Is Temporary Work The Best Way To Break Into HR?

 Temping has always been a great way to build up experience and experience several different working environments without committing to the pressures of holding down a full-time, permanent job. But could it be the ideal pathway into a sector like HR? Currently, in HR, there is no clear entry point for less experienced individuals, mainly because HR work is so industry-specific. An HR manager working in the charity sector, for example, is going to have a drastically different workload and cases from someone working in a law firm. Why? Well, charity HR work is reactive, dealing with lots of sensitive cases due to the high turnover. And interestingly, sectors where the work is not salaried and wages are low tend to be where grievances are more common; staff complain and the turnover is typically quite high. Which means a lot of your time is spent here. Law firms, on the other hand, are salaried. Typically at a managerial level, the HR function in law firms will be more focused more on productivity, areas like compliance and talent acquisition And this varies across the board. HR has a full spectrum of different types of work. It’s an entirely different skillset and a different experience depending entirely on the sector of organisation you work for. Different Cultures Every sector will have its own unique quirks. Different ways of working and culture. It can be difficult for those who are new to HR to acquire roles when they either don’t have the experience or their experience is not specific enough to the sector they’re trying to break into. Temporary work can help with this. Temp work can help you to very quickly build up your CV. After four or five different HR placements you should have enough diversity in your experience to enter a permanent position - so our advice is to stay patient and bide your time. Working with several different organisations, in various scenarios, is likely to make you stand above the competition. The Consultancy of HR Interestingly, temporary work may become more of a staple in HR than it is today because HR is becoming more consultative over time anyway. Technology is picking up many of the administrative duties that used to require stacks of paperwork and processes. Additionally, businesses are moving HR towards a model that provides some accountability in the organisation’s profit. A model where temporary HR workers are brought in to improve efficiencies by streamlining processes may be the future of all HR work. Meaning that Temporary work could be the best way to build up your profile anyway. We may find that the future of HR is temporary freelance. We work with several organisations who are looking for talented temporary employees in HR. For more information and a chat about the opportunities we have on offer, get in touch with me. nnassi@hrcrecruitment.co.uk | 0141 353 8386