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Advance Your HR Career With an MBA

While the basic functions of the human resources department have not changed in the last decade, many aspects of personnel recruitment and management have. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employers competing to find and maintain top talent are now redefining many aspects of work to meet the needs of today’s workforce, as well as a new generation of workers.

HR professionals are on the front lines of this employment revolution, using innovative strategies to match the right candidate to available job openings. They are also adapting HR policies to the ways that technology and the gig economy have reshaped the modern workplace.

In the midst of this fertile landscape of progress, however, many mid-career HR professionals are finding that their skills may need an upgrade too. The future of HR requires leaders who have the ability to forecast trends rather than follow them. It’s crucial that they know how to deftly navigate this new era of employer-employee relations.

Northwest Missouri State University’s online MBA in Human Resource Management is a degree designed for working HR professionals who want to gain advanced knowledge and capabilities in their field. The program is an intensive course of study in the theory and practice of human resources, as well as the key technologies that will impact the work of HR going forward.

HR Practices Shaping the Next Decade

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) argues that personnel practices will become even more focused on engagement in the next decade, both in recruiting and on the job. Here are some key trends the organization has identified that will shape the future of HR in this respect:

Greater emphasis on productivity

Approximately 60 percent of employers now allow employees to work remotely, and many more are coming around to a new productivity-driven model that doesn’t measure success on hours clocked at the office or time on task. SHRM believes this trend will grow as workers continue to demonstrate that their value is in the results they can produce, whether they are working in a cubicle or a coffee shop.

Benefits on the menu

Employees are less satisfied than they used to be with a standard benefit package of health insurance, retirement plan, sick days and two weeks’ vacation. These evolving desires are driving complex changes in benefit administration. In this era of crippling student loan debt for instance, more workers are seeking — and getting — generous tuition benefits and help paying off existing loans. SHRM believes that benefits could soon become more a la carte and personalized, citing quarterly cash for lifestyle perks such as massages or dog walkers as one way that employers are practicing strategic HR.

Standard use of predictive analytics

Analytics and artificial intelligence are perhaps the fastest-growing tools of HR practice, as employers seek more sophisticated means of targeting candidates, matching them to opportunities and pre-measuring their fit with the organization. SHRM reports that 32 percent of companies are ready to implement these technologies, in addition to those that are already using them. Therefore, the demand for HR managers with expertise in this area will continue to grow as AI and analytics-driven personnel tools become more standard.

Benefits of the MBA-HRM Degree

An MBA gives mid-career professionals the tools and expertise they will need to craft the future of HR and have the strongest impact in their field over the next decade. Students in the Northwest Missouri State University online MBA-HRM program can earn their degree in as little as 12-18 months while receiving an expansive graduate education in:

  • Advanced human resource management
  • Compensation and benefits
  • Organizational behavior, training and development
  • Strategic marketing
  • Managerial accounting, finance and macroeconomics
  • Business decision analysis

This fast and flexible online program also allows working HR professionals to earn their MBA without taking a break from their career and experience the true benefits that a graduate degree in business can bring.

Earning your MBA in HR Management:

  • Demonstrates your commitment to staying current with relevant best practices in your field and gaining professional expertise in new areas of HR.
  • Increases your opportunity for promotion to senior-level recruiting, personnel and benefits management positions, which often require an MBA.
  • Opens up access to management and executive positions that are only available to MBAs, increasing your career mobility.
  • Gives you a credential with high market value that can boost your earning potential.
  • Provides opportunities to expand your professional network via the contacts you make with professors, your fellow MBA students and employers.

The right time to get an MBA depends on you, but the best reason is that you are ready to pursue the goals an advanced business degree in HR can help you achieve.

Learn more about Northwest Missouri State University’s online MBA in Human Resource Management program.


Sources:

Society for Human Resource Management: 6 Trends That Changed HR Over the Past Decade


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