Hi there
I hope this is ok to ask on here. I have been asked about entry routes into HR for someone who’s currently a store manager in retail. They are keen to make a move over but stuck on how to take that step without having to start at entry level (not feasible due to salary difference at this stage in their career). Has anyone had any experience of this or able to share any organisations where they are good at offering within job training/CIPD qualification?
Many thanks.
...without having to start at entry level (not feasible due to salary difference at this stage in their career)
Lol. Nope.
OK, strictly speaking it's possible and, in fact, a close friend made the transition from retail store manager to a standalone HR Manager, but salary-wise he's at entry-level HR Advisor level, he had me to coach him on key points of employment law and interview technique, and the employer is in an area of extremely low unemployment for a very weird employer. Also, he's paying for his own CIPD learning.
But in the vast majority of cases, you don't get to make the transition without starting pretty much at the bottom. You might be able to skip over HR administrator/assistant if you either join a small enterprise that doesn't know any better, or a large business where you have a team to support and coach you. But the days of parallel moves from general management to HR management are over. The field of HR is too professionalised. It would be like asking to move to being a finance manager without an accountancy qualification. You can get into finance on the basis of experience, just not at that level.
The easiest way to do this in the past was in the same retail organisations. Most of the big retailers used to often hire store or regional HR bods (at least some of them) from store management teams. However I think they are doing it less now
When I was looking to do the same and move from retail management into HR I found my options were very limited, and salary expectations more so!
I self funded my level 5 HR management diploma and studied whilst working full time but even with that, and a decade of demonstrable HR experience within my career, I was getting overlooked for even entry level roles.
I am not saying it is impossible and I may have been hindered by location (although my job search was widened to include Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, and Dundee), I had to bite the bullet and start at the bottom.
The flip side of this is that I am so glad that I did. I thought I could easily slot into a advisor role given my management experience but its a very different operating environment and whilst retail gave me the fundamentals, I quickly found out that the things I didn't know were significant.
Probably not the advice you want to hear but after just over a year I have learnt enough to have been offered the next step as an advisor on a salary that is much higher than even my best paid retail role.
I'm not taking it (that's another story) but it highlights that whilst there may be an initial salary decrease, it's not a permanent one for a career change that for me, was the best thing I have ever done.
