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What 3 things should I do in my first few months as a Junior People Advisor to set me up for success?

Eddie

Hi Community,

I posted a few months ago as I left my role in recruitment and decided to full-time study for my L5 in People Management to help me move into HR and I was asking for advice. Those of you who commented where very helpful in giving me some perspective and hoping that you might be able to help here too.

I'm pleased to say that I completed my studies beg of April and within 6 weeks of me moving back to London I landed my 1st role in People as a Junior People Advisor. I'm beyond over the moon and I am LOVING it so far. We are a small HR team since going through a restructure and I am lucky to have such a supportive and caring Head of HR.

My question to all of you is given your experience and when looking back on your early careers knowing what you know now, what 3 things would you say I should do/be aware of that would better set me up for success? I know that the world is a different place to how it was 10 years ago and with that HR priorities have shifted, but I would welcome some of your ideas.

To be clear my role is a generalist role with a strong focus on ER. 

Looking forward to connecting with you and discussing this.

Eddie 

  • Hi  

    Many congrats on successfully completing your L5 and for landing a new role in London. This is far from a walk in the park so kudos Slight smile

    I'll leave it to others to chip in here - which may not happen until Monday.

  • in reply to Steve Bridger
    Thanks so much Steve! I am very pleased with what I have achieved and am really looking forward to developing and learning in my new role. Will be great to connect with the community.

  • Hi Eddie,

    Congratulations on your new role and welcome to the wonderful world of HR.

    In no particular order my 3 would be.

    Get to know the managers you support, find out about their hobbies and their family. By building these relationships it makes professional life so much easier when working on cases.

    Get ready for, and try not to listen to imposter syndrome. You will likely question everything you advise on to begin with, you will second guess and doubt yourself on numerous occasions. This is ok and part of the learning process.
    I found HR is very much like driving, in that you have gained the knowledge to get your licence but now you have to learn the intricacies of the practical element by doing it on a daily basis.

    Make time to continue your CPD, keep on top of employment cases (employmentcasesupdate.co.uk/) and use the experience of your peers and managers. Utilise the free learnings from the CIPD (including getting involved with your local CIPD branch) and get onto as many webinar's as time allows in the early months to progress your understanding.

    A fourth if I may. When its home time, its your time. Some cases can and will stay with you, worry about them during your working day and find whatever strategy works to not let them intrude on your personal time.

    Enjoy your journey.

  • Congratulations on the new job.

    Some random thoughts

    Learn all about the business. What are the frustrations of staff at different levels, what gets in the way of managers delivering the services/products? What are the high margin products/services?

    Do you have a practical understanding of the product/service journey from start to delivery?

    The more you understand the business pressures and how this interacts with the issues of employees the more effective you will become.

    Not always easy to do but the more time you spend away from your desk the easier your job will be.
  • Firstly Eddie, congratulations and long may your love of your new role continue. What a great question.

    You've already had some great advice below and I would echo much of it. Again in no particular order I would say my three things.

    1. Remember a new role is a marathon not a sprint.

    Take your time to learn, the people, the dynamics, the business, your role, listen and observe and take things in. During our first few months we can see things we might become immune to seeing in time. This is the time when we can walk in the shoes of other new joiners and get a holistic picture of the organisation. I like to think of it as putting the pieces of a jigsaw together which then can change over time.

    2. Keep learning and being curious and make time to reflect on your work and learning.

    We can forget the progress we have made by constantly focusing on looking forward to what we still need to do and the speed at which we feel we need to work. Reflection and curiousity are two things I cherish and which I use a lot.

    3. Celebrate success.

    Looks for the small wins, that help us know we are doing a good job and ask for feedback. You can't control what people say and how well they say it yet I've found asking for feedback regularly, means it becomes less of a fearful experience.

    Wishing you all the very best with your continued success.
  • Congratulations Eddie! Some really good advice here for mindset and relationships.

    My very practical top tips would be:

    1. Always refer back to your company's policies. Some companies have quirks in their policies that mean you need to do things differently and where a policy goes beyond legal requirements, policy trumps legal!
    I made this mistake when starting a new role, carried on with the procedure as I knew it inside out in my own mind, and then realised the company had a few extra steps in their policy that I'd skipped. Luckily it didn't have a significant negative impact, just caused a few delays and frustrations, but no massive tribunal. Learned to always check the policy then!

    2. See if you can get access to some past ER cases from your company to understand what sort of line they usually take. Often ER cases come down to: a. what is in the policy and b. what the company has done in this situation before. You may look at a case and think there are grounds for disciplinary, then find out that five other people have done the same thing and not been held accountable. Better to find this out during the investigation rather than in a disciplinary hearing! Equally you may think something could be an informal chat, but where the company has previously gone formal you would need to be able to justify why you don't.
    You don't have to abide by previous cases all the time, but being conscious of the decisions made in them will mean you make conscious decisions to stick with them or not.
  • in reply to Graham
    Hi Graham, thanks for taking the time to respond to me and thanks for a lovely welcome.

    Great tips here and I'm actually starting to business partner with managers this week and intend to use the 1st session as a "get-to-know" each other. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the imposter syndrome as I know it's inevitable in some stages. I'm really fortunate to have a very supportive Head of People who is being great at making me feel more confident with certain areas of my role.

    Great advice and I will continue on my CPD pathway.

    Thanks agaoin,

    Eddie
  • in reply to Steven
    Hi Steven, thanks for taking the time to respond to me and for your kind words. I am in the process of learning the intricacies of the business. Luckily for me I've spent my whole career in the fashion retail sector so there is a lot I already understand about the business, but am deffo starting to get to grips with the nuanced pieces.

    I'm really looking forward to business partnering and building relationships with the managers and SLT.

    Thanks again,

    Eddie