Become a Successful HR Professional, Think Big
by Marlene Piturro, PhDD

Be a big picture thinker, not a staff person pushing paper, if you want a fast-track HR career, says Bob Nelson, president of Nelson Motivation, Inc. (San Diego) and author of people management books including his most recent 1001 Ways to Take Initiative at Work (Workman Publishing), says: "Be relevant to the needs of the business. Be at the table with other decision-makers, and gear your professional activities to bottom line success."

Managing your HR career involves keeping on top of key trends shaping the HR landscape as identified by top professional colleagues. A survey of 50 global HR leaders recently released by the International Institute of Human Resources (I.I.H.R.) indicates just how diverse and demanding an HR career can be. The top five core competencies identified by survey respondents for the successful HR professional were:

• Change management - the ability to deal with uncertainty and change
• Maturity - the stability of performance under pressure
• Openness - accepting new ideas and practices
• Flexibility - adaptability
• Contextual thinking - seeing the big picture within a context of cognitive complexity. ~
• That's great news for HR folks, who tend to be people-oriented and to enjoy learning new things in a
• variety of situations. The key to successful career management, then, is making sure that you keep your skills at the cutting edge, and that you put them to good use as an advocate of programs that support the development of your company and its people.

Leaving the comfort zone

The trick for an HR person is to avoid getting in too comfortable a role at work. That means adding skills and meeting challenges that push your limits. For example, the I.I.H.R. survey found that 43% of top HR leaders had one or more overseas assignments, traveled 20% of the time. Seventeen percent spoke three or more languages.

You can use the Internet, too, to stretch your skills. "If hiring's a part of your job you should have cutting edge Internet recruiting skills," says Nelson. That means investing time in learning how to navigate the web, and evaluating which search engines and job boards are most relevant to matching your work force requirements to job seekers. Going a step beyond that you might study your firm's web site, decide that adding an eye-catching 'jobs' button would attract candidates, then work with a web designer to implement the change. ~

There are many other projects that can be important steps in an HR career. For instance in the mid 80's I helped create one of the earliest work-at-home career programs for bankers and a dual career ladder for stellar performers who wanted to move back and forth between managerial and technical tracks.

Today's issues are equally compelling. The war for talent, developing a culturally sensitive work force, globalization, using the Internet's impact on compensation effectively, maintaining a connection between employees who travel frequently and their teammates, and work/family balance are some of the most vital and interesting. Devising a creative solution to any one of them, then selling it to colleagues and senior management will give any HR career a boost.

You don't have to tackle any one of these issues all at once or by yourself. Once you find an interesting and feasible project that adds to the company's bottom line, consider it a long-term step-by-step project. As you flesh out the plan, look to your HR colleagues and line managers to build support for the program. This increases your visibility, brings you closer to the firm's decision-makers, and makes for an interesting and challenging HR career.

Marlene Piturro,PhD, MBA is an organizational consultant and business writer based in Hastings-on-Hudson.