Introduction
The HR department handles some of the most important tasks of an entire company. Recruitment, training, and retaining quality employees, are just some of the many tasks HR Professionals perform while working for a company.
A strong and well-trained HR Professional can give the company an edge over the competition in attracting and holding on to top talent. The current labor market is filled with candidates, and attracting the top 3 candidates from millions of people could be quite a tedious job.
To help the company reach its goals, HR Professionals handle diverse functions for it. To handle these functions a formal degree in Human Resources Management serves as a solid foundation for HR professionals to achieve greater success.
However, we are living in a dynamic world, where everything is evolving and revolutionizing very quickly. To stay updated with the latest industry trends, HR Professionals must fulfill their roles through continuing education.
What is Continuing Education?
Continuing education comprises a combination of classes, seminars, online certification courses, degree programs, and other types of education. Continuing Education varies widely with the position of an HR Professional.
Some professionals may be required to complete yearly classes or pass exams to stay current in the industry. While other professionals may need to complete advanced degrees to take on new roles or achieve a higher pay scale.
In either case, continuous education helps employees and employers gain know-how and adopt new abilities while they work by retraining and upskilling.
It is an effective way to ensure that teams and individuals are developing new skills to increase productivity, performance, and job satisfaction. Continuous education helps businesses thrive, whether one wants to upskill or adopt bi-annual 360-degree assessments.
Benefits of Continuing Education for HR Professionals
Investing in continuing education is the best way to grow HR personnel into HR leaders. By doing so, they can help the company find the best possible talent and hold onto the best people for a company as long as possible. Other than this, continuing education reaps several benefits for HR Professionals and the company, and some of them are:
Career Advancement
Mastering new talents leads to career advancements outside of an HR Professional’s present role. It demonstrates their commitment to work diligently, improve themselves, and remain competitive in the field. This makes them appear more useful to their present employer and more attractive to other recruiters in the industry.
Companies also like to reward employees who pursue continuing education and become better qualified to perform a broader spectrum of functions.
Continuing education helps HR Professionals perform their job duties better, and when someone performs better, they are eventually compensated better too. This type of behavior shows employers a great sense of commitment and interest from the HR professional in taking their career to a higher standard.
Opens New Opportunities
The greatest advantage of continuing education is that it increases the career horizon of HR Professionals, and makes them able to grasp more attractive opportunities.
It is also a great way to strengthen job security because no matter where an HR Professional is, they will still be a qualified candidate and will have an edge over the others. Even if someone is looking to advance their career internally, continuing education provides a great opportunity to advance within their role or transition into a new one.
Increases Productivity & Retention
Being content and determined leads to increased production, which will not only benefit the HR Professional’s role but also the organization. Greater productivity is also directly linked with higher retention rates. Generally, HR Professionals face huge difficulties in retaining existing employees.
With the business environment becoming more competitive day by day, many companies are finding themselves in situations where their key personnel are being poached by competitors.
Establishing a culture of continuous learning can ultimately boost employee retention. The employees are also more likely to attain personal achievement if the company offers them a robust learning and development program.
Gain Confidence
Acquiring new abilities and developing new skills gives a feeling of accomplishment from within, which ultimately boosts self-esteem. This also encourages HR Professionals to take on new duties and prepare themselves to take on new tasks or opportunities.
Stay Agile
Continuous education assists in adapting to unanticipated changes, such as losing a job and having to rely on new abilities to obtain work. When someone acquires new skills and abilities, they are more confident to step out of their comfort zone and look for new opportunities.
When someone keeps on learning, they eventually realize their worth, which gives them the motivation to take on new employment chances and explore more.
Moreover, having an agile, trained mind also helps with both, logical and creative problem-solving. By expanding knowledge on what one already knows, lifelong learning widens the perspective and alters the outlook of an HR Professional.
Increases Visibility
When HR Professionals pursue education, they are also improving themselves, advancing in their jobs, and obtaining referrals from their coworkers and supervisors. Everyone receives a promotion at least once in their corporate journey, no one stays in the same position for a lifetime. To receive a promotion, one needs to acquire new capabilities to make themselves look appealing to the employer.
The same is the case with continuing education, when someone develops a new skill set and learns new abilities, they are most likely to be visible to the rest of the world. This not only benefits the individual, but the company also reaps its benefits as more people would want to be part of that company.
How Can an HR Professional Start Continuing Education?
Deciding to continue education is the first most basic and the most critical step in an HR Professional’s career. In this technological world, we have easy access to the internet, which provides us with various options to select from.
Many working HR Professionals cannot manage attending physical classes, but after COVID-19, the concept of e-learning has made things much easier for working individuals. With the comfort of their home or office, an HR Professional can easily continue the learning process.
There are many online HR certification courses & programs that can be found on the internet that could help an HR Professional achieve their career and personal goals. Such online platforms include HRAcademia, Udemy, Coursera, etc. where one can earn a certificate for any certified course they want to pursue at the most affordable rates.
The best part of these online websites is that from the registration of the course to receiving a certificate, everything is online. This gives an individual the flexibility to manage their work and studies according to their timings and convenience.