1.3 What Competencies Do HR Professionals Need in the 21st Century?

HR managers often fill multiple roles within the organization. The more roles HR professionals engage in, the more likely it is HR will be effective in improving the organization’s productivity, increasing the quality of work life, and ensuring that the firm is complying with necessary HR laws and regulations.

The effectiveness of an organization’s human resource management function depends in large part upon the quality of the people within the HR department and the rest of the organization. Given recent changes in the work environment and the emerging roles of HR professionals, the ideal competencies and characteristics of HR professionals should include those listed below.

Competencies

The following competencies are not just nice for HR professionals to have; rather, they are necessary for success in today’s chaotic, fast-paced, global environment. HR professionals must be able to:

• Provide transformational leadership

• Collaborate and resolve strategic challenges within the firm

• Encourage real employee involvement

• Empower and facilitate learning as well as change and decision-making

• Design process and performance systems

• Maintain a global business perspective

Characteristics

Characteristics of a successful HR manager include the following:

• Knowledge of the business and industry

• Greater understanding of economic phenomena

• Analytical abilities

• Leadership ability and influence

• Propensity for action

• Engagement

• Political awareness

• Customer focus

Knowledge of the Business and Industry

If HR managers wish to be a part of the executive team and contribute in a strategic way, they must acquire an understanding of the firm’s business objectives and the means that must be employed to attain them. HR managers and professionals should also have solid training in strategic planning; in-depth understanding of financial statements; familiarity with sales, marketing, and production techniques; and knowledge of how to use modern tools such as data processing and management information systems. When HR managers and professionals focus on acquiring HR knowledge and skills but are deficient in general business training, their credibility and contributions are limited.

Greater Understanding of Economic Phenomena

The globalization of markets, internationalization of corporations, and ever-growing insistence on quality require HR professionals to be more familiar with economic issues, such as cost of living indices and the unemployment rate. The importance of understanding the economy becomes even more crucial as HR professionals are increasingly asked to advise their firms on productivity and other issues.

Analytical Abilities

Due to advancements in technology use and the emerging roles that businesses wish to assign HR professionals, these professionals are increasingly being asked to manage processes rather than activities. Consequently, HR managers must develop good analytical skills so they can diagnose and solve problems. This means that they must be able to look at a problem and understand it, articulate the problem so that others can understand it (especially upper management), and then find a solution. Working with others on a problem is a necessary skill for HR, but it is not an analytical skill. HR professionals who do not have technical skills and are not familiar with human resource information systems (HRIS) and computer programs such as Excel will find themselves at a significant disadvantage.

Leadership Ability and Influence

The HR manager’s personal credibility, based on recognizable abilities such as the power to convince and influence and the ability to be accepted by different groups—especially top management—will become the determining factor in human resource management success. Knowing how to influence decision makers without having formal authority and being able to sell and defend a position will continue to be important skills of HR professionals.

Propensity for Action

To be part of the decision-making team, HR managers must be prepared to take a proactive approach to management. Instead of waiting for others to come to them with problems, HR managers must be proactive in approaching people. HR managers can no longer afford to remain secluded in their own territory; rather, they must engage with everyone within the organization.

Engagement

Because organizational survival is becoming more and more contingent on adaptation, the HR manager needs to be intimately involved in the structural changes of the organization. HR professionals must help develop plans and strategies, aiming to equip the company with the necessary workforce, both in quantity and quality; they must assist in the motivation and retention of employees whose organization is downsizing or rapidly expanding; and they must help manage succession by creating contingency plans for key employees within the firm.

Political Awareness

HR managers need to develop political skills, not in the sense of “playing games” in the organizational arena, but by integrating all resources and rallying employees and colleagues in support of the organization’s strategy. Changing organizational cultures requires great political skill.

Customer Focus

Although having a customer-focused attitude may seem to contradict some of the qualities mentioned above, it should be emphasized that the HR manager must be able to balance acquiring services from the external environment as well as from management and employees. As organizations engage in corporate social responsibility and attempt to become good corporate citizens, HR professionals must be attentive to the needs of customers and the community. At the same time, HR professionals must be attentive and aware of internal needs, including equity and justice within the firm. Consequently, even though HR professionals are expected to become more business-oriented, they are still expected to be the guardians of employee rights and to retain the spirit of service by which they are known.