Career Advancement
An HR professional with strong qualifications navigating limited opportunities on a small island.
Background
Sheryl* is an HR Officer working in a manufacturing firm in Barbados. There are five people in her HR team and 500 people in the firm. She has been in the role for two months and is doing primarily Training and Development, liaising with trainers and different stakeholders to coordinate programmes.
Barbados is a small Caribbean island with a population of 300,000. Its primary industries are manufacturing and tourism. Unemployment on the island is around 10% at the time of coaching.
The Challenge
Sheryl has spent a lot of time acquiring certifications and training prior to her current role. She holds a Masters in Human Resources and a number of other HR qualifications, and has four years of experience in a small HR firm. However, her peers in the team are not as qualified and yet are in similar roles to her. She wants to find an HR Manager role, either in her current firm or elsewhere, that is better suited to her qualifications.
What We Explored
The 45-minute session examined several interconnected factors.
On the opportunities available: an HR Manager role in Barbados requires a minimum of two years of HR experience in a large firm, as well as strong people skills. There is limited progression from an HR Manager role to a more senior position on the island. The firms on the island are not large enough to support a VP or Director of HR, and those roles are few. Sheryl also realised during the session that she would likely not become HR Manager at her current firm, as her team has only five people and promotion would only come if her current manager left, which was unlikely. So her only path to the HR Manager role was outside her company.
On her current qualifications: Sheryl has all the required certifications and came across in the session as friendly, professional, and responsive. She has good people skills and strong conflict management. She also identified, in the session, that she was missing the leadership dimension required of the HR Manager role.
On alternatives: part of Sheryl's motivation for the HR Manager role was the salary. Moving off the island was discussed but she was not keen on leaving. The alternative explored was marketing her skills and services on online freelancing platforms.
Why This Approach
This was a 45-minute first session with Sheryl. I spent time researching the country's employment context before the session. My cultural background is very different from hers and I wanted to make sure I was not projecting my assumptions onto her situation.
One thing of value I brought to the session was my experience coaching HR professionals across multiple levels, from officers through to Directors. I have an understanding of what each level of the hierarchy requires. In a managerial role, leadership skills are key: the ability to motivate people and delegate well. When I asked Sheryl how she intended to build the experience needed, most of her responses focused on gaining more certifications and doing well in her job. She omitted the leadership component entirely. This was her blind spot, and it was worth naming.
What Shifted
- Sheryl understood that, at this point in time, an HR Manager role was unlikely without first developing her leadership experience.
- She identified ways to build leadership experience within her current role by taking existing processes and making them better.
- She committed to improving her online profile and exploring freelancing platforms to create additional income opportunities using her existing qualifications.
"You cannot take a client deeper than you have gone yourself. But you also cannot show them a door they are not ready to walk through. You can only make the door visible."
*Name has been changed for privacy and confidentiality.