Here Are 20 Kick-Ass HR Career Goals For 2012…
by Alan Collins
It’s that time again.
2012. A New Year.
This is time of year many HR folks make New Year resolutions.
You should too.
But you shouldn’t just make any old kind of flimsy commitments.
Now’s the time to set some REAL goals that can help you dramatically take your HR career to the next level…starting today!
Stuck for ideas? Not sure where to start?
No problem.
I’m going to give you twenty goals to consider. Most of them are simple. A couple are completely out-of-the box. Many of them take some work. But all of them absolutely kick ass.
Pick two of them and start making things happen.
Here you go: 20 HR career goals — any one of which that will easily place you among the top 5% of all HR professionals.
1. Go get 20 recommendations on LinkedIn.
Want an edge when recruiters and headhunters check you out on LinkedIn? Increase the number of your recommendations. Blow hiring managers away with the sheer number of testimonials and endorsements from others who are praising you to the max.
2. Publish three articles this year in your HR specialty.
Get your name more broadly known and in print. Check out the article publishing requirements for HR Magazine, Workforce, and HR Executive. Or just put up a three articles on ezinearticles.com…it’s easy. Just make sure you include a two sentence bio about yourself at the end. Here’s an example.
3. Write your own HR book.
Nobody has time to read 300-page HR books anymore. Use this to your advantage. Put together a 60-80 page book on a project you’ve accomplished or a problem you’ve solved that appeals to other HR or talent management folks and you’ll become a rock star. If I can do it, anyone can. It won’t take you two years either. Want to get a book done faster than you ever imagined? Here’s how.
4. Develop a white paper on your HR specialty and aim to get it downloaded by 500 HR people.
Don’t have time to do a book, even a small one? Then, promote the crap out of your own unique HR brand with a 20-page white paper. Need an example or model to follow, look over this white paper here.
5. Speak at a local or national SHRM conference.
Giving talks on your HR area of expertise is one of the fastest ways to attract favorable attention from those who can help advance your career. The national SHRM conference speakers are selected a year in advance, so now’s the time to approach them for 2013. But local SHRM chapters are always looking for enthusiastic presenters with practical, real-world, in-the-trenches HR experience. Become that presenter.
6. Re-read Unwritten HR Rules.
…Then commit yourself to two action steps from the book that can help move your career forward. Share this commitment with your spouse, significant other, trusted peer or BFF so they can hold your feet to the fire.
7. Start your own HR blog.
Get some inspiration from the HR blogs of Laurie Ruettimann (a self-described failed HR professional and crazy cat lady), Chris Ferdinandi (an HR manager who works for EMC Corporation), and Suzanne Lucas (a corporate HR director known as the evil HR lady). Craft your own unique identity and use your blog to share your own HR insights and experiences and you’ll gain instant credibility. Not sure how to get started? Follow the guidance in this step-by-step guide.
8. Start your own group on LinkedIn.
Want to be perceived as a thought leader within the HR world or expand your LinkedIn network fast. Then creating your own group may be up your alley. Here are ten more benefits of starting up your own Linkedin group.
9. Give a lecture or teach an HR class at a local university.
Local universities, junior colleges or their extension campuses are always in the hunt for guest lecturers, instructors and part-time adjunct faculty members. Landing a college teaching gig can help you polish up your presentation skills and your confidence. Besides, you never know who is in your class and who knows whom.
10. Create a brown-bag lecture series.
Turn your lunch period into networking opportunities to showcase your knowledge. Take an HR-related skill that everyone needs (like doing performance appraisals or interviewing employees), an empty conference room and start teaching the ins-and-outs to others in your organization and you’ll become a hero.
11. Coach and run Train-the-trainers on your brown-bag topic.
Take your brown-bag program and expand it by sharing your expertise one-on-one or by training others to do what you can do. Spreading your expertise in diverse ways helps spread your reputation in positive ways.
12. Become an officer in your local HR association.
Local HR associations abound. Besides your local SHRM chapter, there is NAAAHR, The OD Network, and ASTD to name a few. All turn over their officers every year. This is an opportunity for you to get involved in a leadership capacity. Volunteer to help increase their membership, put on programs, fundraise or manage their communications. It’s a terrific way to expand your contact network, stay up to date and give back to the profession.
13. Get a twitter account and attract 500 meaningful followers.
Twitter is all about sharing information with people who are important to you. Use it to put out interesting, relevant info for your followers. Post inspirational quotes or helpful HR tips. Provide links to interesting, relevant HR articles that will help others. In many ways, this is like having your own mini-blog…and is therefore an excellent way to attract more followers and establish yourself as an authority in your specialty within HR. For more information on how to best leverage twitter, go here.
14. Develop your own iPhone app for HR.
Time to think out of the box. iPhone apps are growing rapidly, so it’s not surprising that there are some very serious ones being developed to help job seekers and HR professionals.
Examples:
- The “Hire Me!” app is geared to the potential job seeker.
- The “FollowUp — Personal CRM” app is designed to help you keeping up with your personal network of contacts.
- Career coach Deborah Brown-Volkman has transformed her coaching advice into an app called “Job Search Coach.”
- The “Interview Assistant Lite” is designed to help companies develop “a logical method for determining the potential benefits and problems when hiring.”
- The “Pay Stub Pal” or “Net Pay 2010″ apps allow employees to track their own compensation, 401(k) contributions, and other elections affect their net pay.
- There’s even an “iHateMyJob” app that lets users “vent without ever having to say a word and get in trouble with your boss.”
Just about any routine HR activity can be turned into an app. Got a great HR idea you want to turn into an app, but you’re not a techie? No worries. There are plenty of programmers and geeks around the globe on Elance.com anxious for you to put them to work dirt cheap. Lay out your HR idea and let them amaze you with the iPhone app they can design for you. It’s more affordable than you think and may become your new HR sidehustle. Like I said, out-of-the-box.
15. Start running your HR department as a profit center.
Start quantifying the value of your HR programs and share the results with your organization…and on your resume. For additional credibility, partner with your in-house Finance Comptroller on this initiative. For more information on this topic, check out this classic.
16. Attain HR certification.
For some companies, the jury is still out on the value of an PHR, SPHR or GPHR…but not in my mind. I don’t have one. But I recognize its value in “credentializing” your HR expertise and differentiating you from others who don’t have it. Someday, it may become what the CPA is for Finance folks. Today, while it may not contribute directly to getting you promoted or landing that HR dream job, it definitely won’t kill your chances either. Besides, putting those initials behind your name is kinda cool.
17. Make yourself available as an HR expert for news stories.
If you’re an expert in a hot area of HR like health care cost containment or employee engagement, you are attractive to reporters who are writing stories on these topics. Reporters like to reinforce their stories with quotes from experts like you. If this appealing to you, one service you might want to explore is PRLeads.com. While I can’t vouch for the service and it looks expensive, it just might be worth exploring.
18. Produce a series of YouTube videos on your HR specialty.
All you need is a video recorder (or flip phone) and You Tube. Pat Goodman is a great example of someone who has produced an entire line of short HR-related videos on YouTube. You can check out one of her many videos here.
19. Contribute regularly to your company’s e-zine or newsletter.
Your in-house communications group is always looking for positive stories about your organization. They also tend to be always on deadline and understaffed. Volunteering to periodically provide them with a story or article for publication will provide you exposure and visibility.
20. Clearly define what makes you different.
Take some time, sit down and figure out what REALLY makes you distinctive in the HR career marketplace? Come up with a clear answer to the question: “Why should I promote or hire you rather than every other ‘result-oriented, HR leader’ out there? Yes, it’s fine to be a jack of all trades, but you need to be a master of ONE – what’s yours?
Now that you’ve read over this list, what are you waiting for?
When someone asks you in 2012 what you’re working on in HR, will you be excited to tell them the answer?
I hope so. If not, you’re wasting away.
No matter what your HR gig is, no matter where you work, there IS a way for YOU to take a couple of these ideas (on your own, on weekends if necessary), to advance your HR career or to expand your impact on the HR profession.
It’s time. Go make it happen.
Your feedback is welcomed. Please click HERE to add your comments or thoughts on this article…or to add any kick-ass goals that may have been omitted.
About the author: Alan Collins was Vice President – Human Resources at PepsiCo where he led HR initiatives for their Quaker Oats, Gatorade and Tropicana businesses. He is now President of Success in HR, Inc. and the author of the HR best seller, UNWRITTEN HR RULES . His new book, BEST KEPT HR SECRETS now is available on Amazon.
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January 2nd at 11:05 pm
Thanks a lot alan for providing these wonderful tips. It’s very useful. will surely practice few from today..
January 2nd at 11:05 pm
Great article–lots of actionable ideas.
January 2nd at 11:13 pm
happy new year sir…. thank you for the guidance ..its just an eye opener…..
January 3rd at 7:27 am
Alan, you have done it once again. These are some great goals to shoot for, and even though the thought of making yet another misguided resolution, pains me – I’m motivated by what you have here.
Thanks again, and Happy New Year to you and yours.
January 3rd at 9:59 am
Dear Alan,
Thank you very much for such a guide of 2012 HR objectives, which I definitely agree on.
It would be great to reach them all, so let’s start working on them!
I wish you all a fantastic New Year, with plenty of HR and anyother satisfactions!
January 3rd at 10:16 am
Hello sir,
This is truly motivating article.After reading this I planned to start my own blog.But I don’t know where to start.This is really helpful and make you think.
Thank you sir.
January 3rd at 3:19 pm
Hi Alan,
thanks for sharing a wealth of great goals for 2012. Very mindful and intelligent thinking on your part! happy new year.
January 3rd at 4:17 pm
Alan,
This is great stuff to share and think about. Thanks for sending the book and I am diving in as I write this!
Always look forward to your newsletter.
Jeff
January 4th at 12:16 am
Great article. Provides a blueprint to help you grow as a person and HR pro!
Thank you for the insight.
–Ebay H.
January 4th at 5:40 am
Outstanding article! I’m going to focus on 2 ideas for sure.
January 4th at 5:52 am
Thank you for the New Year Gift. The article surely reflects your practical experiences and is surely going to kick many like me to act. Thanks once again and a happy new year to you.
January 4th at 1:51 pm
Happy New Year..Now that I have stop over eating and can now focus on these great ideas.
January 5th at 2:43 am
Awesome and creative !! ” Hats off ” sir for such wonderful ideas to go for heights of achievement and success.
January 9th at 8:07 am
Thank you Alan for practical actions and goals that we can actively follow and subscribe for more network connections locally and worldwide.
Now we can get all HR new techniques and practices from professionals all over the world .
Hope to share our knowledge with Smile.
Really you gave me good advices.
Lana EL MOUSTRAH
January 9th at 5:40 pm
HR certification….great if you can afford to get it. When I first started out, HR was a “man’s” area not for the ladies. I worked long and hard to achieve my career goals and now that I’m looking to re-enter the HR field that talent, experience, expertise is for the most part all for naught. No certification, no consideration. I like tha majority of your 20 goals to kick ass in HR but this one, I don’t know.
January 10th at 8:40 pm
Greetings, and Happy New Year!
Alan, Thank you for another great article.
I have read ALL of your books, and continue to be inspired by your insight.
Would like to know if you are endorsing “Write a Book in a Weekend” By; Donna Kozik I read some unfavorable reviews, what’s your opinion of it?
January 11th at 9:06 am
Denese – Thanks for your question. I would give the “Write A Book in a Weekend” two stars out of five. The biggest value it has it that it gives you a few tips that you’ve not thought of before for writing your book fast – and at less than 10 bucks it’s very cheap. It’s NOT the best book I’ve ever read & it IS flimsy in spots…but if you want to write a book fast, its a good book to have in your library…among others. I did use her strategy #5 to write “Best Kept HR Secrets” and I can truthfully say I probably would not have had the inspiration to write it had I not read about strategy #5 in Donna Kozik’s book…so I got one great idea from it…which makes it well worth 10 bucks to me. One other value of the book is that…when you look at the book itself, it is a “model” of what Donna talks about…and one you could duplicate yourself.
However, before you purchase her book, I suggest you check out my new book first. It’s all about monetizing your HR knowledge…and I recommend that there are ways to do that including writing a book. I’ll be announcing it on my blog tomorrow. (Sorry, for the shameless plug).
Best,
Alan
January 12th at 1:19 am
Thanks Alan for an innovative, thought provoking ideas. Though I set new resolutions every year, had never once thought about having HR Goals for a particular year. I am sure, I would be following atleast 2 to 3 of them from the above list.
Arundathy Krishnan.
January 12th at 1:32 pm
Hi Alan,
What are your thoughts on becoming a Careerealism.com Expert? Do you know about this site?
Careerealism.com is a site for career enthusiasts to connect with leading experts. To become an expert you have to do an initial interview with the owners, and there is a fee that keeps you active for 3 months at a time.
The premise of the site is to promote your business / expertise and get access to their 1million+ readership.
Again, I have not had the time to submit articles, but I am wondering if you and/or any of your readers find the service to be worth the money?
Thanks
January 12th at 3:24 pm
Tashana – I’m not familiar with Careerealism…but in general I’m all for any method/approach that helps you showcase your HR expertise and enables you to get your message out into the world where it can be recognized, appreciated and valued.
Anyone else familiar with Careerealism?
Alan