Sugar and spice and everything nice? No, that doesn’t sound right. Maybe it’s more like Steve Austin, the six million dollar man- building someone who is stronger and faster. No, that’s not it either. So what does it take to build the perfect HR professional?
I’ve heard people who say that in order to be successful in human resources, you must have a Human Resouce degree. Others say you MUST have a PHR or SPHR certification in addition to your degree. Still others say you should not have a HR degree or certification, you should be an MBA with real-world experience. Just this past week at the Senior HR Executive Conference I heard some of these ideas plus executives who believe that you can take someone with operations experience and turn them into the perfect HR pro. So, who is right?
The answer is simple: there is no “perfect” recipe. It depends on the company, work environment, culture, and role the person will fill. Certain skills are paramount to being a strong business professional regardless of whether that person is in HR, marketing, advertising, finance, or operations. What this conversation and debate tells me is that there are currently HR professionals out here who could be doing more to demonstrate their value. I assert that if you only have a HR degree, certification, MBA, or operations experience, you will not be the ideal HR pro. You need to have skills from each of these components in order to truly be a successful business leader. There are some key skills you can focus on obtaining or improving that will ensure you will be able to remain relevant in 2010 and beyond.
Strong human resource knowledge
This is a MUST. Now, obviously this can be learned in a degree program or by studying for certification, but it goes beyond that. It involves REAL LIFE experience working with employee issues. You must have experience
- actually picking up the phone and recruiting candidates
- interviewing candidates in person for all levels in the organization
- investigating reported issues
- coaching and counseling
- understanding and applying HR related laws
- handling the compliance (I-9’s, Visas, etc.)
- developing talent through strategic and tactical approaches to training
Finance and Internal Communications
These are areas where many HR professionals are weak. From a finance and accounting standpoint at a bare minimum you must be able to understand general accounting principles and be able to read and interpret a balance sheet. If you cannot do that, you need to set that as a goal. How can you advise your CEO, CFO, and other company leaders if you cannot interpret the financial results of the company? Strong financial acumen will help you drive the business forward. Then, in terms of internal communication, you need to be able to effectively communicate the policies of the company in a way that aligns with the company strategies. For more detailed information on how to improve your skills in this area, check out the HR 101 series by Victorio at the Creative Chaos Consultant blog.
Innovation
The HR professional of today and the future needs to have the spirit to innovate. It is critical to success. If you plan to sit back and just do the day-to-day role, you will not help move the company forward. Our world changes fast and innovative ideas will be the catalyst to propel your HR career. Challenge yourself each day or week to come up with an innovative way to handle something differently. Hold your feet to the fire to make sure you are accountable for keeping your department from getting stagnant.
Global Effectiveness
Technology has made the world a much smaller place. More companies are global than ever before, so more HR professionals need to have an understanding of what is going on in global markets. Are you making yourself aware? Are you reaching out to gain understanding of other countries laws, financial systems, and culture? This is something you should focus on if you are not already. Today’s HR leaders are responsible for driving the success of people around the world.
HR Technology
To the average HR generalist or specialist, HR technology is the “big bad wolf” of the story. It’s the one thing we’re all afraid of. In order to really be successful at running an effective human resources department, you need to have a solid understanding of your current HR technologies as well as staying abreast of emerging technologies. You will need to understand how to evaluate your systems effectiveness as well as be able to identify technologies that will support the data needed to make strong business decisions for the company. A good place to start is by reading and following blogs by Naomi Bloom, Steve Boese, Michael Krupa, and Bryon Abramowitz. You should also follow the writings of Bill Kutik at Human Resource Executive Online.
So, how do you measure up? What other skills do you believe are critical to being a successful HR professional in the future? Let me know in the comments.
You hit it on the head when you point out that finance and internal communications are areas where HR professionals are weak. Definitely an area of improvement.
A couple of areas which I think make up the core skill set of HR knowledge is compensation and benefits.
On Saturday I passed my PHR certification, which also satisfied the final graduation requirement for my Masters in Human Resources Development (Villanova actually requires it from HR masters students). So, on Saturday I knocked off two birds with a single stone, and along with those two accomplishments I have nearly 4 years of staffing/recruiting experience in both agency and corporate HR settings.
I feel like I’m on the right path to becoming a solid HR pro, but there is still so much I need to learn and experience. The game is constantly changing, and I really like how you touched on innovation! Along with using metrics to show ones value, an innovative HR professional will look like a hero to his/her team when their new and exciting ideas come together.
I think along with what you mentioned, top HR pro’s need to be patient and resilient. To make strong change for the better it takes time, and in HR the hits just keep coming…
Agree with the skills you list as a 25+ year HR professional without a degree or official certification (sorry SHRM).
The HR professional of the future should look 180 degrees different than it does today. If we don’t get out of the administrative track our profession will continue to be the akward younger sibling always sitting at the kids table. Yes, there are plenty of examples of good HR, even great HR, but it is not the majority and it needs to be.
Technology is also an area that HR needs to embrace and get better at securing the funding for the technology that will allow them to become more efficient with it’s administrative duties (e.g. legally required documentation).
I believe that HR is it’s own worst enemy in that there is such a fear of letting go of what has been the core of HR work (again administrative) and embrace the fast paced, ever-changing, international, technology driven, social media workforce as it is. Stop trying to bring them back into the dinosaur days of “Personnel”. Instead, move forward with today’s workforce and be willing to listen and learn from them.
Love, love, love this post! I concur with your premise…there is no perfect recipe…and there are some ‘must have’ ingredients! And I would add to your list that it is a life-long journey of learning (experiential as well as academic) , experimenting (and failing at times), innovating forward, relentlessly pursuing feedback on one’s performance, and getting very comfortable that as a HR pro you never arrive…no different than any other professional business person.
This is a great, useful and very timely post, delivered just as many of us are setting up our professional development goals and work plans for 2010. And I appreciate the shout-out. Reading this, a few other KSAOCs come to mind — critical thinking, pattern recognition, and change management — all three of which (in my experience) are more innate than learned.
Trish, lately I wish I was you. You are doing great work in your writing, and I wish I was turning out the same kind of thought provoking stuff! I look forward to reading your next post. Keep cranking it out!
Michael
Excellent post. Mandatory reading for all of us in the profession. Keep cranking out the great blogs.
Really excellent post, and I thank you for the mention in the Technology section. I think that for HR, an important opportunity is understanding and supporting improvements in how work actually gets done in the organization will be a critical skill. Does the organization need more internal ‘connectivity’, more access to outside experts, a better knowledge base to facilitate information sharing? Are there ways to improve the environment to foster innovation and new products and services? Putting more people in the best possible set of circumstances to help them succeed to me is the most important HR capability.
Great post, Trish, and thanks for the shout in the Technology section plus the link to my last column. New one got posted today at http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=305221995 At the risk of being commercial, I think the best way for HR folks to learn about technology, especially if it makes them nervous is at http://www.HRTechnologyConference.com. All the bloggers you list attended the conference last year and had nice things to say about it. Many of them linked on the site’s home page.
Excellent post- one of your best ! Bravo!!
@Debbie- Thanks so much Debbie!
@Bill- Thank you for taking time to comment. And, for mentioning the conference. I highly recommend it to HR generalists or anyone in the field who needs to learn more in the technology area. Thanks again.
@Steve- You’re welcome. I think it is exciting that anyone wanting to learn more about HR technology has a handful of great resources at their fingertips on a daily basis, if they only look for your all. Amen to the last sentence in your comment. Thanks.
@John- I’ll see if I can live up to your nice comment! Thank you for taking time to leave it.
@Michael- Tremendous honor hearing that from you. Thank you so much.
@Naomi- Thanks for adding to the post and for being an outstanding resource for HR pros globally. Appreciate you SO much!
@Deb- Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are so right about it being a life long learning experience. Thanks for commenting.
@hrjefe- I am SO glad you commented. You’re a great example of someone who can have no “traditional” hr preparation yet still be a great HR pro. Do you think that we just need to break the HR profession in half because I don’t see how we can eliminate the compliance and admin. portions of the job completely. Maybe those roles remain but do not move forward as human resources. They are basically just employee tracking. Then, those pros who want to be innovative and creative can work on the meatier issues. What do you think?
@Rich- Congrats on the degree and PHR! You are well on your way. I agree that it takes patience to be in HR. The road is not always one filled with accolades and you have to work hard, nose to the grindstone, and wait for the right opportunities. Good luck as you continue to progress and thanks for commenting.
It’s good to see you in love with HR tech, Trish. It’s a cool field that I wish I knew more about.
And I second the finance one. I have been working to grow closer to our finance department, and the more I learn the more I’m able to help our employees. Fantastic post.
Awesome post, Trish. You are just getting better and better!
Bang on with regard to good IC skills. I would only add to that that an HR leader should have the ability to make sure that internal and external messages align (which is not as easy as it sounds) and the sense to know that actions speak far louder than words when it comes to employee messaging. That’s why what HR does is often so much more telling than what is said in the company newsletter or the CEO’s Christmas email!
Liam
Trish –
Excellent summary. As an HR pro with over 25 years in the field I am often asked the question about certifications, degrees, etc. I do have two certifications (CEBS and SPHR), but I consider that my OJT was the most important experience and training I’ve had during my career.
As someone who is now focused exclusively on international HR, I often encounter HR folks anxious to learn more about international/global HR, and how to break into that growing area. Global HR requires a different set of technical knowledge, and most importantly, cultural adaptability and flexibility. For an excellent summary of steps to take to prepare for global HR career options, see this blog by Alan Freemen on the International HR Forum.
Also, I want to second (or third or fourth) the comments above regarding the importance of financial acumen and HR technology. HR will never be an effective business partner unless we speak the language of business, and that language, like it or not, is financially oriented. Explain your actions in business terms non-HR people can relate to instead of using “HR speak.”
I recently gave a presentation to a group of HR leaders from the international NGO community. All of them represent prominent organizations devoted to humanitarian causes around the world, and all have limited resources for administrative expenses. We were discussing why a salary survey for $900 would be money well spent. The ROI I calculated was over 600%! Put another way, correcting their compensation scheme by 0.5% of payroll would cost the same as the expense associated with one staff member resigning and being replaced (assuming a “replacement cost” of 25% of annual salary, and a total payroll of just $180,000). When you discuss expenses in your HR department, do you think about it in this fashion? If not, perhaps you should. Are purchasing decisions in other departments made without regard to ROI?
HR technology is the key to breaking away from the administrivia of HR and getting involved in the real business of the profession. So think differently – be flexible and open to changing processes, reducing approval levels, empowering staff and employees and leveraging all of the features of the latest generation of technology that’s available. Don’t assume it won’t work because you’ve never done it that way. And don’t underestimate what employees can handle – they’re grown-ups, too!
Warren
Excellent post as always. I agree with the skills you documented. As an HR Technologist on the IT side, I would say a big skill for HR people looking to learn more about technology is to partner, partner, partner with the HR IT organization. I don’t know about every company out there but at all the companies I have worked for, the HR IT group is always begging to be a partner with HR. Oh and thanks for the shout out to my blog.
@Ben- Never thought I’d have someone say I was in love with HR technology. But, it is starting to develop into a new career area I’m more passionate about. Thanks for the comment.
@Krista- Thank you Krista, you made my day!
@Warren- Thank you for your input and the great resources you link to regarding a global approach. Speaking the language of business has to be the single greatest area that HR professionals need to focus. Once you can do that, you can be taken seriously by the decision makers of the company. Appreciate your comments and your great examples. Thank you.
@ Liam- Great point! Not only should there be good communication, the internal and external should align. Kuddos to you for adding that insight. Appreicate it.
@Michael K- Would love to have you write a guest post on techniques that HR can use to partner successfully with IT. What do you think?