5 Best HR Skills You Need to Know
HR roles are unique because they require more soft skills like conflict resolution than technical skills.
Whether you’re a seasoned HR professional, such as an HR manager or a starting intern, your HR skills, such as communication skills, employee relationships, decision-making, performance management, and organizational skills, must be sharp.
But it’s easier said than done. It’s one thing to list a specific skill set, and it’s another ball game when putting the know-how into practice.
To learn more via video, watch the video below or skip ahead to continue reading.
Everybody can fire somebody, but only a great communicator can make the process go well for both sides.
To ensure you’re always ready, here are the most important HR skills employers seek when onboarding HR professionals.
1. Communication Skills for HR Professionals
Communication is the foundation of human resources management. Although excellent communication skills are essential everywhere, being a great communicator is critical for HR managers, specialists, and other HR professionals.
A survey done on 400 companies with 100,000 employees shows that a company can lose up to $62.4 million annually due to poor communication between employers and employees.
You interact with people every day, both verbally and through writing. This isn’t an issue for human resource managers when they have good news, such as a 5% salary raise.
But what happens when you need to let ten people know that their salary is getting cut? Your job isn’t just to tell the news and maintain a productive work environment through active listening and engagement. Imagine it like securing a domino tower during an earthquake. You want the earthquake to cause as minor damage as possible.
It’s communicating sensitive information like that where your human resources skills shine. HR professionals need to have empathy and maintain authority and respect.
The same goes for good writing skills. The information you present in a business email must be clear to avoid misused company policies. You’ll be using what you write as a backup whenever someone questions your organization or information.
How to Improve Communication Skills
Here’s what you should focus on to improve your communication skills:
- Listening – Communication starts with listening. If you focus too much on how you’ll sound, you’ll ignore what others say and thus fail your employee relations.
- Understanding – Remember that as an HR professional, it’s seldom about you. Even if an employee insults you, they are angry at the company. A great mediator puts others first and avoids bias as much as possible.
- Teamwork – Great conflict management isn’t just for HR managers. Your HR team members rely on you to point them in the right direction, even by sending a daily metrics report.
- Nonverbal communication – Experts agree that 70% to 93% of communication is nonverbal. Even how far you’re standing from a person can impact how they perceive you as a communicator.
If you’re unsure where to start honing important HR skills, check out our certified HR courses. Our online courses will teach you all the crucial HR skills and competencies needed to boost your HR career.
2. Organizational Skills in Human Resources
HR professionals are the glue that keeps the puzzle from breaking into countless tiny pieces. But, instead of paper cutouts, you’re working with human beings. And just like you, every employee has a bad day, gets lazy, or comes to work without knowing where they left off yesterday.
But, unlike others, you must stay at the top of your game. If you can’t organize yourself even on a bad day, everything else starts crumbling.
Your organizational skills go hand in hand with performance management. Imagine preparing a kitchen for a dozen cooks before they start to work. If ingredients are missing or the pots are messy, dinner will be late, resulting in unsatisfied customers.
But instead of handling carrots, potatoes, and knives, part of your HR job is juggling numbers, time, and overall work experience.
How to Improve Organizational Skills
If you’re struggling with organizing, there are numerous ways to improve:
- Track performance – How long does it take you to create an outstanding job posting for LinkedIn? What about preparing a metrics presentation for the weekly meeting? You’ll manage personal time better by tracking personal performance and finding more room for other work.
- Recognize task importance – The most complex task doesn’t have to be the most important one. For example, it’s easy to fixate on a half-done job, but it’s possible that social media posts can wait.
- Master human resources management software – Your organizational skillset is excellent, but there’s only so much an individual can do. Don’t just stretch the surface of your applicant tracking systems. Explore the software’s nooks and crannies to keep your HR department together.
HR teams respect deadlines and store records in systems such as HRIS. Not recording a payroll date today might not sound like a big deal, but that’s like ignoring a leak under the sink. Leaving something for tomorrow is one of human resource management’s most significant pain points.
HR professionals aren’t always here to fix problems. Instead, their job is to prevent issues from happening in the first place. Having excellent organizational skills means keeping the engine running without hiccups.
3. Decision-Making: Hiring, Onboarding & Termination
Although mastering technical skills comes with unique difficulties, for HR professionals, making the correct decisions in a second is another beast. And nowhere is that more prominent than talent management, onboarding new hires, and terminating underperforming employees.
Employee engagement and the quality of employee experience start when you make the first contact with top talent as a recruiter. Furthermore, it reflects on creating a healthy organizational culture.
Although you’ll have the time to assess the candidate after the interview, your decisions during the interview will determine how much valuable information you collect.
The same rule applies to firing an employee or an HR team member.
Terminating an employee might seem like bad news only for the employee. However, research shows that employee turnover can cost a company as much as 150% of the annual salary for more significant job roles.
This means that just because, at the moment, terminating somebody sounds right if you don’t use critical thinking in your decision-making, it’s easy to make a wrong move. So, a decision that looks right now can be terrible tomorrow.
True human resources professionals can see the big picture before a new employee starts working.
Onboarding is one of the three most straightforward HR practices, but that still doesn’t mean it’s easy. How a recruit adjusts and reaches their performance potential relies on how good your key HR skills are.
Although decision-making skills extend well beyond hiring and terminating an employee, your HR skills shine in the recruitment arena.
4. Conflict Resolution & Employee Relations Competencies
HR skills and HR tasks aren’t tied. For example, you don’t use decision-making just in hiring. HR professionals must also make correct decisions in conflict management, employee retention, writing, etc.
All of this reflects a healthy work environment and corporate culture.
Conflict can arise on any side for HR managers, and it can feel like fighting on multiple battlefronts.
You can have unsatisfied employees on one side and a CEO waiting for that 15% MoM work performance increase on the other. But, more importantly, sometimes, you must forfeit one match to win the other.
Although you can never know where the next conflict will happen, you can be sure there will always be one. And it’s up to you and your human resources soft skills to create a favorable conflict resolution and address organizational challenges.
There are several things you should know to maintain healthy employee relations.
- Accentuate clarity and consistency—Going back to your HR skills and competencies, you maximize clarity and consistency through proactivity and keeping everything in place. The result is less chance of conflict.
- Everyone is accountable—Although you, as an HR professional, are the accountability ringleader, everyone else must know their accountability—employees who are part of a problem must be part of the solution.
- Resolve minor conflicts right away—where there’s a spark, there’s fire. Mike’s dislike of how Jane presents data might not sound like a big deal, but ignoring the conflict is a fire waiting to happen. Don’t ignore; resolve.
- Practice unbiased and critical thinking. Step one is to recognize what’s happening. Step two is to figure out who’s to blame. Emotional intelligence plays a huge role here, and you must prevent your feelings from getting in the way.
5. Master Adaptation & Continue Learning
You’re dealing with human resources, and if one thing is sure, it is that humans are unpredictable. And yes, that goes for you too.
You heard it countless times and might think it sounds corny, but it is true: never stop learning. That especially applies to adaptability skills since human behavior can be so obscure.
No matter if you’re a seasoned HR professional or just starting out, there’s always room to improve and also to fail.
People often fool themselves into thinking that it gets harder to master cognitive skills as they get older. But neuroscience research shows otherwise.
Failure to learn often results from creating and maintaining a bad habit for an average adult.
In HR, how you communicate with employees can change. You might be a face-to-face communication expert, but a sudden shift to remote work can nullify everything you thought you knew about communicating.
The same goes for new software. Getting too attached to the software that you know, like the back of your hand, can cost you work and new job opportunities.
Overconfidence leads to failure and refusal to change. On the other hand, adaptation and learning guide to always being ready and at the top of your human resource management.
Conclusion
Human resource professionals depend on various essential skills and competencies ranging from technical to interpersonal skills.
This was a quick overview of the five important HR skills, but remember that every human resources department is different. The top five skills are the foundation on which you build other abilities.
Required leadership skills in one company might be different in another. The same goes for task management or time management skills.
To reach the top, ensure that you always improve and grab every chance to improve. That way, you’ll be ready for every challenge in your career. Good luck.
FAQs
Here are the most frequently asked questions about HR skills.
What are the essential HR skills for professionals today?
Essential HR skills include effective communication, problem-solving, interpersonal skills, and knowledge of labor laws and HR processes. Additionally, proficiency in data analytics is increasingly vital for making informed decisions.
How does data analytics impact HR management?
Data analytics enhances HR management by providing insights into employee performance, engagement, and retention. It allows HR professionals to make data-driven decisions that improve HR processes and align with organizational goals.
What role do HR and business leaders play in effective HR management?
HR and business leaders collaborate to ensure that HR strategies align with business objectives. They also foster a positive workplace culture, drive employee engagement, and implement HR processes that support overall business success.
Why are HR processes important for organizations?
HR processes are crucial as they streamline operations, improve efficiency, and ensure regulation compliance. Well-defined HR processes help in recruiting, onboarding, training, and employee development, ultimately contributing to organizational effectiveness.
How can HR professionals develop their skills?
HR professionals can develop their skills through continuous education, attending workshops, pursuing HR certifications, and gaining practical experience. Networking with other HR professionals and seeking mentorship can also enhance their expertise.
If you are inexperienced in Human Resources and are looking to break into an HR Intern role, we recommend taking our HR Certification Courses, where you will learn how to build your skillset in human resources internship, build your human resources network, craft an excellent HR resume, and create a successful job search strategy that lands you a sought-after HR Internship.
