HR pros should help employees see their job as a pitstop on career journey

Career moves aren’t always clear—especially when coupled with a tumultuous economy and fluctuating labor market.

This is where executive coach and author Sharon Hull comes in. In her recently published book, Professional Careers by Design: A Handbook For the Bespoke Life, Hull uses insights from her career and experience coaching professionals to help readers set intentions as they navigate their own careers.

She shared with HR Brew what people leaders in particular can learn from her book.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What does it mean for someone to have a bespoke life?

To me, the bespoke life is the life that we all hope we have, where we can have the privilege of organizing our work and our personal life so that they meet our core values and the needs of ourselves and those around us that we care about…One of my favorite quotes I shared in the book is: “Work and home; it’s all one life.” We have a finite amount of life energy, and what we do with that life energy is up to us. And I realize that sometimes it’s hard to be intentional, and it looks like we don’t have [a] choice. Sometimes career challenges can feel like catastrophes…We always have a choice. It may not be the choice we want to see, but there are choices to be made. And it’s a method for walking through those choices, whether they are ones we created or ones that happened to us.

What do you hope HR pros will learn from your book?

[HR professionals] certainly have the best window seat on what’s happening in the workforce. Today, I think, after the pandemic, the whole societal expectations around…workplace expectations is shifting…and I think HR professionals see that. They struggle with it. They advocate for people who are living those challenges. And I hope this is a book that helps bridge the gap between the pre-pandemic and the post-pandemic view of work and that there are ways for people to be intentional, and it doesn’t have to be threatening to the organization.

How can HR bridge the gap between the pre- and post-pandemic view of work?

If HR professionals recognize that [they] sit at that intersection [of] the needs of the individual and needs of the organization. Both need to thrive in the future world of work, and it doesn’t have to be an adversarial thing…If there are ways that we can help people who are employees get things that matter, figure out what matters, and then start with what’s possible…then go back to the organization…I think organizations will find that their retention and their recruitment will recover from the pandemic era faster…We have to take work and personal together. I think companies that get that will be far more successful in the next decade or two than those that don’t.

You discuss design thinking in your book. How can that principle be applied to HR?

I’m thinking of HR professionals [as] sitting in those box seats up at the top of a football stadium, and they get to see the whole field and the whole game, not just one play. And, if they can take that long view or the bigger view of an individual’s career and help that individual see their current status as a point in time. That doesn’t mean that they have to help people see how to end it, but they have to help people put it in context. And then they have to go back to the organization and help the organization put people’s career trajectories into context, so that an organization that has somebody who’s an incredibly successful professional gets recruited to a top tier competitor might not entirely be a loss.

If [your] people are getting recruited to the best places, maybe you’re doing your job right as a company…because you’re creating desirable people to move up the chain. And if organizations can see that, then recruitment and retention doesn’t feel so adversarial, and they’re helping meet the needs of individuals…Maybe somebody wants to move up inside the organization but there isn’t a visible pathway and [an] organization could begin to create pathways for advancement that will help with retention. HR people sitting in that box seat at the top of the stadium can see this and can help with this.