While working for Content Marketing Agency Mahlab, I was the editor of HRM, a brand we created and managed for the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), a professional association for practitioners with ~20,000 members.
HRM contained a membership magazine, which was always ranked highly as a membership benefit, an online site that acted as a funnel for future members, and an e-newsletter which acted as a funnel for the website. I led a team of two full-time writers, a designer, and a cadre of freelancers for various duties (photographers for covers and stories, writers for stories, etc.).
The Brief
I had worked under the previous editor of HRM for two years before taking on leadership. AHRI's main goal the whole time was HR certification.
Whereas accounting professional bodies have established themselves as essential, because it's through them that you maintain required qualifications, there is no such legal or employer requirement for HR professionals. AHRI's goal was to make their certification program so attractive to HR professionals and employers that their post-nominals would be as sought after as CPA and CA.
At the same time, AHRI's main value propositions to HR professionals were its signature events and the magazine itself. So another goal of ours was to advertise the events successfully and maintain a high level of quality for our content.
The Execution
The strategy for advancing certification rested on three pillars.
- Lionising HR professionals who'd gone through the certification process as enviable experts. This included profiles of certified HR professionals, but also turning to them for their expert opinions in other articles we were writing. If, for example, a scandal in the business world that had an HR component occurred – we'd turn to an AHRI-certified practitioner for their take.
- A direct pitch for the benefits of HR certification. So articles about how educational the certification process is, research into how it improves job prospects, and opinion pieces on why HR should seek the same professionalism as accounting.
- The more complicated pillar was targeting content at younger HR professionals so that they saw certification as a must-have. This was important as established HR professionals often saw certification as an unnecessary burden because their CV would get them a job.
Examples of Work
- A feature that ran in both the magazine and online on the potential for companies to be held criminally liable for the outcomes of their cultural practices.
- I insisted on a proactive, speedy reaction to current events, one that sought an original angle from which our audience would benefit. Leading by example, when the pandemic got underway, I spoke to two psychologists and wrote a detailed guide about how to reassure colleagues and employees who were experiencing anxiety.
- I also oversaw the completion of dozens of print magazines. Please email me (link at the top) if you'd like to see the PDFs.