Soft Skills for HR Professionals…

To work in any profession, one should not only have “Subject Matter
Expertise” but also personality, behavior, decorum, mannerism, attitude,
professional approach, and thinking to work efficiently and to sustain in that
given profession. Failing which, irrespective of your knowledge, education
and background you will never be able to grow in that profession. This is
also true for HR Profession. There are some minimum expectations from HR
Professionals, in the way they carry themselves, behave and present
themselves that can hamper or lift their image and professional graph. Some
of those traits and attributes I have mentioned in this article. Though, to a
large extent I have covered all the attributes but still I consider this list as
INCLUSIVE and not EXCLUSIVE. The need is to benchmark your Personality
and Behavior. Respect can only be earned and not “asked for”.

Nine Qualities all HR Professionals Should Have

1. Clarity of Thoughts: In most of the situations and circumstances, we
come across two options; either we want to do or we don’t want to do;
either we agree to it or we don’t agree to it; either it is acceptable or it
is not acceptable; either you want or you don’t want. It has been seen
that many HR Professionals are confused. They are not clear, where
they want to take their company. They don’t know what role they like
to play in the organization. They don’t have clarity of role. They don’t
have clear expectations, neither from themselves, or from their team
or from their internal customers (employees). With this confusion,
they fail to take decisions. They fail to take stand.
2. Efficiency in Time Management: HR professionals are expected to
be efficient in time management. They are expected to set time-frame
and meet those expectations. Most of the time, I have seen that they
don’t give any time limit. You approach them for any work and they
respond by saying, “Ok, it will be done”. (But) However, when? I agree
that “Good HR Professionals” have many things to do.
Recruitments, Employee Relations, Talent Management, Career
Development, Benchmarking, etc are the things, which takes lots
of time. But, all goals, all dreams, all activities, all commitments looks
good and are achievable, if there is a closing date for that. For
Example, I want my company to be in top-10 companies in the
world. It’s a Vision. It’s a good dream. But, if I don’t specify, by which
year or in how many years, I want to achieve that goal, it will only
remain as a dream and will never become a reality. Uncertainty,
Ambiguity, Open-Ended commitment, Confusion, these are things, that
are not expected from any HR Professional.
3. Compare Performances / Compare Situations & Circumstances
but do not compare individuals / People: Knowingly or
unknowingly but quite often, instead of Circumstances and Situations,
we tend to compare two different people. Instead of analyzing the
behavior of a person we tend to analyze them as an individual and
take this as our right. The very basic principle of science and
management says that no two individuals are same.
4. Knowledge about the Business and Industry: Everybody should
be aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They should be aware as
what they want in their life and career. It is a well known fact and has
been proved in various surveys that HR professionals don’t care to
understand the business of the company and the industry that they
are working in. According to the survey done by Virgin
Management Consultancy 67% HR Professionals in USA and
83% HR professionals in India do not know the nitty-gritty of
their company’s business. They don’t know from where the revenue
is coming. They don’t know the business model of their company. I
think, as it is important to know about the city and country that you
are traveling to; it is equally important to know and understand the
business of the company that you are working with.
5. Vision and Goal for the Department, Team and Organization:
What you want to do for the organization? Are you planning to
implement a competitive compensation plan? Do you want to take
your company in the bracket of 25 “Best Employers in the Country”?
Are you planning to acquire best of the talent from market? Do you
think that you need to control the growing Attrition Rate of your
company? Have you thought about “Organization Development” and
“Talent Management”? Usually, that is the confusion. HR professionals
and HR heads don’t have that vision. They want to do something in HR
but don’t know what they can do or should do. They should have
vision for the organization for HR perspective and goals for their
department and team. It’s a must have. Until and unless you are sure
about your destination, you cannot take the path.
6. Love for Number / Data / Figures / Calculations / Analysis /
Projections: You talk to any person in any other profession and tell
them that you are in HR; two things will automatically flash in their
mind – Theory and Politics. One reason why HR professionals in
India have not been able to enter into the Board Room and make their
presence felt in the organization is because though they have ideas,
they have strategies and policies but they are not able to support
those strategies with data. (It is because there is no mathematics
and calculations involved in this subject that many people
[mostly females] love to join this profession).
For example, if I have a “Retention Strategy” and I want to
implement in the organization. I need to show, how much the
implementation of that strategy will cost; by what percentage the
company will be able to increase the employee retention and decrease
the attrition; which are the companies that are using this particular
strategy and how effective it has been in their cases. If, I am going
with this data, calculation and analysis, I am sure that my strategy will
be implemented.
Hence, HR professionals need to be more analytical, data oriented and
good in calculations. They should not be subjective and theory
oriented.
7. Enthusiasm to Share / Develop / Coach and Mentor: We have
heard and read in our schools and colleges that “Knowledge is a
wealth; the more you distribute/share the more you gain”. In this
profession of HRM & D; we are privileged and are in a very unique
position where we can develop people. We can develop their career.
 We can develop their life. We can help them in changing their
perception and behavior. We can groom them, so that they can be
successful in their life. Don’t you think that we have very important
and crucial role to play?? How many of us have actually thought of
those lines? Do, think about it, you have one life, give what you can. If
10 people will remember me once I bid adieu to this world for helping
them in developing their life, I will consider my life as successful.
8. Self Discipline – This again is a common quality that everyone
should have, irrespective of their respective professions, but it is more
appreciable in HR Professionals and is like a must have. 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 necessary to
grow, prosper and being successful. So, set standards and don’t just
flow.
9. Trust Worthy – This is very important quality and must have for all
HR Professionals. Candidates, at the time of interview share important
information with HR; Employees share lots information, personal,
professional, ideas, suggestions, future related, dreams etc. Imagine,
if the HR professional keep sharing that information with everyone in
the team of HR; will that employee ever comeback to HR to share
anything with him. NEVER. HR professionals need to win that trust and
then maintain and keep that trust. This is very true for HR
Professionals, who are working in “Employee Relations”. Relation of
any kind, be it with employees, is based on trust and honesty. If ever,
you break that trust, you will never be able to win it again.