There are no unwritten rules to be honest

Stay in a job as long as you are enjoying it and are adding value to both the organisation and your CV (if you are building your CV that is). There are individuals who have worked in an organisation their entire working lives (The CEO in one of our businesses for example - he started on the front line and is now CEO not bad!) where as other people find the opportunity and challenges come from moving around far more often.

I think why people suggest a couple of years as a rough "minimum" is that it gives you the opportunity to experience a couple of cycles of the organisation and to ad value in that time. But you can certainly add value in a lot less or over a far longer period. The danger with shorter periods - particularly less than a year/18 months is that (a) you will find it more difficult to demonstrate you have really added value and (b) the new employer may fear you wont stay and wont therefore give you a chance. So if you have shorter periods you need a good narrative as to what you achieved and why you moved on. Most employers will probably excuse one such move but question harder several.

There is no problem being a HR Assistant for 5 years in one organisation then moving to another organisation for 5 years as a HR assistant. Its probably not the profile of a future HR Director (although sure someone will have) but not every can or wants to be a HR director. As long as they enjoyed the roles and were a good employee then so what? We all need people who are good at their job and broadly happy to stay at that level.

My own experience is that the longest I have worked for one organisation is eight years (although not in same job) and the shortest ten days (I decided it wasn't for me!) but both taught me valuable things about myself, my motivation and the organisations I want to work for. I consider neither too long or too short

My final thought, and its a bit of a cliche I use when I am coaching runners, is that we are all experiments of one. We are the only person to follow our path, our way. Trying to rigidly follow someone elses pre-determined path is unlikely to work. So by all means understand what goes into other peoples career progression but don't be a slave to it. Follow your opportunities in your way.

It is not (IMO) often given. HR is not a time served and then promoted profession. It is not three years at a level then you magically gain the skills , experience and judgement necessary to move on.

I would also question o#if a level 7 qualification is appropriate, necessarily etc for a move from an Administrator to an Advisor role. I don't think it is .

Not everyone can or should move up the professional ladder. For those who can its not a question of some formulaic approach but rather taking the opportunities they have been offered (or they have created) to add value to themselves and their organisations. Adding in continuous professional development (which might be at many levels) and then ensuring learning and experience is consolidated and enhanced before seizing the next opportunity (if thats what someone wants)

Its also worth considering that the use of job titles can be very unhelpful as people use them very differently. I have seen people with the HRD title who are really in most organisations junior HRBPs and in some cases people who are doing huge HRD jobs with very different titles.

You make the jump by demonstrating that you have added value and have helped move your organisation forward.

This is the third post in the last day you have posted on this area. It might be an idea to keep them together to enable a sensible discussion and thoughts to develop rather than each thread to repeat or go off on a tangent to the others.

What is in a job title and can one also vertically or laterally progress within the same level role in HR?

I often see the following roles advertised, especially in the NHS but also the private sector:

HR Administrator & Senior HR Administrator;

HR Advisor & Senior HR Advisor;

HR Business Partner & Senior HR Business Partner;

HR Director & Senior HR Director.

Are they all essentially the same roles with one just gaining more seniority of title and perhaps pay through more years of and longevity of experience?

Is there any real difference in them if they are also all on the same pay grade level scale but one just attracts a higher hourly rate within the same pay band?

Hi Andre

Unless it’s recruiting for not one but two discrete positions / roles then I’d see this as merely intending to indicate that elevated remuneration / status may well be able to be offered in order to attract an exceptional candidate. In other words, that the employer is willing and able to shape the role around the jobholder’s capabilities rather than the other way round. Usually, if I were the recruiter, I’d be wanting to avoid confusing the issue about whether it was one role or two and if needs be make it clear it was just the one but word the ad. in a way that would attract high flyers as well as ordinary mortals.

I am assuming you are asking what the difference is between a HR Administrator and a SENIOR Hr Administrator ....and ditto the other roles.

The answer is that (sadly) it will depend. Some organisations will have a robust job evaluation system that has evaluated the two roles and have scored them so differently as to move them into a different evaluation grade. Thus they are different jobs due to the skills, experience and responsibilities they contain. this may be decision making ability, experience necessary etc.

On the other hand some organisation will scatter the title "Senior" into roles in lieu of paying someone more money.

There is also no universal definition of what each role is anyway. So I would expect a Senior HRD in say a Footsie 100 company to be very different from that in a 50 person start up.

So its best to look past the titles and into the roles and responsibilities.

In reply to Keith:

In addition to Keith's advice I would add the the gap between levels of responsibility can often be achieved by moving to smaller or larger organisations which will be more or less complex/demanding in terms of professional skills and thus adding skills that are not yet present.
As an example, an HR administrator covering exclusively recruitment support in a very large organisation that rectuits 300 people each year will have deep but narrow experience - this can then be added to either by going into another deep/narrow role (such as training administrator in the same company) or a broader role in a smaller company where the administrative duties cover the full range of HR activities.
Equally, an HR BP in a business unit of 2000 people but in a company of 15000 people is unlikey to be able to jump to the HR director's job without having acquired the managerial and supervisory skills needed for the senior role - the more probable route will be into a larger business unit within the same company where they have a team and budgets to manager or into another company of a smaller size where they can cut their teath leading a small team and managing budgets.
Certainly there is a correlation between length of working life and the level of jobs held by people, but it is not automatic - the real correlation is with the additional skills and responsibilities that the person has continually demonstrated that they can take on in different contexts.

Hi Andre... I've merged two of the threads you posted in the same session as I think it makes sense to pull these threads of discussion together. It might have made reading the thread a little cumbersome as the responses are to your two questions posed above. I have left a third thread you started at the same time 'alone'.

In reply to Steve Bridger:

Andre - I've now merged a third thread here - the one you titled "How long should one stay in a job?"

I have worked in HR for around 16 years now, most of it at HR Assistant level. However as I have worked in large Public Sector organisations I have had the opportunity to Act up into higher roles, go on secondment for shorter periods as well as given a lot of development opportunities to be involved with/manage more casework etc. When I was successful in getting a job as Senior HR Assistant role this was later re-titled HR Advisor to more accurately reflect the role. So even though it would appear on paper that I have been at the same level for many years I have gained a lot of different experience and developed within the role itself.

So as others have said below it depends on the opportunities that become available, what you enjoy/don't enjoy, the size of the company etc. Also that Job titles and what they involve can also vary a lot between different companies.