What's a good way to progress in HR

[Lovingmylife]

I recently started a role as an administrator in a HR department. I really enjoy it but can see I won't develop within the organisation and a bit of dead man shoes in terms of structure. I'm keen to progress quickly. What's the best route after HR administrator? Is CIPD essential?

You should progress to HR officer/Adviser next.

I hit a bit of a glass ceiling as I didn’t finish CIPD through living abroad. I’m now MCIPD. Larger and increasingly medium sized organisations won’t hire/promote you if you don’t do the CIPD.

Any organisation that takes HR seriously and views it as a profession will expect you to be aiming for MCIPD. If you don’t do it, you’ll be stuck in an organisation where it’s called personnel and is an admin function, or you’ll likely remain as an HR Admin.

Worth considering flexible learning or part-time day release. Could you persuade your employer to fund/part-fund this? Even if there's no obvious progression route within the organisation, your increased knowledge and skills will presumably still be of benefit to them.

Yep - I did mine at a local university in the evening.

Wonderful thank you. Is it worth doing level 3 or straight to level 5? Are online courses fine? Or does it need to be classroom based?

Level 3 is the same as A-levels, 5 is a degree and 7 is post grad. If you already have a degree, then go for level 7. Online is fine but you’ll get more support if you have some classroom based - even if it’s mostly online with a day a month classroom based.

You can only become Assoc CIPD if you do level 3 or 5. You’d need to do Level 7 do become MCIPD - you do the exams and then apply to theCIPD for an upgrade to MCIPD. You have to have 2 years experience at manager level to become MCIPD, along with a pass at level 7. It will take you at least 2 years part time to do level 7 though.

The levels are Assoc CIPD, MCIPD and FCIPD. You work your way through them. I think the majority of HR managers/ BPs will be MCIPD. FCIPD is mainly HR Directors (I think you may have to be invited to become FCIPD too).

www.cipd.co.uk/community/search?q=Which%20level%20cipd#serpcategory=forum

CIPD chat forum - lots of advice on there too.

Thank you that's so helpful. I have a BSc but not in HR. Does it matter if it's different? If I were to invest in level 7 would it make it more appealing to move into a HR manager role whilst doing the qualification? Any idea how much experience as a HR admin I would need before applying for manager roles? I used to work in project management so lots of transferable skills.

That’s ok. My undergrad is economics. I found it helped put some of the things we studied on L7 CIPD, in a wider context but wasn’t directly useful in terms of subject matter.

It’s more so that they know you can assess information and write essays. You’ll be expected to use Harvard referencing, which you would probably have used in your undergrad.

My L7 cohort were from a range of backgrounds. Some had no degree but had done L5 CIPD and the others had degrees in a range of subjects, I only recall one person who had a HR degree.