10 Best Careers for Human Resources Professionals

For anyone studying human resources and getting a human resources MBA, there are many areas to choose from when it comes to careers. You can stay a generalist and climb the career ladder into a management role, or you can distill the aspects of the career you like best—teaching people, negotiating, the technical aspects, etc.—and become a niche specialist.

The jobs below represent the best of both worlds. They are the best jobs in human resources because of job satisfaction, career potential, variety, freedom, monetary compensation and more.

10 Best Careers for Human Resources Professionals

Human Resources Manager

Why this career track is great: Personal satisfaction

While higher-ranking human resources executives may oversee organizations and strategy, human resources managers get the benefit of person-to-person interaction, helping employees directly. HR managers coordinate and plan HR activities, then manage them once executed. This may involve guiding employees through the hiring process, benefits programs, training, labor disputes, and other administrative needs important to workers within a company. HR managers, unlike the people above them, have a direct influence and positive impact on the people in a company. For people who are satisfied when they are helping others, this leads to great social benefit, human connection and the satisfaction of having a real impact on your fellow human beings.

Nonprofit Human Resources Expert

Why this career track is great: You are helping people while helping the world

A nonprofit human resources expert could be a recruiter, a human resources manager, a human resources executive, or any other HR professional operating within the nonprofit field. Such an HR professional has many of the same tasks as an expert working in a for-profit role, such as recruiting, administering benefits, training and development, assisting with policies and strategy and more. The operative difference is the in the nonprofit world, the human resources professional is working for an organization that exists to make a positive impact on the world around it, whether through health, education, the arts, preserving cultures or any of the many things that nonprofits do. So the impact on fellow workers is magnified in this context. A nonprofit human resources professional truly has the opportunity to impact people directly and, more indirectly, make a strong contribution to the betterment of the world at large.

HR Consultant

Why this career track is great: You make a lot of money, when and where you want it

These days, companies are growing increasingly complicated, and human resources departments are no exception. Enter the human resources consultant, an offshoot of the management consultant who charges companies a high hourly rate to impart much-needed services. Human resources consultants may specialize in a variety of fields, including benefits, employee incentives and rewards programs, company culture after mergers and acquisitions, employee motivation, retirement plans, recruiting and even the outsourcing of any of the many functions of an HR department. This high-level individual assesses a company’s current situation and offers and helps deploy systemic recommendations that will get the company to its desired goal. The HR consultant, meanwhile, gets to choose whom he or she works with, when that work is completed, and what to charge. It is the HR path where freedom meets money.

International Human Resources Professional

Why this career track is great: You can visit countries all over the world and experience a great variety of people and cultures

The job of the international human resources professional may involve recruiting candidates into global positions, training and development standards across an international organization, implementing benefits plans as national laws allow, labor relations, employee programs and many more. This HR track involves the same kinds of tasks that a national human resources professional might engage in, but with a great variety of cultures, languages and locations thrown into the mix. International HR is an ideal field for people who love to travel, speak multiple languages and are adept at engaging successfully with a wide variety of different people who adhere to different customs. Boredom is not the operative term for this unique and exciting human resources career path.

Human Resources Executive (Chief HR Officer or Vice President of Human Resources)

Why this career track is great: Money

If you’re good at HR and you want to make enough money for a vacation home—and perhaps a boat—the human resources executive track is the best job for you. The Chief HR Officer and, one tier below that, the Vice President of Human Resources each on average make more than $200,000 per year. These executive positions require an individual to devise an HR strategy for the company, including policies, systems and goals. Every aspect of a human resources department, beginning with recruiting and moving through contract signings, training and development, benefits, and more run through the CHRO (Chief HR Officer) or, if the company does not have such a position, the Vice President of HR. With 10-20 years’ worth of experience and a proven track record of human resources success, the HR executive can have a satisfying and, above all, well-paying career.

Training & Development Manager

Why this is a great career path: If you love teaching, this is a the corporate path for you

Training and development managers help employees improve their skill sets and careers. They do this by training employees in specially-held classes, workshops, conferences and other kinds of gatherings. Training and development managers are also sometimes in charge of designing the most effective coursework for employees, given the content that their employer wants to emphasize, while keeping training sessions entertaining and informative. If you like standing up in front of people and helping them learn and improve their lives, this career path is a very fulfilling one.

Employee Education Consultant

Why this is a great job: It combines the fun of teaching with the freedom of consulting

In this CNNMoney survey, 60 percent of education and training consultants said their job was low-stress http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/moneymag/0910/gallery.bestjobs_leaststress.moneymag/index.html. Such consultants do similar tasks as training and development managers—that is, they hold workshops, classes and conferences aimed at increasing employees’ skill sets and knowledge—but without the full-time commitment. Companies hire them on a contract or retainer basis to help improve their employees’ skills. This means that the companies hiring such consultants are already interested in keeping their employees well-trained and happy, so they tend to be welcoming places to work at, according to CNNMoney. The consultants work in an accommodating environment and employees are interested in what they have to say. In addition, training and education consultants can set their own hours and choose their clients. If an education and training consultant only wants to work six months out of the year, she can. Such freedom makes this job a fantastic choice for anyone who both loves to teach and train and wants independence in their position.

HR Entrepreneur

Why this is a great job—Once you build a successful company, you can hire someone else to run it and make passive income

Be it a headhunting firm, employee placement company, HR consulting firm, or a professional employer organization (PEO), which takes on the role of an outsourced HR department for a company, launching a successful HR company can be a golden ticket in terms of career choices. HR professionals with an entrepreneurial bent can set up such a firm, find a stable of clients and, with hard work and tenacity, build their firm into a successful organization. The ideal trajectory from there would be to either a) step back from day-to-day tasks, let the firm run itself, and glean a passive income from it—in effect retiring, or b) sell the firm for millions of dollars to a bigger company that wants to buy it. Either method spells one thing, early retirement, and that is the dream of many workers and entrepreneurs. If you like HR and are excellent with people, and have a killer work ethic and high risk tolerance, the entrepreneurial human resources path stands as a potentially lucrative, if difficult option. But with more and more companies choosing to outsource their HR functions, this path remains a promising one for years to come.

Executive Recruiter

Why this is a great career path: You can make lots of money while improving peoples’ careers

If you’re good with people and building relationships, a position as an executive recruiter could be one of the most lucrative ways to make friends. Executive recruiters are tasked with finding and filling job openings for senior executives, the so-called C-level executives including CEOs, as well as people in vice president positions. Executive recruiters generally get paid on retainers or paid in full after they have filled a position, and because companies are so interested in finding good senior talent, these fees can be quite high. This is where the making friends part also comes in. Executive recruiters want to build such solid relationships with companies that when an opening occurs, those companies call them first, at which point they launch their executive search, contacting other contacts in other companies—potential executives to fill that position—and trying to see if they’re interested. Because this field is so lucrative, it’s very competitive, so having a so-called Type A personality also helps.

Human Resources IT Specialist

Why this is a great career path: With the advancing role of technology in HR, you’ll be much sought-after, highly paid and advance quickly

While some HR jobs, such as HR manager, haven’t changed too much over the years, the ever-expanding world of HR is adding new niche positions, and HR information technology (IT) specialist is one of them. Anyone with a bent for software or hardware and an interest in human resources can combine their skills to become an HR IT specialist, and enjoy the career rewards that come with it, including being sought after and more often than not paid well. HR IT experts could be software developers, systems administrators, IT architects, or have another level of technical expertise that can be applied to a company’s human resources systems, which may include calendars, databases, payroll systems and the like. Although there isn’t necessarily direct interaction with employees, this member of the IT team plays a crucial role in supporting the human resources team, while facilitating the technology that helps a company stay efficient and organized.

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Work/Life Balance Greatest Source of Stress for Accounting, Finance Pros

Work/Life Balance Greatest Source of Stress for Accounting, Finance Pros

The survey, developed by Accountemps, asked CFOs, “Which of the following do you think is the greatest source of workplace stress for accounting and finance professionals?”

 

 

Forty-one percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) interviewed in a recent study said trying to find work/life balance is the greatest source of workplace stress for accounting and finance professionals. Office politics or conflicts with coworkers was cited by 28 percent of respondents.

Here are the results:

• Trying to balance work and personal demands—41%
• Office politics or conflicts with coworkers—28%
• Keeping current with changing accounting and finance regulations—16%
• Higher workloads—9%
• Challenging commute—4%
• Don't know/no answer—2%

“Work/life balance may seem like an issue for individuals, but it also should be a concern for businesses,” said Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps and author of Human Resources Kit For Dummies® 2nd edition (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). “Whether it's through flexible work schedules, telecommuting arrangements or other options, companies can benefit from helping their teams balance professional and personal objectives. Organizations that commit to these efforts enhance morale and productivity and make their businesses more appealing places to work.”
The national study was developed by Accountemps. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on more than 1,400 telephone interviews with CFOs from a random sample of U.S. companies with 20 or more employees.
Source: Accountemps

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Glass Ceiling its causes and Types

In economics, the term glass ceiling refers to "the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements." Initially, the metaphor applied to barriers in the careers of women but was quickly extended to refer to obstacles hindering the advancement of minority men, as well as women.

 Women saw little advancement in corporate boardrooms and compensation in 2010, extending a 5-year trend in which companies have lagged in promoting and mentoring women to their own detriment, according to a new study released on Monday.

“Corporate America needs to get ‘unstuck’ when it comes to advancing women to leadership,” said Ilene Lang, president and chief executive of Catalyst, a non-profit organization that advocates greater opportunities for women.

The study found that 136 of the Fortune 500 companies had no women executives. Among those with no women were Exxon Mobil, Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup, Costco Wholesale and Sears, the study said.

Women held 14.4 percent of executive officer positions in 2010, up from 13.5 percent in 2009, and female executive officers held 7.6 percent of the top earning positions, up from 6.3 percent in 2009, the 2010 Catalyst Census said. The best five companies in terms of women in the executive suit were: Gap 50 percent, H&R Block 50 percent, Limited Brands 50 percent, TIAA-CREF 50 percent and Western Union 45.5 percent. Reuters. There are number of barriers and have various types, some of the majors are given below.

Societal barriers

The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission of the United States Department of Labor identified two major societal barriers that cause and reinforce a glass ceiling. The supply barrier is related to opportunity and achievement. The difference barrier manifests itself as conscious and unconscious stereotypes, prejudice, and bias related to gender and ethnicity.

Internal business barriers

The following business-based barriers were identified:

• Outreach and recruitment practices that fail to seek out or recruit women and minorities
• Prevailing culture of many businesses is a white male culture and such corporate climates alienate and isolate minorities and women 
• Initial placement and clustering in staff jobs or in highly technical and professional jobs that are not on the career track to the top
• Lack of mentoring and management training
• Lack of opportunities for career development, tailored training, and rotational job assignments that are on the revenue-producing side of the business
• Little or no access to critical developmental assignments such as memberships on highly visible task forces and committees
• Special or different standards for performance evaluation
   Biased rating and testing systems
   Little or no access to informal networks of communication
   Counterproductive behavior and harassment by colleagues

The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission and independent research suggest that the underlying cause of the glass ceiling is the perception of many white males that as a group they are losing control and opportunity. Many middle- and upper-level white male managers regard the inclusion of minorities and women in management as a direct threat to their own chances for advancement. As a result of this "upper- and middle-level white male resistance", business-based barriers are not always being as forcefully addressed as they should.

Governmental barriers

The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission pinpointed three governmental barriers to the elimination of the glass ceiling. They are:

• Lack of vigorous and consistent monitoring and law enforcement
• Weaknesses in the collection of employment-related data which makes it difficult to ascertain the status of groups at the managerial level and to disaggregate the data Inadequate reporting and dissemination of information relevant to glass ceiling issue

Other barriers

• Different pay for comparable work.
• Sexual, ethnic, racial, religious discrimination or harassment in the workplace
• Lack of family-friendly workplace policies (or, on the flipside, policies that discriminate against gay people, non-parents, or single parents)
• Exclusion from informal networks; Stereotyping and preconceptions of women's roles and abilities; Failure of senior leadership to assume accountability for women's advancement; Lack of role models; Lack of mentoring
• Requiring long hours for advancement, sometimes called the hour-glass ceiling

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Use of Social Media for Recruitment

As a recruiter you want to be where the most qualified, talented, and largest pool of applicants are. Human resources can leverage social media to tap in to potential recruits. This type of head hunting is called social recruiting. It's about engaging with users and using social media tools to source and recruit talent.

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have over 535 million combined users. That equals a lot of potential talent for your company. But how do you find the right person for the job you have available using social media? Here's how to get started.

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool: Understanding Each Social Network

By now you should be familiar with LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. But just in case your're not, here is a quick overview. 

"LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals," states the company's website. That is the corporate way of saying they are a giant jobs board and you can connect to other professionals. There are over 65 million professionals on LinkedIn.

Facebook is the largest of the social networking sites with over 400 million users. Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study, and live around them. It is intended to connect friends, family, and business associates. The model has expanded to include connections to organizations, businesses, and interests -- not just individual people. 

Twitter is a microblogging social networking service. Messages, better known as tweets, are no more than 140 characters. According to their website, "Twitter is a simple tool that helps connect businesses more meaningfully with the right audience at the right time."

So now that you know what the major social media sites are, which one should you use and how do you use it?

Digg Deeper: The Business Owner's Social Media Toolkit

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool:  Using LinkedIn

The most obvious ways to use LinkedIn are to post jobs you have available and search for candidates. It costs $195 to post a job for 30 days. Or you can buy job credits and pay less per job posting if you buy more credits.  You can also sign up for LinkedIn Talent Advantage.  It is an exclusive suite of tools for recruiters. But if you don't have the budget to pay for job postings or join the Talent Advantage you can still tap in to the free resources LinkedIn offers.  

You should start by building connections to people you already know. This could include former co-workers, current clients, local entrepreneurs and even friends and family. Because you never know who someone else may be connected too that could make for a top-notch candidate. You should also join groups where you might connect with potential candidates. For example, if you are always looking for IT consultants you can find an affiliated group on LinkedIn. Once you join relevant groups find ways to begin discussions with people in the group. If you notice people who are active in the group, they always ask questions and answer others questions, those might be the people you hone in on for job opportunities.

There is also a free way to advertise that you are hiring on LinkedIn without posting a job. Use your network activity box (also known as a status box) to broadcast that you are hiring. "Looking for an IT consultant. If you know someone, maybe even you. Contact me." 

When you find someone who may be a good fit for your company you have to evaluate their LinkedIn profile. Does the person have a complete profile including a picture? Do they have recommendations from peers, managers and colleagues? Are they a member of groups relevant to their field? Do you have any 2nd or 3rd degree connections to the person to get a more personal referral? You can find out a lot about a person from their profile before contacting them for an interview.

As small business owners, you can easily leverage LinkedIn to find talent.

Digg Deeper: More about LinkedIn

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool:  Using Facebook

How many candidates do you have in your database? Whatever the number is it doesn't come close to how many potential candidates are on Facebook. Facebook provides easy and affordable ways to increase your applicant pool. First utilize theFacebook Directory to search for users, pages, groups and applications.  

You can post a job for free in the Facebook Marketplace. The ad requires basic information such as location, job category, subcategory, title, why you need to fill this position, description and if you want to post your photo with the job posting or another image. The limitation of a free job posting is that you can't target it to a specific group of people like you can with a Facebook Ad.

Facebook Pages are another free resource within Facebook. A Facebook Page is a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users. If you don't have a Facebook Page you can search other Facebook  pages to find people both active and interested in your field or that would be interested in your available position. If your company has a Facebook page you may want to use it as a recruiting tool. Make sure the information about your company is relevant and up-to-date. You can also post job openings for your fans to see. These people are passionate about your company and can be just as passionate about working for your company.

Another option is to post a Facebook Ad if you aren't getting the results you want from searching. The advantage of the ad platform on Facebook over its rivals Google Adwords and Yahoo! Advertising is that Facebook has laser targeting ability. With a Facebook Ad you can choose the exact audience that you are looking to target. The system will ask a series of questions about the characteristics of the people you want to see your job posting ad. You will be asked about the group's age, sex and specific keywords related to the position. Facebook will then calculate how many users fit that criteria. You have the choice to pay per click (how many people clicked on your job ad), pay per impression (how many people potentially saw your ad) and set how much you are willing to pay. You can decide whether to run the job ad continuously or only during a certain time.

For example, if your company is in Minneapolis and you are not including relocation in the budget for this position you can target the job posting to only be shown to people that live in Minnesota or bordering states. If the position is an entry-level position you can target the job posting to a younger age demographic. It is normally a violation of EEOC to target for or against a specific gender but a Facebook Ad is a loophole to bypass that. Because if you know a woman would be better suited for your position, you can target your job posting to only be seen by women. The options are endless to how narrow a field you can define. Be careful to not make the criteria too specific or you may not get the applicants you want.

Digg Deeper: More about Facebook

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool:  Using Twitter

Twitter can be powerful for small companies or a recruiter who wants to get an edge over the competition. The easiest way to recruit is to tweet jobs you have available. "Looking for a Sales Rep in NYC, Very competitive salary, apply at (include a shortened url)."  

If your company has a Twitter account but not a lot of followers you can expand your network and build relationships with clients and job candidates on Twitter. Run a quick search on Twitter (search.twitter.com) for anybody discussing a specific keyword and you can get hundreds of contacts. You can search for people you know, by location, by industry or interest, by hashtag, by popularity, by time and more. 

To make your job posting tweets standout you can also use hash tags, #. Hash tags are used as a way to filter and find information on Twitter. All you have to do is include the hash tag with a keyword in your tweet and it becomes instantly searchable. Here are a few examples of hash tags you might consider using: #job, #jobpost, #employment, #recruiting, #hiring, #career, #staffing, #salesjob, #NAJ (that is Twitter lingo for 'Need A Job?')  You can use more than one hash tag in your tweet but remember you are limited to 140 characters so be strategic in which hash tag or tags you use.

You can engage with candidates and see what topics they tweet about. There is also the opportunity to market events you will be attending. "Stop by our career booth at the Sales Tech Expo."

There are companies like AdLogic that help businesses target to a particular Twitter audience. AdLogic lets clients create custom job feeds and corresponding specialized Twitter profiles for each area that they recruit for.

Your company Twitter account is also an opportunity to inform potential hires about your company. Your tweets say a lot about the company and what topics are important to your company.

When you find a potential candidate on Twitter evaluate their activity to see how often they tweet, if they have a healthy balance between followers and following, how big is their network and the quality of their tweets. Do they keep a balance between personal and professional tweets? Do they only post updates or do they respond to others and retweet others fully utilizing what Twitter is about?

Digg Deeper: More about Twitter

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool: Return on Investment

Social media recruiting helps an employer get to know a potential job candidate. Is this a highly skilled, well-rounded individual that fits with your team? As with any job opening, using social media recruiting requires time and effort but it's an investment in longer-term benefits for your company. Using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter takes recruiting back to its grass roots of networking but for a digital age.

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How to answer 10 tough questions

There's no worse feeling than when you're in an interview and the interviewer asks you a question to which you don't know the answer.

The best way to handle this dreaded debacle is to go into the interview prepared. Familiarize yourself with a few common difficult questions and arm yourself with answers prepared ahead of time.

Check out these tough interview questions and some suggested responses in order to avoid an interview disaster:

Tough question No. 1: "Tell me about yourself."

This is usually the opening question in an interview and it's the perfect moment for you to toot your own horn -- not to tell your life history. Your answers should be a quick rundown of your qualifications and experience. Talk about your education, work history, recent career experience and future goals.

Suggested answer: "I graduated from University X and since then, I have been working in public relations with an agency where I have generated millions of PR hits for my clients. While I've enjoyed working on the agency side, I'm looking to expand my horizons and start doing PR for corporate companies such as this one."

This is your chance to talk about your experience and your career goals, not to badmouth a former boss or give a laundry list of reasons for your exit. Instead, focus on what you learned in your previous position and how you are ready to use those skills in a new position.

Tough question No. 2: "Why did you leave your last job?"

Suggested answer: "The company just wasn't a good fit for my creativity, but I learned that organizations have distinct personalities just like people do. Now I know where I'll be a better fit."

Tough question No. 3: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Let the employer know that you're stable and you want to be with this company for the long haul. Keep your aspirations to take over the firm with which you are interviewing, own your own company, retire at 40 or be married with five children to yourself.

Suggested answer: "I want to secure a civil engineering position with a national firm that concentrates on retail development. Ideally, I would like to work for a young company, such as this one, so I can get in on the ground floor and take advantage of all the opportunities a growing firm has to offer."

Tough question No. 4: "What are your weaknesses?"

The key to answering this age-old question is not to respond literally. Your future employer most likely won't care if your weak spot is that you can't cook, nor do they want to hear the generic responses, like you're "too detail oriented" or "work too hard."

Respond to this query by identifying areas in your work where you can improve and figure out how they can be assets to a future employer. If you didn't have the opportunity to develop certain skills at your previous job, explain how eager you are to gain that skill in a new position.

Suggested answer: "In my last position, I wasn't able to develop my public-speaking skills. I'd really like to be able to work in a place that will help me get better at giving presentations and talking in front of others."

Tough question No. 5: "Why were you laid off?"

This question will become more common as the economy continues to slow down. It's a tough question, however, especially because many workers aren't told exactly why they were laid off. The best way to tackle this question is to answer as honestly as possible.

Suggested answer: "As I'm sure you're aware, the economy is tough right now and my company felt the effects of it. I was part of a large staff reduction and that's really all I know. I am confident, however, that it had nothing to do with my job performance, as exemplified by my accomplishments. For example..."

Tough question No. 6: "Tell me about the worst boss you ever had."

Never, ever talk badly about your past bosses. A potential boss will anticipate that you'll talk about him or her in the same manner somewhere down the line.

Suggested answer: "While none of my past bosses were awful, there are some who taught me more than others did. I've definitely learned what types of management styles I work with the best."

Tough question No. 7: "How would others describe you?"

You should always be asking for feedback from your colleagues and supervisors in order to gauge your performance; this way, you can honestly answer the question based on their comments. Keep track of the feedback to be able to give to an employer, if asked. Doing so will also help you identify strengths and weaknesses.

Suggested answer: "My former colleagues have said that I'm easy to do business with and that I always hit the ground running with new projects. I have more specific feedback with me, if you'd like to take a look at it."

Tough question No. 8: "What can you offer me that another person can't?"

This is when you talk about your record of getting things done. Go into specifics from your résumé and portfolio; show an employer your value and how you'd be an asset.

Suggested answer: "I'm the best person for the job. I know there are other candidates who could fill this position, but my passion for excellence sets me apart from the pack. I am committed to always producing the best results. For example..."

Tough question No. 9: "If you could choose any company to work for, where would you go?"

Never say that you would choose any company other than the one where you are interviewing. Talk about the job and the company for which you are being interviewed.

Suggested answer: "I wouldn't have applied for this position if I didn't sincerely want to work with your organization." Continue with specific examples of why you respect the company with which you are interviewing and why you'll be a good fit.

Tough question No. 10: "Would you be willing to take a salary cut?"

Salary is a delicate topic. In today's tough economy though, how much a company can afford to pay you might be the deal breaker in whether or not you are offered a position.

Suggested answer: "I'm making $X now. I understand that the salary range for this position is $XX - $XX. Like most people, I would like to improve on my salary, but I'm more interested in the job itself than the money. I would be open to negotiating a lower starting salary but would hope that we can revisit the subject in a few months after I've proved myself to you.

By Rachel Zupek
CareerBuilder.com writer

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why you choose HR as your career

Dealing with human beings is a toughest job in the world. Here is an opportunity to feel the pulse of the people and to help them to help themselves.So since i would like to take up challenging task in my life, i have chosen this field. Moreover.... HR professionals are called as Human Doctors.

Over the past 30 years the HR profession has moved centre stage. Its professionals are now known as business partners who get the best from people in order for organisations to succeed, and it has shed its label of a backroom function that only reacts when prompted.

The positioning of HR at the heart of the business has opened up exciting and varied career paths. Professionals are likely to have the opportunity to blossom into respected generalists, or develop a specialism (such as reward or learning and development). Another option is to make horizontal moves across an organisation and reach the top either as HR director or as a managing director, bolstered by an understanding of how people and commercial awareness are mutually inclusive.

“HR really is a flexible discipline,” says Aileen Brown, regional director at Hays HR. Brown makes the comparison with other professions such as management accounting, which do not usually offer diverse options. “One of the attractive traits about HR is that there are so many career paths within it and when someone specialises it doesn’t mean that anything else is closed,” she says.

As the global marketplace expands, Brown adds that the flexibility of HR careers and a go-anywhere set of skills (reinforced with local knowledge) leaves exponents well-positioned to take advantage of the ensuing career opportunities.

How to get to the top

So, where do you start and how do you get to the top? Broadly speaking there are six rungs on the HR career ladder, with job titles and salaries dependent on the size and type of organisation:

• HR assistant or HR administrator
• Adviser or officer
• Manager
• Senior manager
• Director of HR
• Group director of HR

Some professionals develop their careers by consistently applying for the next rung on the ladder or by moving to a similar role in a larger organisation. Others take a zig- zag route by first getting some general experience under their belt at officer or manager level, then specialising in an area such as organisational development in a large company, before moving back into a generalist role, perhaps as senior HR manager in a slightly smaller company.

Finding a way through the profession has become easier with the CIPD’s HR Profession Map. This is available to view online and can be developed in detail as a personalised tool. It illustrates what HR people do and deliver across every aspect and specialism of the profession and looks at the underpinning skills, behaviour and knowledge that they need to be successful. Commercial awareness is key.

“At the heart of the HR profession map is HR’s impact on business,” says the CIPD’s membership director Sue Upton, adding that HR professionals are expected to position themselves at the heart of a business.

Other research from the CIPD, published in its guide "Next Generation HR", shows the personal qualities that HR professionals need to get the top: “The most common descriptors of them are professional, transparent, insightful and thought-provoking,” it says.

So, applicants who are looking to get into HR because they see it as a people-oriented profession may be misguided. It might be far better to go into HR because it offers the opportunity to see how an organisation and its people can get the best from each other.

Flexibility

Hays HR regional director Aileen Brown cites the example of an international HR business partner who wanted to return to the UK as an illustration of the flexibility offered by an HR career.

He took the post of a generalist within a UK charity and has now taken an assistant HR director’s post in a major organisation.

For Brown, career flexibility is derived from a skill in managing people and reading what an organisation needs to give it competitive advantage. This skill can take an HR professional anywhere.

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Organizational Change and Development

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Adapted from the Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Developmentand Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development with Nonprofits

Today, teams and organizations face rapid change like never before. Globalization has increased the markets and opportunities for more growth and revenue. However, increasingly diverse markets have a wide variety of needs and expectations that must be understood if they are to become strong customers and collaborators. Concurrently, scrutiny of stakeholders has increased as some executives have been convicted of illegal actions in their companies, and the compensation of executives seems to be increasing while wages of others seems to be decreasing or leveling off. Thus, the ability to manage change, while continuing to meet the needs of stakeholders, is a very important skill required by today's leaders and managers.

NOTE: This site distinguishes the difference between "organizational development" and "Organization Development." The former phrase refers to the nature and scope of change in organizations, i.e., the change is to the entire organization or to a significant portion of the organization. The latter phrase refers to a field of well-trained people with expertise in guiding successful organizational development.

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Sections of This Topic Include

Foundations for Managing Change in Organizations

Introduction
- - - Why Is It Critical for Leaders and Managers to Be Successful at Organizational Change? Because It's Their Job
- - - Focus and Scope of this Library Topic
Broad Context for Organizational Change and Development
- - - Understanding Organizations, Leadership and Management
- - - Understanding Organizational Performance Management
- - - Systems Thinking
Professionalism of Practitioners Focused on Organizational Change and Development
- - - About the Field of Organization Development (OD)
- - - Understanding Yourself as an Instrument of Change
- - - Consulting -- Professionalism and Ethics

Approaches and Methods for Managing Change

Overview of Change Management
- - - Clearing Up the Language About Organizational Change and Development
- - - An Orientation to Change Management
- - - Specific Types of Organizational Change
- - - Key Roles During Change Management
- - - An Example Philosophy and Some Various Perspectives and Models From Which to Manage Change
- - - Miscellaneous Perspectives on Organizational Change
Example of a Planned, Systemic Change Process -- Action Research
- - - Phase 1: Clarifying Expectations and Roles, Assessing Readiness, RFPs, Contracts and Getting Buy-In
- - - Phase 2: Joint Discovery and Feedback to Identify Priorities for Change
- - - Phase 3: Joint Planning of Organizational Development Activities to Address Priorities
- - - Phase 4: Change Management and Joint Evaluation
Possible Organizational Development Activities ("Interventions") to Use in Change Management Processes
- - - How People Choose Organizational Development Activities
- - - Human Process Interventions (Group and Individual Human Relations)
- - - Technostructural Interventions (Structures, Technologies, Positions, etc.)
- - - Human Resource Management Interventions (Individual and Group Performance Management)
- - - Strategic Interventions (Organization and Its External Environment)

General Resources

General Resources
- - - Service Organizations Focused on Organizational Change and Development
- - - Online Groups
- - - Toolkits, Etc.
- - - Bibliographies of Books About Change Management
Also see
Related Library Topics

Also See the Library's Blogs Related to Organizational Change

In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Organizational Change. Scan down the blog's page to see various posts. Also see the section "Recent Blog Posts" in the sidebar of the blog or click on "next" near the bottom of a post in the blog.
Library's Consulting and Organizational Development Blog
Library's Leadership Blog
Library's Supervision Blog

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FOUNDATIONS FOR MANAGING CHANGE IN ORGANIZATIONS

Introduction

Why Is It Critical for Leaders and Managers to Be Successful at Organizational Change? Because It's Their Job

Significant organizational change occurs, for example, when an organization changes its overall strategy for success, adds or removes a major section or practice, and/or wants to change the very nature by which it operates. It also occurs when an organization evolves through various life cycles, just like people must successfully evolve through life cycles. For organizations to develop, they often must undergo significant change at various points in their development. That's why the topic of organizational change and development has become widespread in communications about business, organizations, leadership and management.
Leaders and managers continually make efforts to accomplish successful and significant change -- it's inherent in their jobs. Some are very good at this effort (probably more than we realize), while others continually struggle and fail. That's often the difference between people who thrive in their roles and those that get shuttled around from job to job, ultimately settling into a role where they're frustrated and ineffective. There are many schools with educational programs about organizations, business, leadership and management. Unfortunately, there still are not enough schools with programs about how to analyze organizations, identify critically important priorities to address (such as systemic problems or exciting visions for change) and then undertake successful and significant change to address those priorities. This Library topic aims to improve that situation.

Don't Do Change for the Sake of Change -- Do Change to Enhance Organizational Performance

Organizational change is undertaken to improve the performance of the organization or a part of the organization, for example, a process or team. Therefore, it's very useful for the reader to scan the topic Organizational Performance in the Library, to get a basic sense of an overall framework to enhance the performance of an organization. Then return to this topic on organizational change to learn more about how to guide successful change within that framework.

Focus and Scope of This Library Topic

The focus of this Library topic is on principles and practices to successfully accomplish significant change in organizations.Successful organizational change can be quite difficult to accomplish -- it can be like trying to change a person's habits. Fortunately, there is an increasing body of research, practice and tools from which we all can learn. A major goal of this Library topic is to make this body of information much more accessible to many -- to give the reader more clear perspective on overall organizational change and development, along with sufficient understanding to begin applying principles and practices for successful change in their roles and organizations.
The following resources are not sufficient to guide a large, comprehensive and detailed organizational change effort -- that amount of resources comprises a significantly sized book -- and besides, there is no standard procedure for guiding change. However, the following resources might be sufficient to provide the reader at least a framework that takes him or her from which to begin guiding change in smaller efforts for organizational change -- and then to begin to learn more.
There are many approaches to guiding change -- some planned, structured and explicit, while others are more organic, unfolding and implicit. Some approaches work from the future to the present, for example, involving visioning and then action planning about how to achieve that vision. Other approaches work from the present to the future, for example, identifying current priorities (issues and/or goals) and then action planning about to address those priorities (the action research approach is one example). Different people often have very different -- and strong -- opinions about how change should be conducted. Thus, it is likely that some will disagree with some of the content in this topic. That's what makes this topic so diverse, robust and vital for us all.

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Broad Context for Organizational Change and Development

Understanding Organizations, Leadership and Management

To really understand organizational change and begin guiding successful change efforts, the change agent should have at least a broad understanding of the context of the change effort. This includes understanding the basic systems and structures in organizations, including their typical terms and roles. This requirement applies to the understanding of leadership and management of the organizations, as well. That is why graduate courses in business often initially include a course or some discussion on organizational theory. This topic includes several links to help you gain this broad understanding. The following links (broadly reviewed in the following order) might be helpful to establish some sense about organizations, and their leadership and management.
Introduction to Organizations (to get a sense for the system, forms, roles and structures)
Introduction to Leadership (to get a sense for what leadership is, its scope, and where it might fit during change)
Introduction to Management (to get a sense about planning, organizing and controlling resources)

Understanding Organizational Performance Management

Organizational change should not be conducted for the sake of change. Organizational change efforts should be geared to improve the performance of organizations and the people in those organizations. Therefore, it's useful to have some understanding of what is meant by "performance" and the various methods to manage performance in organizations.
Basics of Performance Management
Employee Performance Management
Group Performance Management
Organizational Performance Management
It's also to have some sense of what it takes for an organization to be sustainable. See
Organizational Sustainability

Systems Thinking

The past few decades have seen an explosion in the number of very useful tools to help change agents to effectively explore, understand and communicate about organizations, as well as to guide successful change in those organizations. Tools from systems theory and systems thinking especially are a major breakthrough. Even if the change agent is not an expert about systems theory and thinking, even a basic understanding can cultivate an entire new way of working. The following link is to many well-organized resources about systems thinking and tools.
Systems Thinking
In that topic, the subtopic, Systems Thinking in Organizations, is particularly useful to understand.

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Professionalism for Practitioners Focused on Organizational Change and Development

About the Field of Organization Development (OD)

The field of Organization Development is focused on improving the effectiveness of organizations and the people in those organizations. OD has a rich history of research and practice regarding change in organizations. Why not learn from that history? This topic includes links for the reader to get a basic understanding of the overall purpose of the field and also provides many resources from which to learn more.
NOTE: This site distinguishes the difference between "organizational development" and 'Organization Development." The former phrase refers to the nature and scope of change in organizations, i.e., the change is to the entire organization or to a significant portion of the organization. The latter phrase refers to a field of well-trained people with expertise in guiding successful organizational development.
About the Field of Organization Development (OD)

Understanding Yourself as an Instrument of Change

Your nature and the way you choose to work has significant impact on your client's organization, whether you know it or not. You cannot separate yourself from your client's organization, as if you are some kind of detached observer. You quickly become part of your client's system -- the way the people and processes in the organization work with each other on a recurring basis. Thus, it is critical that you have a good understanding of yourself, including your biases (we all have them), how you manage feedback and conflict, how you like to make decisions and solve problems, how you naturally view organizations, your skills as a consultant, etc. The following articles will help you gain understanding of yourself, how you might prefer to work and how you actually work.
Understanding Yourself as Instrument of Change (ends with a self-assessment)

Consulting -- Professionalism and Ethics

Nowadays, with the complex challenges faced by organizations and the broad diversity of values, perspectives and opinions among the members of those organizations, it's vital that change agents work from a strong set of principles to ensure they operate in a highly effective and ethical manner.
Before reviewing the resources listed below, do a quick can of the list of subtopics in the overall topic of Consulting to get a sense for the broad field of consulting, because people who work to guide and support organizational change are consultants. See All About Consulting
Principles for Effective Consulting
Ethical Consulting
Boundaries for Consultants
Multicultural Consulting
Minimize Consulting Liabilities and Risk

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APPROACHES AND METHODS FOR MANAGING CHANGE

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Overview of Change Management

Clearing Up the Language About Organizational Change and Development

There are several phrases regarding organizational change and development that look and sound a lot alike, but have different meanings. As a result of the prominence of the topic, there seems to be increasingly different interpretations of some of these phrases, while others are used interchangeably. Without at least some sense of the differences between these phrases, communications about organizational change and development can be increasingly vague, confusing and frustrating.
Cleaning Up the Language About Organizational Change and Development

An Orientation to Change Management

The following links are to articles that together provide an increasingly comprehensive and detailed orientation to change management.
Basic Overview of Organizational Change
Biggest Mistakes in Managing Change
Requirements for Successful Organizational Change
Change Management 101
Education Systemic Change Tools

Specific Types of Organizational Change

There are different overall types of organizational change, including planned versus unplanned, organization-wide versus change primarily to one part of the organization, incremental (slow, gradual change) versus transformational (radical, fundamental), etc.. Knowing which types of change you are doing helps all participants to retain scope and perspective during the many complexities and frequent frustrations during change. Read the following article to understand more about each type of change.
Types of Organizational Change
The following articles provide another perspective on types of change.
The Three Shades of Change
Coping With Type I Change
Managing Type II Change

Key Roles During Change Management

Successful change efforts often include several key roles, including the initiator, champion, change agent, sponsor and leaders. The following article describes each of these roles.
Major Roles During Change and Capacity Building
Organization-wide change in corporations should involve the Board of Directors. Whether their members are closely involved in the change or not, they should at least be aware of the change project and monitor if the results are being achieved or not.
How to Make Sure the Board of Directors Participates in the Project for Change
Benefits of Involving Boards in Projects for Change (Part 1 of 2)
How to Ensure Board is Appropriately Involved in Projects for Change (Part 2 of 2)
As the change agent, you might be performing different roles during the project. The following article might help you decide which role to perform.
How to Know When to Facilitate, Train or Coach

Example of a Philosophy and Some Perspectives and Models From Which to Manage Change

This section helps the reader to appreciate the diversity of ways that people can approach the management of change in organizations.

Appreciative Inquiry -- Example of Overall Philosophy From Which to Manage Change

Appreciative Inquiry is a recent and powerful breakthrough in organizational change and development. It's based on the philosophy that "problems" are often caused as much by our perception of them as problems as by other influencing factors. The philosophy has spawned a strong movement that, in turn, has generated an increasing number of models, tools and tips, most of which seem to build from the positive perceptions (visions, fantasies, wishes and stories) of those involved in the change effort.
Appreciative Inquiry

Various Perspectives From Which to Manage Change

The following articles provide ways or perspectives from which to manage change.
Four Change Management Strategies
An Educational Process for Change and Improvement Efforts

Various Models for Change Management

There are numerous well-organized approaches (or models) from which to manage a change effort. Some of the approaches have been around for many years -- we just haven't thought of them as such. For example, many organizations undertake strategic planning. The implementation of strategic planning, when done in a systematic, cyclical and explicit approach, is strategic management. Strategic management is also one model for ensuring the success of a change effort. The following links provide more perspectives on approaches to managing change. (Note that, with the maturation of the field of OD, there are now more strong opinions about which are change management approaches and which are not -- there seems to be no standard interpretation yet.)
Strategic Management (systematic, explicit implementation of a strategic plan)
Action Research (probably the most popular approach -- and much more familiar than we realize)
Plan Do Check Act (this approach also is quite common)
Lewin's Freeze Phases
McKinsey 7S Model
Many people would agree that traditional models of organizational performance management are also models for managing change.
Examples of Organizational Performance Management Systems

Various Perspectives on Organizational Change

There is now a vast array of highly reflective articles about the nature of change. Many of these articles focus primarily on the role of leaders during change. However, it's not likely that the reader can gain useful frameworks for change primarily from reading numerous reflective articles, so be sure to review at least some of the other articles in each subtopic in this overall Library topic. You can learn a lot about the overall design and approaches to change even by scanning how the subtopics are organized in this topic, as listed at the top of this page.

Role of Change Agent

Here We Are. Now What?: Tips for Change Agents in 2011
Change Agents: The Power Behind Effective Change Management
Harnessing the Energy of Change Champions
Change Agents: The Power Behind Effective Change Management
Jack Griffin's Ouster: Lessons from a Failed "Change Agent"
Organization Change: Learning from the Best

Reflections on Change

Teaching the Caterpillar to Fly
Reflections on Change
Change Is Not Necessary?
The Case for Change Management
I Hate Change and So Do You
Leader to Leader: Fall 1996
Conserving Our Best During Change

Factors of Change

Seven Drivers Of Organizational Success
Factors of Change

Guidelines for Change

Six Keys to Changing Almost Anything
Hard Side of Change Management
Getting Commitment to Change
Top Down or Bottom Up Approaches to Change
Managing Change More Effectively
Improvement Planning for Taking Charge of Change
Implementing Successful & Sustainable Change
Balancing Top-Down and Bottom-Up Change Processes
Change Management and Employee Communication Strategies
Four Ways to Increase the Urgency Needed for Change
Change Model 3: John Kotter's 8 Steps of Leading Change
7 Dimensions: Principal Skills of Change Facilitators
Change As Influence: How to Get the Attention of Deniers, Followers, Dreamers, and Leaders?
6 Lessons for Successful Change Implementation
You Don't Need an Empire to Build Strength for Change
Effective Communication: Getting Everyone On Board The Change Train
Change Management: How to Avoid Resistance Part 1
Change Management: How to Avoid Resistance Part 2

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Example of a Planned, Systemic Change Process -- Action Research

A typical planned, systemic (and systematic) organizational development process often follows an overall action research approach (as described below). There are many variations of the action research approach, including by combining its various phases and/or splitting some into more phases. This section provides resources that are organized into one variation of the action research approach. Note that the more collaborative you are in working with members of the organization during the following process, the more likely the success of your overall change effort.

Phase 1: Start-Up -- Clarifying Expectations and Roles, Assessing Readiness, RFP and Contracts, Getting Buy-In

This phase is sometimes called the "Contracting" and/or "Entry" phase. This phase is usually where the relationship between you (the initial change agent) and your client starts, whether you are an external or internal consultant. Experts assert that this phase is one of the most - if not the most - important phases in the organizational change process. Activities during this stage form the foundation for successful organizational change. The quality of how this phase is carried out usually is a strong indicator of how the project will go.
Types of Clients (this helps answer the critical question: "Who is the current client?")
Defining Project "Success"
Assessing Client's Readiness for Change
Whole Field Assessment And The Change Readiness Checklist
Example of an Entry Conversation Between Consultant and Client
Requests for Proposals, Proposals and Contracts
Before You Can Get Buy-In, People Need to Feel the Problem
Here are some useful skills for the change agent to have at this point in the process.
Interviewing
Listening
Non-Verbal Communications
Questioning
Building Trust

Phase 2: Joint Discovery to Identify Priorities for Change

The more collaborative the change agent is in working with members of the client's organization, the more likely that the change effort will be successful. Your client might not have the resources to fully participate in all aspects of this discovery activity -- the more participation they can muster, the better off your project will be.
Whether you are an external or internal change agent in this project, you and your client will work together during this phase to understand more about the overall priority of the change effort and how you all can effectively address it. It might be a major problem in the organization or an exciting vision to achieve. Together, you will collect information, analyze it to identify findings and conclusions, and then make recommendations from that information. Sometimes the data-collection effort is very quick, for example, facilitating a large planning meeting. Other times, the effort is more extensive, for example, evaluating an entire organization and developing a complete plan for change. The nature of discovery also depends on the philosophy of the change agent and client. For example, subscribers to the philosophy of Appreciative Inquiry (referenced above) might conduct discovery, not by digging into the number and causes of problems in the organization, but by conducting interviews to discover the visions and wishes of people in the organization.
Sometimes, people minimize the importance of - or altogether skip - this critical discovery phase, and start change management by articulating an ambitious and comprehensive vision for change. Many would argue that it is unethical to initiate a project for organizational change without fully examining (or discovering) the current situation in the client's organization. Focusing most of the change efforts on achieving a robust vision, without at least some careful discovery, often can be harmful to your client's organization because your project can end up dealing with symptoms of any current issues, rather than the root causes. Also, the project could end up pushing an exciting vision that, while initially inspiring and motivating to many, could be completely unrealistic to achieve -- especially if the organization already has many current, major issues to address. Therefore, when working to guide change in an organization that already is facing several significant issues, you are usually better off to start from where your client is at -- that usually means conducting an effective discovery to identify priorities for change.

Preparation -- Establishing a Project Team

One of the most powerful means to cultivate collaboration is by working with a project team. Besides, no change agent sees all aspects of the situation in the organization -- team members help to see more of those various aspects.
Establish the Project Team
Team Building

Joint Planning and Conducting Data Collection

Basic Research Methods (planning, selecting, methods, etc., to collect data about performance)
Designing Assessment and Evaluation Tools (to evaluate during and at end of project)
Diagnostic Models (these sometimes suggest what data to collect)
Organizational Assessments (tools to assess current performance)
Selecting from Among Publicly Available Assessments
Some Common Types of Data to Collect
Some Sources of Data and Methods to Collect that Data

Joint Analysis of Research Results

Analyzing, Interpreting and Reporting Results
Diagnostic Models (these can guide the overall analysis and also suggest findings)
Systems Thinking (see recognize overall patterns, cycles, themes in the data)
Critical Thinking (for more robust analysis of data)
Problem Solving (for means to make conclusions, etc., from data)
Maximum Performance -- Different Things to Different People

Joint Generation of Findings and Conclusions

Decision Making (to make final recommendations)
Some Types of Issues Reported, or Found from Data, in Nonprofits
Some Types of Issues Reported, or Found from Data, in For-Profits

Writing Reports

Communications (Writing Research Findings and Recommendations)

Joint Sharing of Findings and Recommendations in Client's Organization

Meeting Management (if recommendations shared in a meeting)
Group Facilitation
Presenting
Sharing Feedback
Managing Group Conflict
Handling Difficult People
Negotiating

Phase 3: Joint Planning of Organizational Development Activities to Address Priorities

In the previous phase about discovery, you and your client conducted research, discovered various priorities that needed attention, generated recommendations to address those priorities, and shared your information with others, for example, in a feedback meeting. Part of that meeting included discussions - and, hopefully, decisions - about the overall mutual recommendations that your client should follow to in order address the priorities that were identified by you and your client during your discovery. This phase is focused on further clarifying those recommendations, along with developing them into various action plans. The various plans are sometimes integrated into an overall change management plan. Thus, the early activities in this phase often overlap with, and are a continuation of, the activities near the end of the earlier discovery phase. This is true whether you are an external or internal consultant. Action plans together can now provide a clear and realistic vision for change. They provide the "roadmap" for managing the transition from the present state to the desired future state.
Development of the various action plans is often an enlightening experience for your client as members of their organization begin to realize a more systematic approach to their planning and day-to-day activities. As with other activities during change management, plans can vary widely in how they are developed. Some plans are very comprehensive and systematic (often the best form used for successful change). Others are comprised of diverse sections that are expected to somehow integrate with each other. Subscribers to the philosophy of Appreciative Inquiry (referenced above) might do planning by building on past positive outcomes and on the strengths of members of the organization.

Selecting Organizational Development Activities to Address the Findings from Discovery

NOTE: A following section in this topic, Possible Organizational Development Activities ("Interventions") to Use in Change Management Activities, includes many other examples of activities (or "interventions") for organizational change and development. During this phase, you might select one or more of those activities from that section, as well.
Some Types of Capacity Building in For-Profit Organizations (and how clients choose them)
Some Types of Capacity Building in Nonprofit Organizations (and how clients choose them)

Joint Development of Action Plans

Basic Guidelines to Successful Planning
Visioning (in context of strategic planning, but applies to change management, too)
Setting Goals
Action Planning

Joint Development of Evaluation Plans

Basic Guide to Program Evaluation (is also relevant to projects -- use to develop evaluation plans)

Joint Development of Learning Plans

Complete Guidelines to Design Your Training Plan (to capture the learnings during the project)

Phase 4: Change Management and Joint Evaluation

During this phase, emphasis is on sustaining and evaluating the change effort, including by addressing resistance that arises from members of the organization -- and sometimes in the change agent, as well.

Client's Ongoing Communication of Action Plans

Basics of Writing and Communicating Plans (in context of strategic planning, but applies to change management plans, too)
Basics of Internal Organizational Communications (to communicate the actions plans)

Client's Implementation of Action Plans

Project Management (to manage implementation of the action plans)
Basics of Monitoring, Evaluating and Deviating from Plan (in context of strategic planning, but applies to change management plans, too)

Client and Change Agent Maintain Momentum During Change

Motivating Others (e.g., to implement the changes and action plans)
Coaching (e.g., to clarify and achieve goals, and learn at the same time)
Delegating (e.g., for leaders and supervisors to ensure action plans are implemented)?
Dealing with resistance (scroll down to the section, "Resistance to change")
Stress Management

Joint Evaluation of Project Activities and Desired Results

Evaluation occurs both to the quality of implementation of plans so far during the project and also regarding the extent of achievement of desired results from the project. Results might be whether certain indicators of success have been achieved, all issues have been addressed, a vision of success has been achieved, action plans have been implemented and/or leaders in the organization agree the project has been successful.
Basic Guide to Program Evaluation (use to conduct evaluations during and at the end of the project)
As part of the final evaluation, you might redo some of the assessments that you used during the discovery phase in order to measure the difference made by the project.
Also see
Evaluation (in Training and Development)

If the Project Gets Stuck

During this phase, if the implementation of the plans gets stalled for a long time, for example, many months, then you might cycle back to an earlier phase in the process in order to update and restart the change management project. Projects can get stuck for a variety of reasons, e.g., if the overall situation changes (there suddenly are new and other priorities in the client's organization), people succumb to burnout, key people leave the organization, the relationship between the consultant and client changes, or people refuse to implement action plans.

Project Termination

(Many times, this activity is defined as a separate phase in the project plan.) These activities are very important to address, even if all participants agree that the project has been successful and no further activities are needed. Project termination activities recognize key learnings from the project, acknowledge the client's development, and identify next steps for you and your client. They also help to avoid "project creep" where the project never ends because the requirements for success keep expanding.

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Possible Organizational Development Activities ("Interventions") to Use in Change Management Processes

The field of Organization Development uses a variety of processes, approaches, methods, techniques, applications, etc., (these are often termed "interventions") to address organizational issues and goals in order to increase performance. The following partial list of interventions is organized generally in the order presented by Cummings and Worley in their "Organization Development and Change" (West Publishing, 1993). The following types of interventions are often highly integrated with each other during a project for change.

How People Choose Organizational Development Activities

There are no standard activities that always successfully address certain types of issues in organizations. Many times, the success of a project lies not with having selected the perfect choice of activities, but rather with how honest and participative people were during the project, how much they learned and how open they were to changing their plans for change.
However, there are some basic considerations that most people make when selecting from among the many choices for organizational development, or capacity building, activities. Considerations include:

1. First, does the change-management method (if one was used) suggest what organizational development activities to use now, for example, the method of strategic management might suggest that a SWOT analysis be done, strategic goals be established along with action plans for each goal, and then implementation of the action plans be closely monitored.
2. Is the activity most likely to address the findings from the discovery, that is, to solve the problems or achieve the goals? To find out, review any research about use of the activity, discuss the potential outcomes with experts and also with members of the organization. Consider posing your questions in online groups of experts about change.
3. Does the nature of the activity match the culture of the organization? The best way to find out is to discuss the activity with members of the organization.
4. Does the change agent and key members of the organization have the ability to conduct the activity? For example, technostructural and strategic interventions sometimes require technical skills that are not common to many people.
5. Does the activity require more time to conduct than the time available in which to address the problem or goal? For example, a cash crisis requires immediate attention, so while a comprehensive strategic planning process might ultimately be useful, the four to five months to do that planning is impractical.
6. Does the client's organization have the resources that are necessary to conduct the activity, considering resources such as funding, attention and time from people and facilities.

The following article provides another set of considerations.
Four Change Management Strategies (scroll to near the bottom of the article)
Management for You: Interventions for Change
Before you and your client select types of interventions for the project, be aware of your strong biases about how you view organizations. Without recognizing those biases, you might favor certain types of interventions primarily because those are the only ones you can readily see and understand, even if other types of interventions might be much more effective in your project.
Understand the Preferred Lens Through Which You View Organizations

Human Process Interventions (Group and Individual Human Relations)

With today's strong emphasis on humanistic values, the following interventions are getting a great deal of attention and emphasis during efforts for change. They focus on helping members of the organization to enhance themselves, each other and the ways in which they work together in order to enhance their overall organization. Although the types of interventions selected for a project depend on a variety of considerations and the interventions in a project often are highly integrated with each other, the following human process interventions might be particularly helpful during change projects in organizations where there is some combination of the following: many new employees, different cultures working together, many complaints among organizational members, many conflicts, low morale, high turnover, ineffective teams, etc.

Guiding Individuals

Coaching
Counseling
Delegating
Leading
Morale (Boosting)
Mentoring
Motivating

Group-Based

Conflict Management
Dialoguing
Group Facilitation
Group Learning
Self-Directed Work Teams
Large-Scale Interventions
Team Building
Virtual Teams

Technostructural Interventions (Structures, Technologies, Positions, etc.)

The following are examples of activities that focus on improving the performance of organizations primarily by modifying structures, technologies, operations, procedures and roles/positions in the organization. Although the types of interventions selected for a project depend on a variety of considerations and the interventions in a project often are highly integrated with each other, the following technostructural interventions might be particularly helpful in the following kinds of situations: rapid growth but few internal systems to sustain that growth, much confusion about roles, a new major technology or process has been introduced, many complaints from customers, etc. These interventions might also be useful in new organizations where internal operational systems must be developed and implemented.
Balanced Scorecard
Business Process Re-Engineering
Downsizing and Outplacing
ISO9000
Management by Objectives
Organizing Staff
Organizing Tasks, Jobs and Roles
Six Sigma
Total Quality Management
Six Overlooked Keys to Organizational Alignment
Strategy First ... Then Structure
Basic Principles of Organizational Design (Part 1 of 2)
Basic Principles of Organizational Design (Part 2 of 2)
A Strategic Nonprofit Reorganization Plan
The Importance of Organizational Design and Structure

Human Resource Management Interventions (Individual and Group Performance Management)

The following activities aim to enhance overall organizational performance by improving the performance of individuals and groups within the organization. Performance is in regard to setting goals, monitoring progress to the goals, sharing feedback, reinforcing activities to achieve goals and dissuading those that don't. Performance also is in regard to developing employees, including by enhancing their overall sense of well-being. Although the types of interventions selected for a project depend on a variety of considerations and the interventions in a project often are highly integrated, the following human resource interventions might be particularly helpful in the following kinds of situations: new organizational goals have been established, a major new system or technology must be implemented in a timely fashion, many new employees, plans don't seem to get implemented, productivity is low, ineffective teams, etc.

Employee Performance Management

Establishing Performance Goals
Performance Plans
Observation and Feedback
Evaluating Performance
Rewarding Performance
Recognizing Performance Problems ("Performance Gaps")
Performance Improvement / Development Plans
Staffing
Firing Employees

Employee Development

Career Development
Leadership Development Planning
Management Development Planning
Personal Development
Personal Productivity
Personal Wellness
Supervisory Development Planning
Training and Development

Employee Wellness Programs

Diversity Management
Drugs in the Workplace
Employee Assistance Programs
Ergonomics: Safe Facilities in the Workplace
HIV/AIDS in the Workplace
Personal Wellness
Preventing Violence in the Workplace
Safety in the Workplace
Spirituality in the Workplace

Strategic Interventions (Organization and Its External Environment)

The following activities focus especially on the organization and its interactions with its external environment, and often involve changes to many aspects of the organization, including employees, groups, technologies, products and services, etc. Although the types of interventions selected for a project depend on a variety of considerations and the interventions in a project often are highly integrated, the following strategic interventions might be particularly helpful in the following kinds of situations:rapid changes in the external environment, rapid or stagnant sales, significantly increased competition, rapid expansion of markets, mergers and acquisitions, the need for quick and comprehensive change throughout the organization, etc.
Business Planning
Cultural Change
Large-Scale Interventions
Open Systems Planning
Organizational Alliances
Organizational Transformation
Strategic Planning

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General Resources

Service Organizations Focused on Organizational Change and Development

International Association of Facilitators
International Society for Performance Improvement
Institute for Cultural Affairs -- World-Wide
Midwest Facilitators' Network
National OD Network
Regional OD networks
Society for Human Resource Management

Online Groups

Online groups

Toolkits, Etc.

Change Management Resource Library
Organizational Change Resources
Change Management Toolbook
Managing Change

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