Turn Your HR Work Into an Opus of Career-Long Achievement

The Latin word for work is opus. An opus is often thought of an artistic composition, such as a musical work, but it can also define our life’s work. When thinking about the human resource management profession as an opus, the work of the practice takes on new meanings and comes with heightened expectations of mastery.

An opus requires continued commitment to improvement, both professionally and personally. After all, Beethoven didn’t get "the Opus 131 String Quartet" right on the first try. Continuous dedication is required to master today’s HR competencies – abilities and expertise that today must also deliver business results.

In other words, your path to greatness is up to you. As one of my peers says, "It’s up to you to do you!"

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants

For the HR profession, marketing, business development and other occupational roles requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher, there is a new reality: our jobs require more education and training than ever, "and many workers are realizing that retraining and upgrading their skills needs to be a lifetime commitment," according to the Pew Research Center in a study on The State of American Jobs.

The Pew findings are eye opening:

• 82 percent of workers with post-graduate degrees say they don’t have the education and training they need to get ahead at work.
• 63 percent of workers with a bachelor’s degrees or higher say it is essential for them to get training and develop new skills throughout their work life.
• 72 percent of workers say "a lot" of the responsibility falls on the individual to get and maintain the skills needed for success.

As you can see, the higher up the ladder you climb, and the more complex your job, the more that continuous learning becomes an imperative – both for individuals and the organizations they serve. And it’s largely up to you to carve out professional development time.

At HR Certification Institute^® (HRCI®), we want to help you develop your opus by offering a complete array of HR professional opportunities. Choose from a suite of seven HR certifications, each recognizing mastery at all levels. We offer discounts for entire HR departments. But that is only the start. HRCI certification holders are also encouraged to continue their learning by earning pre-approved HRCI recertification credits to maintain their credentials throughout their HR careers.

Activities such as attendance at pre-approved seminars, webinars, conferences count toward recertification and are great ways to master HR’s equivalent of arpeggios and scales. Online courses and books count too, as do the earning of new professional achievements such as implementing a new program at work, serving as a volunteer HR expert and conducting HR-related research.

Upcoming HRCI Webinars

One of the easiest ways you can continue to make sweet HR music is to take advantage of HRCI webinars. On Wednesday, Jan. 18, 3 p.m., John Schwarz, Founder and CEO of Visier, will lead a discussion on HR’s changing roles. On Tuesday, Jan. 24, 1 p.m., Holly Burkett, Ph.D., SPHR, Principal of Evaluation Works, will provide ideas for creating a resilient learning organization. In addition, you can view past presentations in the HRCI webinar archives – and receive recertification credits.

Stay in the Loop

To make sure you are informed about the latest webinars and HRCI opportunities to continue your professional development growth, please go to the HRCI website, log in and create or update your profile. You should also:

• Sign up for the HRCI newsletter for certification holders.
• Add hrcimarketing@hrci.org to your email address book to ensure you receive all news, updates and special offers from HRCI.

The success of any opus is self-development and collaborating, hand-in-hand, with like-minded partners. HRCI looks forward to expanding its dedicated community of professionals and organizations to share new ideas, advance the HR profession. Please join us in your life’s work.