Skills for an HR Department

A human resources Department is a professional who is trained in the various aspects of the job, including benefits administration, recruiting and adherence to federal and state employment laws. The HR generalist applies her skills to working with company managers to maintain the current staff and anticipate future staffing needs. Five skills are essential to succeed in the career.

1.Multitasking

The list of responsibilities that an HR Professional has is long and daunting. They include arranging and conducting interviews, recruiting candidates, checking with departmental managers to make sure all staffing needs are being met, staying up to date on employment laws and meeting with individual employees on HR issues. To complete these and more, an HR Department needs to be able to multitask and remain organized at all times.

3.Analytical Skills

An HR Professional needs to review many different kinds of documents, understand their meaning, gather the necessary information and process that information. These documents include benefits applications, salary comparisons, resumes, applications and legal compliance forms. The HR generalist needs to quickly and accurately pull essential information from these documents and act on it.

4.Leadership

An HR Professionals needs to assume the responsibility of a leader. Employees and managers look to the generalist for instructions on following proper employment protocols. HR generalists also work directly with corporate managers to anticipate staffing needs for the future, outline the requirements for new positions within the company and keep a steady supply of employment candidates available should a current employee be terminated or quit. The rest of the company looks to the human resources group to maintain proper staffing levels, and that requires the skills of a corporate leader.

5.Fairness

Successful HR professionals demonstrate fairness. This means that communication is clear, that peoples’ voices are heard, that laws and policies are followed, and that privacy and respect is maintained.

6.Strategic Orientation

Forward-thinking HR professionals take a leadership role and influence management’s strategic path. In gauging and filling the labor needs of the company, devising compensation schemes, and bringing on board new skill sets leading to business growth, they provide the proof for the often-heard management comment, “People are our most important asset.”

7.Employee Trust

Employees expect Human Resources professionals to advocate for their concerns, yet you must also enforce top management’s policies. The HR professional who can pull off this delicate balancing act wins trust from all concerned.

8.Discretion and Business Ethics

Human Resources professionals are the conscience of the company, as well as the keepers of confidential information. As you serve the needs of top management, you also monitor officers’ approaches to employees to ensure proper ethics are observed. You need to be able to push back when they aren’t, to keep the firm on the straight and narrow. Not an easy responsibility! Of course, you always handle appropriately, and never divulge to any unauthorized person, confidential information about anyone in the organization.

9.Strong Communication Skills –

Probably the most important for an HR professional, can you communicate clearly, effectively and in multiple mediums? If your employees don’t get clarity from HR, everything else can go haywire.

 10.Organizational Skills –

HR employees are handling many different kinds of information and deal with multiple vendors and peers on a daily basis. To be a great HR employee, strong organization is a must.

11.Self Discipline –

This again is a common quality that everyone should have, irrespective of the profession they are in, but it is more appreciable in HR Professionals and is like a must have quality. They need to set standards for others to follow; they need to benchmark their own behavior and if they start flowing with water, everything else will go for a toss and things will go out of control. I have heard, people saying that I am doing this or that because others are also doing it but that is not expected from HR Professionals. Discipline in life is a must to grow, prosper and being successful. So, set standards and don't just flow.