With so much of the world spending the majority of time in their homes, there has never been a better time to learn a new skill. While podcasts and books are a great place to start, nothing beats a digital course that helps you refine your HR skills or even learn something new.
Regardless of where you are in your career, there is always room for growth. Taking this time to invest in yourself and your professional development can open doors to new opportunities, not only helping you land that promotion or even your dream job but can also help you elevate the people strategy at your organization and create better work environments for your team members.
There are a lot of different HR courses for you to check out or follow, some even offering a certification you can show off once the course is complete.
To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 10 of the best online HR courses to check out.
What’s in?
- Digital HR
- Human Capital Strategy
- Josh Bersin Academy
- MyHRfuture
- Addressing Unconscious Bias
- Inclusive Leadership: Working with Equality and Diversity
- HR Strategies for Business
- Creating Meaning for Employees
- Developing Your Skills as an HR Professional
- Cultural Competency
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How to select the right HR course
Before you jump into a course, you want to take the time to make sure the program you’re selecting is the right fit for you. But how do you choose?
There are a couple important things to consider. When selecting an HR course, think about what you hope to accomplish. Do you want a certificate you can show off, or are you more focused on the skills you’re learning? Are you hoping to enter a new industry or do you want to refine the skills you already have?
You also want to think about the time you’re willing to invest. Do you want to participate in a live course with other HR professionals, or do you want the freedom of a self-paced process? If you bite off more than you can chew, you might find yourself feeling overwhelmed and end up not finishing the course.
Also, don’t forget to consider the cost. Are you looking for a free course or do you have any personal development budget available that you’d like to use for this?
Decide what you want before you get started. This can help you stay motivated and ensure you’re getting the most from the course you select.
1. Digital HR
Digital HR is a certificate program offered through AIHR Academy. It’s an entry-level course that teaches participants how to leverage technology to make HR more effective by becoming a Digital HR Specialist.
The program is self-paced and you have 12 months to complete the five courses and the final project. However, you can finish the Digital HR certification program in just 10 weeks if you commit to studying four hours per week.
The five courses include digital strategy, thought leadership, HR tech implementation, business and technology, and employee experience. You will learn real-world applications and get hands-on experience that can advance your career and prepare you for a future in technology-driven HR.
The course costs $997 with installment options starting at $185 per month.
Developing your digital HR skills is essential to be able to keep up with the developments in HR technology.
2. Human Capital Strategy
Human Capital Strategy is an online course that teaches participants how to intentionally design your organization’s values and culture, recruit and hire the right people, adapt your organizational structure as you scale, and build effective teams. If you’re looking for insight on how to build and grow your team, this is for you.
It’s a self-paced class with certification available. If you put in just 3-4 hours a week, you could complete the course in just 6 weeks. The syllabus includes five modules: Culture and Values, Developing Your Organizational Structure, Recruiting and Hiring, Optimizing Performance, and Talent Development.
The course helps you identify the roles each team member plays in achieving the company’s mission and vision. By helping each team member understand their unique value, you can recruit more effectively and develop stronger teams.
The best part about this course––it’s free!
3. Josh Bersin Academy
Josh Bersin Academy is more than just one class––it’s an entire academy that helps HR professionals stay competitive in their fields. With research-based, future-focused courses, participants learn to solve future-of-work problems through strategic solutions.
Josh Bersin Academy also offers a unique community where HR and talent professionals can share insights, stories, and ideas to solve problems and provide advice. This kind of collaboration means participants always have something to learn, or even to teach!
Some top programs offered include a Remote Work Bootcamp, People Analytics, Voices, Values, and HR, and People as Competitive Advantage. Each course is scheduled with new start dates happening every few weeks. Most courses last about 5 weeks and require 6-8 hours of learning time.
The cost of membership is currently $25 per month or $250 per year.
4. MyHRfuture
MyHRfuture is another online academy offering you multiple courses and classes with just one subscription. When you sign up for MyHRfuture, you get access to all online training programs taught on demand.
MyHRfuture works with world-leading HR experts to produce content. Their ranging experience and expertise means there are courses available regardless of industry, specialization, or skill level.
Courses offered include: An Introduction to People Analytics, How to Use Assessments for Talent Identification, Creating a Digital HR Foundation, and How to Use Statistics in Your People Analytics Projects.
Subscription plans are offered on an annual basis, starting at $320 for a year of unlimited access to training courses, a global community of peers and experts, and over 500 articles, videos and case studies.
Other skills include consulting and influencing as well as digital HR. Following online HR courses is a great way to gain these skills.
5. Addressing Unconscious Bias
Addressing Unconscious Bias, a course created by Grovo, uses modern learning techniques to help you recognize your unconscious biases and examine them. By becoming more aware of your unconscious biases, you can build more inclusive workplaces.
The unconscious bias training program enables participants to slow down their thinking, recognize their unconscious biases in the moment, and address how to intervene to change behaviors.
The course is broken down into 20 microlearning lessons broken down into different categories, including “Why is it hard to talk about bias?,” “The difference between bias and instincts,” and “How do I examine my own bias?”
The videos are available for free online. Each quick bit of information is only a few minutes, so you can take this course at your own pace.
6. Inclusive Leadership: Working with Equality and Diversity
In today’s global economy, it’s important to be an inclusive leader. Inclusive Leadership: Working with Equality and Diversity helps you gain emotional intelligence skills to be a better leader.
Throughout the course, you’ll learn how to identify how working with a diverse group can lead to better outcomes within your organization and discover how unconscious bias works and how you can work with others with bias. You will also explore the best ways to give and receive feedback and how to differentiate your leadership capabilities through inclusion.
The course includes 1.5 hours of on-demand video, 4 articles, 5 downloadable resources, assignments, and a certification of completion. You all receive full lifetime access to the course, so you can stay up-to-date as new content is added or upgraded.
The course normally costs $179.99, but sometimes you can catch it on sale for $12.99.
7. HR Strategies for Business
HR Strategies for Business helps you understand the important role of Human Resources for a successful business. It is designed for all levels of HR professionals and focuses on how to improve HR’s ability to contribute to the organizational strategy to achieve success.
The course is a great start for HR professionals hoping to advance their career and move into a management or leadership role. The course consists of e-learning modules, interactive quizzes, tests, and exams.
Global Edulink offers tutor support Monday through Friday to answer any questions or support you through the course. You can also receive a CDP and iAP accredited certificate when the course is complete.
The regular price of the course is £199. When it’s on sale, it can go to as low as £12.
HR strategy isn’t standalone and it should align with other business strategies. Improving your strategizing skills will come in handy if you want to progress in your career.
8. Creating Meaning for Employees
In Creating Meaning for Employees, Janic Fraser, CEO and co-founder of Adaptive Path, teaches you to gain better insight into how to create a meaningful and motivational company culture.
You’ll learn how important culture is to a business’s success and what goes into a productive company culture. You’ll learn how to create meaning for your employees and how that can contribute to a more positive culture within your company.
The course takes just 1-2 hours, so it’s perfect for someone wanting to learn something new without a lot of time to invest. There is also an online assessment and certification.
The course is offered for free.
9. Developing Your Skills as an HR Professional
Developing Your Skills as an HR Professional will help you refine the skills needed to be an effective HR leader. You will learn how to keep yourself organized, manage time and stress, and work in teams or groups.
Through taking this course, you will be able to demonstrate self-management skills, manage work-life balance, and support personal skill development and growth. This course is great for someone starting their first job in HR or an industry professional wanting to refine the basics.
The course includes five modules: Using reflection to support learning, Using reflection to improve performance, Managing yourself, Working in teams, and Bringing it all together.
This is a free, self-paced course.
Being a T-shaped HR professional means having a wide base knowledge layer in a range of HR areas and deep expertise layer in a couple of subjects. Think about how you want to shape your knowledge and skills when selecting a course!
10. Cultural Competency
Cultural Competency is taught by the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA). It is designed for HR professionals to learn and improve a broad range of human resource skills, including diversity and inclusion, hiring, talent management, and more.
The course is 2 hours in total learning time, including 40 videos, 8 quizzes, and 1 text. It covers topics such as Diversity and Culture, Bias and Stereotyping, Dimensions of Culture, Cultural Competency, Business Case for Hiring Culturally Diverse Candidates, Recruitment and Hiring, Career and Performance Management, and Inclusive Organizations.
The course also offers a pre-assessment tool so you can measure your cultural competency before you begin the lessons. At the end, you can see how much you’ve grown or what new practices and processes you’ve learned.
Access to the course costs $197.75.
A final word
Online courses are a great way to refresh and hone your HR skills and knowledge. When you’re spending all this time at home at the moment, it’s an awesome way to keep learning––and it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg if you choose one of the free courses offered.
New courses are being added all the time; take a look at sites like Udemy or Coursera, where you can gain new skills and knowledge from the comfort of your own home.
