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There’s been a recent trend of CEOs appointing non-HR people into Chief People Officer roles. Is this a short-term fad, or is it emblematic of a systemic issue facing the HR profession? Are businesses lacking confidence and belief in HR as a commercially relevant and strategic business partner? I have worked in the Melbourne HR recruitment market for close to 15 years and for as long as I can remember, business leaders (and senior HR leaders for that matter) have been bemoaning the lack of commerciality within the HR profession. Don’t get me wrong, I have met some incredibly commercial and innovative HR practitioners during my time; just this week I spent an hour with a senior HR professional whose grasp and understanding of her business and HR’s ability to support its strategic business goals blew me away. 

Unfortunately, that’s not always the norm however, and the profession still has a way to go to fully establish itself as a truly credible and commercially relevant business partner. Yes, I know that’s a generalization, and of course there are many organisations that don’t want or need a strategic HR function. Equally, there are many HR functions that have rightly earned their seat at the table and are doing great work, but there are many more that are still operating in the same way they were 15 years ago, despite being repeatedly rebadged with the latest phraseology. Again, we have been talking about HR in Australia being an ‘evolving’ profession for as long as I can remember, a phrase regularly rolled out almost as an apology for the function’s lack of cut through.

So, what’s the answer? There’s no silver bullet of course. Changes to HR models and innovation in HR thinking all play a part in elevating the profession, but how do we ensure HR practitioners at all levels are armed with the right skills and competencies to thrive in today’s increasingly unforgiving business world? The Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) has upped its push for HR certification, following a similar model to the UK, where it is almost a prerequisite to be CIPD qualified to advance your career in the profession. Accreditation is a great idea. You can’t be a lawyer, a doctor or an accountant without the relevant qualifications; why should HR be any different (yes, I know, HR practitioners aren’t saving lives or curing cancer, but they are instrumental in supporting the health and vitality of organisations)?

Recently, we were fortunate to have Lyn Goodear, the CEO of AHRI, come and talk to our team about the benefits of HR certification, and she certainly presents a compelling case for how certification will benefit the profession and its ongoing credibility. Of course, certification is only going to advance the profession if the criteria against which practitioners are accredited are relevant to today’s business world. It also needs the support of senior HR and business leaders to really get traction. 

The concept of HR accreditation got me thinking about why people enter the profession in the first place. Conduct a Google search on HR careers and you’ll find no end of references to ‘meeting people’. Indeed, if I could have a dollar for every time an aspiring HR practitioner told me they were a people person, my long-held ambition to retire to the south of France would be much closer! It begs the question, are we attracting the right kind of people in to the profession in the first place and are we painting a realistic picture of what a career in HR is really all about. More than that, are we equipping HR graduates with the right skills and capabilities to thrive in the profession. I don’t know that we aren’t, but I would hazard a guess that there’s room for improvement. 

I mentioned earlier that there has been a trend towards non-HR people moving into senior HR leadership roles, and again it got me thinking about how often the reverse is true. How many HR Directors have recently moved into CEO or General Management roles? Of course, such statistics on their own don’t tell the full story. There are senior HR leaders who play highly influential and commercially vital roles within their business, not to mention many HR Directors who wouldn’t want to be their organisation’s next CEO. However, what it does again highlight is that industry knowledge and business acumen are essential for any aspiring HR practitioner hoping to move up in their organisation.