Firstly HR is now seen as a profession, it can offer a structured and rewarding career path to those who pursue and succeed within it.

HR is also a profession on the up! Demographics show, as illustrated by McKinsey's study "The War for Talent", that there is a diminishing global talent pool from which an expanding population of businesses are looking to hire. On the assumption that recruiting, retaining and developing the best people makes for a more successful business, it means that the power balance will shift further toward the employee. Hence for organisations to maximise their success, they will need to ensure they make themselves as attractive to work for as possible.

HR will play a pivotal role in this, as people issues become an increasingly important of organisations' core strategies. A result of this must be to make the HR professions even more central to the business, increasing the number of HR Directors sitting on the main board, a major leap from 30 years ago when this was the exception - rather than the rule. Taking the leap one step further, the more HR Directors we see on the main board, the more likely we are to see Chairman, CEO and MD's coming from an HR background, which has traditionally been the domain of the finance or sales professional.

HR also offers tremendous variety that derives not only from the range of specialists under it's wings and the range of tasks taken on by the generalist, but also from HR's new pivotal role as businesses go through change. In the knowledge economy people or 'Human Capital' has become the key asset for many businesses, hence when change is desired by or foisted upon an organisation, people are a key consideration and HR will often lead, the communication and adoption of that change or organisational development.

Financially, HR can now be a highly attractive option as rewards have increased significantly. This has happened most notably in Technology, Professional Services and Financial Services business. However take any FTSE 100 or multinational and it would not be unusual to find the Number 1 HR professional rewarded in terms of £100,000's. However this is not always the case with the HR Directors/Managers in smaller traditional businesses earning between £30,000 and £50,000 in base salary.

HR does however offer relatively good job security for the HR generalist. As in times of economic slowdown and redundancy, HR are very much needed to support redundancy programmes. However, this may not be the case for the Training and Development professional, as when budgets have to be slashed this is often one of the first to be paired back. The same is also the case for the in-house Recruiter, as when organisations impose recruitment freezes, there is often little for them to do.

HR also offers relatively good job transportability between industry sectors. It is the content of the role and specific experience that is often more important than the sector from which it derives when seeking a new position.

One final word of warning. It is often heard that an individual wishes to go into HR because they like helping and working with "people". Whilst an ease in people situations is of benefit, too sensitive an approach can be a dangerous portent as HR often puts its protagonists in situations, such as disciplinary proceedings, where it is entirely necessary to remain detached from the personal aspects involved.

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