Making the jump to HR Business Partner - guidance required - HR Qualifications and studying - Careers Clinic

2 Making the jump to HR Business Partner - guidance required

11 Apr, 2017 12:55

Hi,

I have been an HR Advisor/Officer/Associate for the last 5 years and have broad generalist HR experience across a number of different industries. I am currently responsible for managing HR operations across Europe as well as managing payroll and benefits. My manager acts as a business partner for the senior leadership team and deals with more complex ER cases and project work.

I am looking for a new job due to a restructure and am finding it hard to distinguish what level of role I should be looking for. The recruitment agencies have said that I should be looking for Senior HR Advisor/Junior HRBP/Assistant Manager roles. I have had some feedback recently that I am lacking ER experience for such roles. I have managed redundancies in high volumes and managed lots of performance management cases, sickness (some quite complex), absence, flexible working, maternity/paternity and TUPE. However I lack case management experience for disciplinaries and grievances because my managers have always dealt with these cases. I have however been involved in conducting investigations and coordinating the process.

I am keen to make the leap to HRBP/Manager in the next couple of years and feel that this lack of experience is holding me back in my career. I would appreciate any help/tips/guidance to help me find the right role at this stage in my career. It feels like a bit of a chicken and egg situation where you can't gain the experience without having the experience.

Thanks

Kirsten

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Mark | 0 Posts

11 Apr, 2017 13:23

Hi Kirsten,
I can see how this is a difficult catch 22 for you. From an employers point of view, I would imagine your broad skills in the variety of other areas of HR would be of great interest to them, but then seeing the lack of discipline/grievance case management experience would hinder your overall application. Hope that doesn't sound insensitive, but as you've rightly recognised, expertise and experience in discipline/grievance case management is a must for most senior generalist HR roles.

A good starting point to addressing this gap is by finding out when disciplinary/grievance matters are happening, and asking to observe, and that doesn't just have to be within your organisation (I assumed from your post that as you are looking for a new role due to restructuring that your role might be at risk of redundancy), you can ask to observe in other organisations too. If you have HR professionals in your network who deal with discipline/grievance at their employer it might be worth asking them if they can keep you in mind to observe in the future.

Whilst this won't give you the experience, it gives you the exposure and is something to work from.

Additionally, there are some training providers who offer 'of the shelf' case management training, usually at reasonable costs for an open course. It might be worth attending one of these, as it will help you learn some of the skills necessary, and demonstrate to potential employers that you've recognised the gap in your skill base but are doing something about it.

By proactively demonstrating that you are trying to plug the gap, employers would be more likely to have confidence in employing you without the experience.

Another option is finding a role at the same level you are currently working at, even fixed term/secondment etc but being selective around ensuring it is a role that will give you this case management exposure. If you took on a role on a short term basis and gained the case management skill, it will obviously help you find the permanent senior position that you feel you are ready for next.

Hope this helps and best of luck.

Mark
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Ray | 0 Posts

11 Apr, 2017 14:16

In reply to Mark:

Good advice from Mark - in your current job you could also suggest playing a note-taking role in dsiciplinary/grievance interviews - this would get you through the door and also give you some exposure to real-time summarising of complex information (a skill at the heart of these processes). You could also ask to debrief with your boss after the meetings and try to keep abreast of follow-up actions - push for more room.....
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