Understanding the Landscape of HR Leadership: A new view on educational trends 

The HR World are pleased to announce the publication of the second edition of their ongoing report into HR leadership – its status, development and positioning for leading businesses forward.

Are HR specific qualifications essential to build or prove business leading performance from HR?

The second edition of Understanding the Landscape of HR Leadership in the UK, a report from The HR World in collaboration with Wilson and Henley Business School, presents an analysis of HR career progression and educational trends within the HR profession. Taking Wilson’s analysis of qualifications among HR throughout their careers, and combining this with the experience and opinions of those working at the top of the profession, this report challenges the notion that function specific qualifications automatically denotes high performance or should be regarded as the only way to the top.

“HR needs to focus much earlier in developing system thinking, commercial and change management skills.” – Professor Nick Kemsley

“Many HR roles are some of the more complex in businesses, with judgement and dilemma management skills being increasingly critical.” – Professor Nick Kemsley

Indeed, for a profession that welcomes entry from diverse sources, academic, non-academic, a range of functions and roles, there may be a danger that reliance on function specific qualifications as part of a career progression restricts the development of HR professionals and compromises the value the function can deliver. Ultimately, direct management experience and more general business related qualifications can offer great value to those working in HR since they widen their scope of reference and encourage a more thorough understanding of how the wider business works. This level of knowledge and skill can consequently enhance the performance of the people function.

“There is real value in staying in a role long enough to be able to assess whether what you are doing has been successful.” – Harvey Francis

Achieving and retaining a c-suite position

Ultimately this report gives a new insight into the route towards high level performance within the HR profession and suggests that while there isn’t a right or wrong way to achieve high status within the profession, an emphasis on direct business knowledge and skills could be key to achieving a permanent place and role at the c-suite level.

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