Human resources professionals require a set of skills to excel in their job. From good communication skills to negotiation and interpersonal skills, you need to master a set of skills. Whether you are a fresher looking to start a career in human resources or a seasoned professional looking to make your skills better, following are the skills you need. Making a career in HR isn’t as easy as it may sound.
- Knowledge of human resources—As fresher, you should have knowledge of human resources domain. As in what does human resources entail. There is a gamut of work that you are required to do. From handling sexual harassment cases to resolving wrong payment for an employee. An hr professional does a lot of things. Having knowledge of the scope of human resources prepares you mentally for the challenges that may come in the future. This will prepare you take the challenges in an hr career head on.
- Communication – Being able to communicate clearly is an important skill. Every employee goes to an HR for advice and resolution, so it is important to be able to communicate effectively. Though mostly verbal communication is required, you should also be good at written communication.
- Time management and self-discipline – Human resource professionals are always occupied with work. While they have too many tasks to accomplish, they have limited hours in a day. Urgent work comes up at any time, so it is important for an hr professional to manage their time and stick to their schedule. Some days you might have incidents after incidents to cover up, in which case your daily tasks will be put on hold. While on other days, you can dedicate your complete time to fulfil your daily tasks.
- Trustworthiness – Employees open up to HR professionals who are trust worthy. Employees must feel that you are the right person with home they can share their woes and conflicts only if they know you have their best interest at heart. Further, employees should see that any personal information they share is between you and them and isn’t shared anywhere else. So confidentially too forms a large part. So as an hr professional do your best to keep information confidential.
- Impartial – Impartiality is an important skill to possess for HR professionals.
They need to be neutral under all circumstances. Their judgement should be based on furnished facts. Your personal opinion as an HR professional doesn’t count.
- Mentor – To perform better, employees need to be trained routinely. For this, it is necessary to guide employees in the direction of better skills. This not only helps employees in building their skills, but companies as well by increasing their productivity. Most employees are keen about being trained and coached. For this, you should have the skills to administer training and development program for employees and management.
In a nutshell, human resources could turn out to be a grunt work. If taken too casually. To excel in human resources, professionals need to possess the above skills, else one might burn out dealing with various tasks.