Career Advice - HR

[JarOfRocks]

My career background is generalist HR, up to Business Partner level, with a small amount of time in a specialism. I then took a number of years out to be a stay at home parent. All kids are now the older end of primary school and I'm ready to return to work.

It took ages to find something part time and local enough not to cause problems with childcare. But then covid helped, in that employers seem to have become a bit more flexible. So I have been working for the last year in a Senior HR Admin role, part time. It's got me back into the workplace and given me up to date working experience to put on my CV, albeit at a junior level. I earn £28k. I feel I'm now ready for the next step, but what?? I want to earn more, but keep part time hours if I can.

Any advice on next career steps? I'm actually enjoying the HR Ops/Services side rather than the old BP role. I think it suits my organisational skills, logical brain etc as well as my introvert personality. But are there many well paid jobs in HR along this path that I can be aiming for? Will employers take me seriously with a career gap and then going back in at an admin level?

Get CIPD Qualified to help propel your career.

Thank you. Yes, I already have my CIPD qualification and converted it to chartered status before my career break.

Join HR Ninjas group on Facebook, loads of lovely people on there who will be happy to advise.

Try HR Ninjas on FB. Massive network of HR professionals and they have a job board. I'm an HRD in public sector and FWIW I have found it really difficult to find good HR advisers in last few years so there's a market out there. Many are part time and most HR roles offer hybrid working. I wouldn't see a career break as a problem.

I'm similar to you OP, I have a long HR background, CIPD etc., and I took a long career break to be a SAHM in my 40s when I had my kids. I have gone back part-time, I now do Associate work for Resourcing consultancies as an Assessor, I thought being the wrong side of 50 now I would struggle but have found a few places who wanted to hire me which was a lovely surprise. I am self-employed though but I enjoy that and it means I work as and when so can fit around school runs/holidays. Have you tried to apply for the big outsourcing companies like Capita or smaller local HR Consultancies to see if they have anything? Good luck

Hi, currently working in public sector as an L&D manager. I’ve done quite a bit of business partnering in the past but i am much more comfortable with the L&D side and find the employee relations stuff actually quite unpleasant at times!

In my experience, a gap for children is not viewed negatively in the HR field. It’s an area predominantly staffed by women so I find we tend to get it more than other professions. I just finished up a mini recruitment campaign where we hired 2 people at BP level who each had about a 4 year gap due to child care. One of them actually had taken an admin role for a year to get back into it.

If you are quite organised and enjoy that part of it, perhaps something in HR change might work for you. See if your current organisation has any change projects ongoing (restructuring or TUPE) and get involved. Maybe see if they would find a project management qualification?

There is loads of options! Good luck 🤞

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am feeling a bit more positive. I've not heard of the Facebook group but will definitely join. It's good to hear some success stories. I am currently in the public sector (higher education) but my background is corporate. So I'll take a look at a variety of organisations. It's the job roles I need to think more about. I think I like to be 'in' the HR Department rather than 'in' the business, if that makes sense. I don't think I'm commercial or extrovert enough to be an outstanding business partner, but I'm highly organised with a great record for delivery so think something more project related might be best - like change (as mentioned above), reward (which I've dabbled in as a specialism), policy development etc. But how to find these roles?? I only ever seem to see admin/adviser/partner type roles advertised.

I like the idea of a project management qualification. Would that be valued within a HR department?

You’re more likely to find policy/project roles are fixed term contracts or outsourced/self employed positions. Have you got formal project management qualifications? Experience of HRIS/data? Shared/outsourced services? That might fit what you want if you’re avoiding employee relations.