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In the future in the HR profession, could people get Chartered or Fellow membership based on longevity & not level of experience?

Andre

We all know both the current state of the HR jobs market and how different and difficult it is today compared to this time 20-40 years ago. Very few roles to go around, intense competition for each and every one, and a structural and systemic imbalance in terms that it's quite common nowadays to need the CIPD 7 and a Masters / PhD and the Associate Membership just to get your foothold into the profession and land an entry level role such as an HR Administrator, which 20-40 years ago was more commonly reserved for school or college leavers with just GCSEs and / or A Levels. Over qualification inflation and course devaluation due to excess supply and low demand in a crowded jobs market. If everyone holds a BA degree, it's commonality and lack of scarcity becomes the new GCSE. Technology, automation, robotisation, downsizing, offshoring and management delayering as part of global business process re-engineering trends also play a part here.        

As an analogy, it's very similar in the legal profession that due to the near impossibility of getting a Solicitor training contract or a Barrister pupillage due to the numbers of opportunities and candidates nationwide, many people with the LPC, BVC and MA have to settle to become a Paralegal, Legal Administrator / Assistant, Legal Executive,  Legal Recruitment Consultant or a Legal Secretary, and maybe hope to get it after 10 years+ 

Put another way, your job role title level and formal educational qualification level no longer automatically correspond, match and correlate together. 'Some people' in HR however also manage to do it the other way and get ahead without paper qualifications as they can somehow by hook or crook 'get the experience.'      

However, a more disturbing trend and pattern that I have recently noticed (depending on how you view it or not) is that what technically happens if the presumed 'temporary solution' actually starts to become permanent in nature, and then gradually turns into your actual long term career role and level in terms of yes, you did manage to break into HR and have worked in HR based on having the CIPD 7 et al, but then (for a variety of reasons and circumstances outside of your direct control) if never actually goes any further or deeper than that?   

In short, you start out as an HR Administrator and then subsequently cannot get beyond, above or off that level despite having and holding all the relevant papers? After a decade you are still one.  

Would such a scenario be somehow viewed by the profession as a type of  'partial success'  that yes, you did manage to get into HR, work in HR, hold an HR role and gain HR experience along with the CIPD 7, but you also could not move beyond that point, grade, band and pay scale either?      

If this structural and systemic problem also goes long term, could you see any possible provision built in for people to get the higher levels of CIPD membership based on their long term service in and to the profession, despite of being unable to obtain the higher level job roles in it at the same time?    

Or otherwise, consider them as a type of 'Associate HR professional'? You are not an HR Manager, HR Advisor or an HRBP, but are a long standing, highly experienced, well respected, liked, knowledgeable and expert HR Administrator / HR Assistant.    

In addition, every profession is like a pyramid that most of the jobs are concentrated on the lower levels and the higher you move up, it tends to thin out accordingly with fewer good roles on the top. Police force hierarchies are a clear indicator of this. They mainly need rank and file Police Officers on the ground fighting crime on a daily basis, but do not require hundreds of Inspectors, Commanders or Assistant Chief Constables. 

I would value all your respective comments on this, as I gradually see this as the direction both the overall UK jobs market and HR profession as a whole is gradually moving in. A glut at the bottom in terms of entry level and trainee roles, with only a smaller number of select and hand picked candidates able to move any further up and into it. 

In summary, it may become that an HR Administrator becomes a postgraduate career role, level, pathway and lifelong career in its own right, with even apprentices trained to be one.          

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  • Hi Andre

    You have made a number of assertions in your opening paragraph of things “we all know” but if you reread the responses to the many other threads in which you have made these assertions, you will find a number of people disagreeing with you with some force and conviction. It is patently untrue that HR is closed to virtually all but those with the highest qualifications. As I recall, you have been adding to your own qualifications but become frustrated because you are not getting job offers.

    You then mention some people who are able to get a foothold in HR “by hook or by crook” as if they are engaging in some kind of manoeuvring to wheedle or trick their way into work but many people get their first job in HR without qualifications - there has been at least one thread on here on the subject of how people got into HR.

    It strikes me that in spite of the strength, number and consistency of the arguments made against your assertions in the many threads you have started, you have rejected all other perspectives and clung to your own beliefs, as witness your opening comments in this thread. Could this provide us with a clue as to why you are finding it so hard to progress? Is it because you are demonstrating through the recruitment process that your mind is closed to any ideas apart from your own?
  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    I recognise that it can work for and does happen for other people, but as I am more of a special type of person with an element of 'neurodiversity' added into the mix, it does not work for and / or happen to me or in my case. That has been clearly proven overtime with large volumes of applications and interviews. I belong to a different group of people in society that differ slightly from the mainstream norm who do not have neurodiversity in that respect. Therefore, I have come to accept it overtime, but essentially wish to know that with the cards that I do have dealt with here and to deal with, how far can I make it work or stretch it to work in my specific case?

    People have advised to come to terms with certain circumstances which I have, but what I essentially wish to know and have answered is this:

    The current pattern and evidence to date clearly indicates as a given that I am not going to go or be able to go any further or deeper into this profession from the perspective of job role level. Therefore, what can you do over an extended period of time with advanced level qualifications coupled with working as an HR Administrator? Can one compensate for or bring the other one up in terms that ability has clearly been demonstrated in getting the education even if I could not get the jobs?

    This scenario is just not unique to HR but in other professions and fields over the past as well. I can get the education but cannot get the jobs and after having taken professional advice on the matter, neurodiversity has both emerged and been attributed as a clear indicator and common denominator here in terms of consistent reason(s) of why always others but never myself.

    'They are people who are more normal in that respect, or less unique than I am.'

    Essentially, I don't pick up automatically on the subtleties of social interaction, social communication, social cues and the more unwritten social norms and rules of society, which can be more problematic in any employment based situation or working in more advanced level roles. Certain thing don't come or flow entirely naturally to me and I can't readily do people skills in that respect, which can also be an issue or a red flag in a people management oriented profession.

    In short, I don't automatically get or understand the rules governing human interaction in society, which can easily place question marks and sow doubts in the minds of interviewers if other candidates can or can do more easily.
Reply
  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    I recognise that it can work for and does happen for other people, but as I am more of a special type of person with an element of 'neurodiversity' added into the mix, it does not work for and / or happen to me or in my case. That has been clearly proven overtime with large volumes of applications and interviews. I belong to a different group of people in society that differ slightly from the mainstream norm who do not have neurodiversity in that respect. Therefore, I have come to accept it overtime, but essentially wish to know that with the cards that I do have dealt with here and to deal with, how far can I make it work or stretch it to work in my specific case?

    People have advised to come to terms with certain circumstances which I have, but what I essentially wish to know and have answered is this:

    The current pattern and evidence to date clearly indicates as a given that I am not going to go or be able to go any further or deeper into this profession from the perspective of job role level. Therefore, what can you do over an extended period of time with advanced level qualifications coupled with working as an HR Administrator? Can one compensate for or bring the other one up in terms that ability has clearly been demonstrated in getting the education even if I could not get the jobs?

    This scenario is just not unique to HR but in other professions and fields over the past as well. I can get the education but cannot get the jobs and after having taken professional advice on the matter, neurodiversity has both emerged and been attributed as a clear indicator and common denominator here in terms of consistent reason(s) of why always others but never myself.

    'They are people who are more normal in that respect, or less unique than I am.'

    Essentially, I don't pick up automatically on the subtleties of social interaction, social communication, social cues and the more unwritten social norms and rules of society, which can be more problematic in any employment based situation or working in more advanced level roles. Certain thing don't come or flow entirely naturally to me and I can't readily do people skills in that respect, which can also be an issue or a red flag in a people management oriented profession.

    In short, I don't automatically get or understand the rules governing human interaction in society, which can easily place question marks and sow doubts in the minds of interviewers if other candidates can or can do more easily.
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