You’ve already made a big decision. You know that you want to work in a field that allows you to directly help people on a day-to-day basis. Narrowing down the choices in health care and human services can be challenging, especially since there is a lot of overlap in certain careers. 

If you’ve been trying to decide between taking a mental health worker certificate program (health care) or a developmental services worker program (human services), this information is for you!  

Basics of the jobs 

First, let’s explore the basics of these two roles. Someone who has taken an addictions and mental health program will be focused exclusively on helping individuals with mental health issues and substance addictions. Education programs to gain skills in this role will look at mental health issues and addictions as separate issues as well as looking at them as concurrent issues. This type of work will focus on improving a person’s health, aiding in prevention and encouraging harm-reduction strategies.  

Those who have taken a personal support worker program will have a different, but slightly overlapping focus. As a developmental services worker, individuals aid others in creating more fulfilling, independent lives. This comes in the form of exploring a variety of personal life areas including mental health, developmental disabilities, communications and behaviours.  

The overlap 

In both jobs, there is a keen awareness of mental health and how working with any individual on personal matters involves exploring the way they think, how they are feeling mentally and emotionally and improvements that can be made to create a more enriched life. There is also a look at behaviours in both roles. This is an area where education can help significantly. Understanding what certain undesirable behaviours mean being able to assist the support worker in assessment and helping the client change.  

Ongoing involvement and differences 

Where the differences between the two jobs show up is in the very early analysis stages and in the later stages after a relationship is formed.  

For example, in the role of a mental health and addictions support worker, there will be a lot of time spent at the start of the interaction to better understand the mental health and addiction issues and some of the behaviours around them. The individual may not have been diagnosed, may have been misdiagnosed or may have new challenges. The support worker will attempt to unravel the current situation and past issues. 

Mental health is complex and when interwoven with addictions, it can become increasingly challenging to determine the issues and how to start treatment. Once the characteristics of the individuals’ issues are defined, the relationship expands and the work to treat the conditions really gets underway.  

People a development services worker works with will generally have an existing diagnosis of a disability, behavioural issue, impairment or other challenges. Mental health will be explored in the early stages of forming the relationship, but as the care worker and the individual get to know each other, mental health will be dealt with along with other areas of growth.  

This could be the case when a support worker is at a residential group home with individuals who have a range of disabilities. The support worker would initially need to get to know the individuals, understand their specific cases and needs and begin developing a relationship. As the relationship progresses, trust is built and the case worker can start adding various techniques into daily life to encourage more independence or satisfaction in life. This may include tools around mental health or mobility, life skills or training or a number of other elements.  

The job market is strong 

Another area where both mental health workers and developmental services workers are aligned is in the growth of the number of jobs. Providing individuals and families support are high demand areas, therefore there is a growing need for trained, skilled support to improve lives.  

Human resources is often thought of as the department that’s all about people. While obviously true, there is plenty more that goes on behind the scenes in this essential field. In today’s changing world, the HR department is moving faster than ever to ensure employee and organizational needs are met. People are always at the core, but sometimes the work includes analysis and data mining, while other times it includes data entry and reporting.  

The fact is that HR takes a complete team of both generalists and specialists. Some may have taken a human resources program and spend their days completing the stereotypical tasks. Others may have more technical work that is a far cry from the image of interviews, onboarding and providing support when employees have challenges. It comes down to what is needed for the organization to move forward positively. 

It’s an exciting department to be part of and the job diversity is vast. Consider these 5 growing specialized HR roles: 

1. Employee relations manager

This is the ideal job for someone who likes to create harmony between two parties within the organization. An employee relations manager facilitates positive relationships between employees and the management team. While this is sometimes done at a group level (think union and management) this HR specialist also intervenes to improve relationships between individuals (think supervisor and employee on the same team, or co-workers having a conflict). Training, like a conflict resolution certificate, can help them identify, de-escalate and resolve. Additionally, they may also have a mediation certificate which helps in negotiating contracts and procedures and they will also have advanced knowledge in applicable labour laws.  

2. Manager of employee experience

This role is all about creating a more enjoyable, inclusive workplace that ensures happiness and job satisfaction are on everyone’s minds. Diversity and inclusion training are essential for this job (although most HR jobs will require this kind of training) as are other elements to consider when creating programs and activities that create a positive company culture. There may be an employee committee that works with this individual while other tools like surveys and random informal interviews may contribute to organizational knowledge.  

3. Change management specialist

As economies, markets and regions shift, organizations will also need to change. It’s no doubt that change can be harder for some than others and many organizations turn to a specialist to help employees with the preparation and outcomes. No matter what the project is – a new internal communication system, blending of departments, re-alignment of the workforce to meet new needs – people will need assistance understanding how they fit into something new. A change management specialist will likely have change management certification and will work closely with all project stakeholders to understand the situation, suggest opportunities and implement solutions to minimize negative outcomes.  

4. Compensation and benefits manager

One of the primary elements of a job offer is the compensation package. Compensation and benefits managers assist with organizational success by ensuring these packages are competitive and able to attract (and retain) the best talent possible. This is a more detailed role that gets into the nitty-gritty of salary ranges, market standards, benefit programs and how these fit within organizational budgets, needs and structure. There are a lot of spreadsheets and data mining for this individual to tackle. A compensation and benefits manager will also work in an educator role to help managers and supervisors understand regulations around compensation as well as assessments of changes.  

5. Remote work advisor

While not quite a commonplace job title, the remote work advisor (also known by flexible workforce advisor or other titles) is exactly what you’d assume from the job title. This individual liaises with employees, managers and team members to identify needs and opportunities for a remote work force. This may include ensuring equipment and safe work environments are in place outside of the traditional office space, but it may also look at tools for interactivity, work hours and structure of a remote employee’s role. With COVID forcing many employees to find new places and ways to work, the move to more of a remote workforce is likely to continue and a remote work advisor will be a key part of facilitating that positively. 

HR is all about people, but in different roles, the amount of human interaction varies. Depending upon what you like to do, you may feel excited by one of these, or another new and growing role in HR.