Neel Mehta
In an interview with ExecutiveBiz, Senior Vice President of Human Resources Gail Forrest gave advice on starting in her field:
“What I would suggest to people is you have to first think of yourself as a business runner and a business owner and a leader of the business who is responsible for having a successful operation. The slant for an HR person is you are the functional expert that gets results through people, so the two things I'd really suggest to someone is first of all, get as many types of different HR jobs that you can in every area of expertise. From compensation to benefits, have both staff and line jobs. The one thing I think that HR people do not do that is really critical to being successful is to do a line job at some point. Be responsible for having to make a profit and walk in the shoes of a line manager, and you will have much more credibility in the long run as an HR professional. You'll really appreciate first hand what your customer is going through. Those are probably the two pieces of advice that I would give: Get a diverse background and walk in both line and staff shoes.”
To read the rest of the interview, click here.
