Human Resources has come a long way from the days of the pay and personnel office. So too have both the demands on HR professionals, and the need for educational and professional standards. But the bar doesn’t stop getting raised when you receive your college or university diploma, or even when you get your professional designation. HR professionals today need a personal and professional development plan that will continue throughout their working career.

The Certified Human Resource Professional (CHRP) has become, and rightly so, the entry-level designation to the HR profession. It has allowed HR professionals to take their place alongside other credentialed careers and it is well recognized by employers, companies and the general public as the sign of a true professional. But while the CHRP provides letters behind your name and a cachet of respectability, today’s workplace and working environment demands a much higher level of skills and knowledge than the Certified Human Resource Professional can give you.

You can continue to grow in the HR profession by following the CRHP’s ongoing re-certification process. That requires a variety of professional development activities throughout each year to maintain your certifications. These can be within your professional association or by networking with other organizations. There are always informal training sessions that you can pick up in a new area like flat-line management or new ways to do performance appraisals. But that may not be enough to stay current and informed on all the new developments in people management. That’s why some HR professionals choose to follow another path in their continuous learning plan.

Mentoring
A mentor is simply a person who has more experience than someone else, usually younger, and is willing to share that experience with them. At work this becomes a way for a mentor to pass on what they have learned and how they achieved success, and sometimes stumbled, in their career so far. Some mentors also choose to introduce the person they are mentoring to their friends and network. They provide encouragement and advice as their mentee learns and grows.

It is easy to understand how a mentee would benefit from having a mentor but what does a mentor get out of this process? First of all, they get acknowledged by the organization for their particular expertise, and for most professional associations this activity counts as part of their recertification process. They also grow through the mentoring process as they see the workplace from a new set of eyes. They get to learn from the newbie about social networking or the latest wave of internet recruiting. They also can get new energy for themselves from the synergy that is created by working closely with a new HR person.

Volunteering
Mentoring is a form of volunteering but there many other ways that HR professionals can volunteer their time and continue their own personal growth at the same time. Volunteering with a professional organization is one way great way to do that. That could involve being on the executive of the organization or being part of one of their committees. It could also be serving as a chair on the annual conferences that most organizations convene or volunteering to speak on a panel at the conference.

Many of these activities are easy to perform and professional organizations are always looking for volunteers. If you are going to be a speaker or presenter you will also get the advantage of doing the research to prepare your presentation. You will be recognized by your professional organization and your peers as an expert, and you can get credit towards your designation at the same time. Some people also volunteer outside their organization and offer classes or seminars at the local community college. There is a time commitment of a couple of hours of prep and delivery time, but it is a great way to give back and for you to learn as well.

Informal learning
Still others prefer to continue their learning through informal processes like self-directed learning. This could be reading HR-related magazines, white papers and staying on top of conference papers and research in particular areas of interest. There are often free seminars at individual workplaces and brown bag lunches on new ideas like using meditation at work to reduce stress and increase productivity. Some organizations also offer free roundtables to their members and invited guests where HR practitioners can get together and discuss their challenges and successes.

There are also always paid conferences and seminars happening all the time within and outside of most workplaces. Depending on time and budget available these are also good ways for HR professionals to support each other and their learning and to listen to experts and researchers present their material to see how they are perceived in the real world workplace. The informal methods of continuous learning are as wide and as varied as HR and the individuals who work there. You can develop your own pathway to life-long learning.

Following the money
One thing that many HR professionals are spending time doing these days as part of their professional development is actually inside their own organizations. They are working on getting a better understanding of exactly how their business actually works, especially from the financial perspective. What these HR people have figured out is that if you want a full seat at the executive management table, you have to know the numbers and speak that language.

One of the best resources to assist HR professionals in this task is a book by Karen Berman, Joe Knight, and John Case called Financial Intelligence for HR Managers: What You Really Need to Know About the Numbers. This book is written in user-friendly language and tells the HR professional what financial things really matter and which aspects just aren’t that important. That means you can focus on learning the stuff that you will need at work, and can leave the other details for the real financial experts to worry about.

HR professionals are also learning how to read a balance sheet and understand financial statements because when you can do that, you will know just how much profit the business is making and the extent of its liabilities and expenses. This will allow you to strategically design any necessary workforce adjustments and improve your ability to plan your own work in collaboration and partnership with the rest of the organization.
Later, you can start working on some other important financial elements including profit and loss statements, cash flows and things like working capital and budgeting. You don’t need to know in detail how all of these financial reporting vehicles work, but you do need to understand and know how they can and will impact on your organization’s human resource practices.

If you take the time and effort to improve your financial intelligence you will be surprised at how much more seriously your HR role will be taken by others in the organization. It might well be the most rewarding of all your training and development efforts.