Why can't I get the HR job I want?
As part of our career counselling and outplacement service, we are repeatedly asked the same question from our HR professionals. Namely, "what do I have to do or develop to get the job that I want"? Also on this theme, is the frustration we hear from many professionals when they're searching for their next HR role - "why won't these employer companies consider for me for this HR executive job"?
There is no easy "one fit" answer, but certainly there's been consistency to the advice that we continue to share beyond specific leadership capabilities and technical knowledge, or resume and interview presentation refinement or mindset for actually being ready to present yourself as the solution to an employer’s problems.
1. Commerciality for HR professionals.
We are constantly referencing this in our conference presentations, blogs and daily discussions. As a HR leader, you'd better have this developed to an advanced level. And be ready to prove it with quantifiable results from your initiatives and interventions. Any formal financial qualifications, (even if only on the basics) will stand you in good stead across the balance of your career.
2. Clarity for your unique selling proposition (USP) within HR.
Every HR person tells us that they're strong for relationship building, business alignment, coaching, strategic thinking, change & project management, etc, etc. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard exactly the same platitudes......and if every HR person had accomplished these things, then Business Leaders around the world wouldn’t still be complaining about lack of HR leadership, support and service delivery! If you can figure out and prove what makes you truly unique compared to your network, and to your global peers, you'll stand out from the crowd.
3. Genuine international experience for HR roles.
Companies are spreading their operations over various countries across the world. Business executive teams are increasingly made up of multinational professionals. They expect their HR leaders to have similar breadths of global or at least regional market experience. Working from the USA and supporting 1 employee in Mexico and 2 employees in Canada does not make for an international expert. Working from the UK and supporting 3 employees in Ireland and 5 in Sweden isn't convincing evidence of your European markets expertise. Only ever having supported employees of your own nationality within your home country with zero options to undertake international travel or to relocate can be career limiting.
4. Bi/multi lingual skills as a HR leader.
Yes, English is the first language for many multinational companies. But when faced with 2 similarly impressive professional histories, employers are likely to opt for the person who gives more "bang for the buck". With a chance to save on translation fees, and to speak directly to offshore local leaders and workforces in that local language - yes please!
5. Tenure for HR work history.
If you've changed jobs every 18-24 months, regardless of your justifiable reasons for doing so, there will come a time where hiring execs will regard you as a "job hopper" and flight risk. They won't care about the breadth of experience and knowledge you've collected. They probably won't give you the chance to explain/justify the moves, voluntary or involuntary. The fact remains that most employers remain conservative on tenure.
6. Relationships for HR leaders.
Some HR professionals advance their careers through hard and smart work, developing advanced technical skills and business principles, and generally being thoroughly good at what they do. Others advance by happening to be at the right place at the right time, being prepared to go out on a limb and take risks, being more politically astute and better at marketing themselves, and various combinations of these. Yet others, advance after leaving a trail of bodies in their wake - I am referencing the bullies, the dictators, the misguided power set who threaten both internal and external stakeholders; who absolutely exist within the HR profession. If you don’t have a network of staff, business leaders and vendors who would vouch for you; at some point and especially in markets where there are plenty of talent choices, you will have limited career choices.
7. Doors opening, or closing on HR career choices.
Consider the link between your employment choices and your marketability. It's an exciting challenge to join that super cool sounding start up, or to take on the challenge of being a freelance consultant, or to help the greater good by working for that charity or NGO, or to accumulate cash in that region where salary and benefits packages are high and taxes are zero. But these kinds of detours, whilst interesting and attractive to you at the time, could make you a less attractive candidate to employers later on. Many hiring leaders in the private and public sectors trend to being sceptical when a HR leader has a history of roles that (on paper) appear to be unplanned; or who has been working in sectors/companies that aren't recognised for dynamic pace and commercial innovation; or who is returning from time in a country that is known for poor quality HR and where the "sub standard" and "leftover" professionals inevitably wind up. In instances where there's an oversupply of high quality job seekers, your earlier "career adventure choices" may put you at a distinct disadvantage.
8. There's more competition at the top of the HR tree.
We've got a simple graphic to explain this if you're visually minded! There are thousands of new entrants into the HR profession annually, and plenty of junior level jobs to be filled. Quite naturally, the majority of these people want to progress their careers. Even when we allow for some of those people to leave the talent pool to manage freelance consulting careers, family commitments, or simply leave the HR profession, there's still an exceptionally large number of people wishing to move up in seniority. But the typical job progression hierarchy has a rapidly decreasing number of senior jobs, which means large numbers of people competing for fewer and fewer possible roles. It stands to reason then, that a significant percentage of would-be leaders, just won't have the executive HR opportunities they desire, because the equivalent number of jobs simply don’t exist.
9. There is usually a hidden hiring criteria for HR recruitment.
Fear of discrimination accusations mean the job you see advertised, versus what the hiring executives really want, is frequently different. Companies wishing to add gender or racial diversity in their executive ranks. Companies who have had poor experience with contractors and now have low risk appetite for those types of work histories. Companies who have a wish-list of things that would be too much of a deterrent when they go out to the job market, but who can then apply these criteria if they’re getting the luxury of talent choices. Hiring leaders who really don’t want someone who is going to be more experienced than them or conversely, who isn’t a short term natural successor with a background that would be palatable to the C-suite. And you can take our word for it, ageism is absolutely alive and well for HR hiring, although no one is going to admit to practicing it.
10. We reap what we sow.
Within all areas of the HR profession, leaders preach long and loud about transferable skills, hiring for development potential, and the need for diversity and inclusion. However. When it comes to hiring for their own functional area of HR, those principles are rarely applied. Certainly some roles require deep technical and/or legislative expertise that genuinely limits the candidate profiles that can be considered. But ageism, sexism, racism, and discrimination because of gender, sexuality, academics, and more, is rife within HR. And that’s even before HR leaders apply industry sector experience, company brand and size preferences. There is an irony that many of the HR leaders struggling to find work and bemoaning the prejudices being applied to them, are guilty of having applied similar restrictions to others in the hires they've effected in the past.....
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About the Author
Leanne Morris is well known as a both an outspoken advocate and critic of the HR profession. With long standing networks across 94 countries in all specialist areas of the function, and a multi- continent work history, she is a sought after subject matter expert on international HR hiring trends and HR hiring best practice.