Career aspirations of future people professionals

Making a positive contribution is the most attractive feature of people profession work

The majority of students are attracted to a people profession career as they either want to make a positive contribution to working lives (47%), are interested in the variety of activities (22%) or want to interact with a range of people (18%).

A smaller percentage are attracted by salary prospects (11%).

The COVID-19 context has made people profession work more important

89% of respondents believe the COVID-19 context has made people managers’ work more important or has given it a higher profile.

Only 3% think it has made the work less important or given it a lower profile.

Recruitment and talent management is the most popular role

The top three roles noted by respondents are: recruitment and talent management (38%), generalist HR (29%) and learning and development (18%).

A smaller amount (8%) are interested in people analytics.

Learning and development opportunities are key when starting a career

Learning and development was rated most important when starting a people profession career (37%), followed by having a supportive organisational culture (34%).

Other features identified include teamwork (12%), enjoyment and fun (10%) and regular performance feedback (8%).

Hybrid or blended working is preferred

62% of respondents would prefer a mix of home and workplace working, whilst 30% would prefer to be solely based in the workplace.

Just 5% would prefer a remote working hub and 2% would prefer to work only at home.

Flexible working is the preferred working pattern

Flexible working appeals to 74% of respondents, either within times set by their employer (49%) or within times decided by themselves (25%).

A further 16% would prefer set working hours and 10% would favour compressed working hours (longer working hours over fewer days).

Most respondents aspire to achieve a senior role

88% of those surveyed hope to progress to a senior people profession role, with 50% aspiring to reach HR director level and 38% a senior specialist or generalist role.

A further 9% wished to reach a mid-level role in the profession.

Engaging in CPD is seen as the single best career enabler

33% believe that career progression is supported by a combination of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), having self-confidence, effective networking skills and line manager support.

However, 21% believe that CPD is the single factor most enabling career progression.

Supporting employees’ mental health and wellbeing is the organisational priority

Over half of the respondents (56%) think that employees’ health and wellbeing is a much greater priority than other recent changes in people profession work.

Other priorities include increasing the use of digital technologies (23%), working more collaboratively with other business functions (12%) and further influencing organisational strategy (8%).

Inclusion and diversity is the most important issue for people professionals today

Inclusion and diversity is by far the most important contemporary issue for people profession managers, according to 57% of respondents.

Other key issues identified include climate change (15%), economic conditions (13%) and work intensification (11%).