGhosh for his very kind permission in allowing me to share these tweets here.
More on HR Careers:
- Would you choose HR again?, CIPD qualifications: Essential for getting ahead in HR in 2012? and Are you an HR lifer? Recent posts discussing issues around HR careers from the XpertHR Employment Intelligence blog.
- HR Careers 2011/2012 XpertHR Benchmarking subscribers can access the complete results data from this survey.
- Benchmarking HR careers in 2011/2012 Read more about the key findings from this survey.
- HR careers survey 2011: Qualifications versus business experience Read XpertHR's detailed analysis of the survey findings.
- Six ways to find the benchmarking data you need How to find exactly the data you need from XpertHR Benchmarking.
Comments
Here we reproduce the comments on this post submitted by readers of XpertHR Employment Intelligence:
A tattoo artist sounds way more exciting than your average HR role! I left the profession after a textbook 10 years and the prospect of going on to a much bigger international role. Why did i leave? Because I felt frustrated that no one really 'got' the people agenda. Higher up the corporate food chain i went, the more lip service i found being paid to it and the more distance was being put between the people and the leadership. Perhaps it was a sign of things to come eh?!
I figured that either I was wrong and was living in some kind of unrealistic bubble or that they were wrong and i just needed to find the right place/platform. And I never looked back. It was, and has been, a crazy journey. The key thing was getting commercial experience which I think iss essential for HR folk. It doesn't matter how 'close to the business' you are, there is no substitute for commercial/operational responsibility. It is no co-incidence that some of the best HR leaders have backgrounds from Ford and Mars, both places where you couldn't avoid commercial exposure in your HR apprenticeship. There are also many in those organisations who entered as an HR grad, but went on to be commercial business leaders.
And today? Well commercial experience hasn't changed my mind one jot. In fact it has validated and vindicated my views. The fact that this months HBR has dedicated a huge amount of column inches to Happiness as a business model speaks volumes.
We have exhausted every other avenue to exploit performance. The financial directors have had their day. People, and the genuine engagement thereof, including their hearts and minds, as peers, is the only place left to go. Sadly, we have a global leadership cadre that hasnt got a clue where to start.
Well done to @Bettybblonde for asking the question in the first place!
Posted by Gareth Jones | February 3, 2012 9:19 AM
Excellent points Gareth. It's true that not many see HR as 'all about people', but purely as a reactive function that stops people rocking the boat, or costing the business money in claims, sickness time etc. Some also see it as the dumping ground for any issue they cannot or are unwilling to handle- I have actually heard the expression "Well if it involves people, it's down to HR, isn't it?"
I always work for HR to be seen as proactive and very much a commercial part of the business rather than purely cultural. HR would always be my choice, even if I did get here by happy accident!
Posted by Niki Rosenbaum | February 3, 2012 9:49 AM
I'd support Gareth's comments. I used to work for a company where the Chief Executive took the view that good HR people should be moved into different areas of management after a few years. My predecessor was given charge of one of the operational divisions and immediately started implementing some employee engagement initiatives that were later adopted in other areas of the company.
It doesn't just apply to the "commercial" experience either. Many years ago I worked in a local authority and the most satisfaction I got was working as part of the team that were carrying out service changes to bin collection and street cleansing. Not glamorous but needed a whole range of financial and customer service as well as HR skills
Posted by Simon Jones | February 3, 2012 9:57 AM
Thank you one and all for the comments, and I'm really enjoying the way this discussion is shaping up!
@Gareth Thank you for such a great comment, drawing so heavily on your own experience. I really like this point from your comment: "People, and the genuine engagement thereof, including their hearts and minds, as peers, is the only place left to go. Sadly, we have a global leadership cadre that hasnt got a clue where to start." I'm not sure that we're likely to see the end of financial director roles any time soon, though!
@Niki I suspect your point about HR being perceived as "the dumping ground for any issue they cannot or are unwilling to handle" will ring a bell with quite a lot of people in the profession - more's the pity! I'm intrigued by your point about finding your way into HR "by happy accident." Is this something you might be able to share more about here, please?
@Simon That's very interesting about the strategy adopted at your former organisation, "that good HR people should be moved into different areas of management after a few years." How successful do you think this strategy was? Also interesting to hear about the "service changes to bin collection and street cleansing." For some reason, this reminds me of Kevin J Ball's playful observation about "Transcendental Coaching or some such for refuse workers"!
Posted by Michael Carty
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