By Andrew Woods

When interviewing potential new hires, HR professionals assess candidates against a list of key skills and personal characteristics needed for the job to be done efficiently. However, what skills should we look for in our HR leaders?

In the new globalized economy, what skill sets are attributed to an innovative, efficient, productive HR team?

That was the question I put to a network of 300 HR managers and directors spread across the province, country and globe.  Learning through Linkedin has rarely proven so fulfilling, as a near 30 per cent response rate told me everything we really need to know—HR cares deeply about the future.

Learning Daily, Leaping Forward
“In the past a lot of HR departments were a back office administrative support function—hence the name personnel manager. It was about making sure the paperwork was right, that people were paid on time and the legislative obligations were met by the organization,” says Zakeera Vidler, director of ConnectedHR, a global HR consulting firm in Dubai.

“Today’s global economy requires HR to be flexible, demonstrate agility in managing talent and bring forward a lot of out of the box thinking in talent retention and development. HR professionals now need to understand what makes the business ‘tick’. They also need to be commercially and culturally savvy,” Vidler adds.

“Most importantly, they need to be able to support the execution of an organization’s strategy with sound performance management at all levels.  When business focused and people minded, HR can show great leadership in driving the ‘culture and values’ across the organization.”

So what skill sets do HR professionals and business leaders around the globe  value most highly in HR?

As per the LinkedIn survey, here are the skill sets perceived most commonly considered to be requisite for any HR manager to ensure sustainable competitive advantage in the modern economy:

Understanding Culture
HR managers need to understand the different cultures of the teams they work with. A global mindset needs to be adopted, as even a local firm will have interactions with colleagues and clients from around the world. HR needs to be versatile and understand the subtleties of a diverse workplace. By understanding different cultures, work teams gain multiple perspectives when facing common challenges, thus giving them a competitive edge.

Priority Management
On a typical day, HR can deal with an employee’s personal issues, an immediate request from senior management, and a recruiting strategy—and that doesn’t include daily challenges such as social media, remuneration, employee engagement issues, retention, and a variety of other issues, each one being a high priority to someone within the organization.

Business needs move and change quickly, and a manager who needs someone hired isn’t concerned that you’re already helping another manager who needs someone dismissed. HR professionals need to be able to handle it all and give priority to the operational needs of the business.

Negotiation
Diplomacy is a key attribute in an HR professional. HR professionals need to be highly skilled negotiators. There are often two or more opposing viewpoints within an organization, and a successful HR professional creates the middle ground that engages all parties. A solid understanding of negotiation strategies is needed to defuse conflict and ensure harmony within an organization.

Communication
HR professionals have to communicate across all levels within an organization, and through all mediums including in writing, online and in presentation. Above all, HR professionals need to be effective listeners.

“Listening is crucial. Now more than ever, HR manager’s need to understand the inevitable different points of view (aka conflicts) that occurs in a globalized economy, by listening,” says Jay Canchola, HR business partner at Raytheon Company, a technology and innovation leader. “HR managers who are able to proactively listen are better positioned to help resolve conflict. The quicker the conflict can be resolved the sooner people can get back to work to achieve their professional and personal goals.

Business knowledge
HR professionals are an important strategic force within an organization—when aligned with the fundamental business. A solid business foundation is required and expected within the department. In his book, Human Resources Champions (1997), Dave Ulrich explains:

“Human resources professionals must understand how their business or agency operates. This includes the organization’s strategy, how the organization makes money or achieves its primary purpose, its technological processes and organizational capabilities. Therefore, HR professionals should develop their knowledge of such areas as finance, marketing, operations, and general management. Expertise in these areas helps human resources professionals create value by enabling them to link their actions more effectively to the organization’s strategy.”

People AND Policy Advocate
Employees expect human resources professionals to advocate for their concerns, yet HR must also work with management’s policies. The HR professional who can pull off this crucial balancing act wins trust from the entire organization.

There are times you will need to make decisions to protect an individual and other times when you will need to protect the organization and its values. These decisions may be misunderstood by some, but the effective HR practitioner can remain impartial while active as an ally to all levels of an organization.

Innovation and Empowerment
Innovation within HR is widely viewed as crucial to continued success in the globalized economy. As related by Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors and former head of HR at GM in a recent issue of Fortune Magazine: “The key is to continually reduce complexity within the organization to empower teams to be innovative. We have great innovation in pockets. But I want to make sure we are being innovative across the board. To empower employees leads to a motivated group with a sense of loyalty to a company.”

Updating the HR knowledge base is key, according to Maureen Molsberry, HR manager at Ballard Power Systems. “In the last five years we have focused on helping our leaders understand what it means to lead change and innovation. Successful HR managers today are keeping up with the latest information about neuroscience and how the brain works when it comes to change management and motivation,” says Molsberry.

Change Management
Most companies today are in a constant state of transition. Products come and go and new ideas are implemented rapidly. HR has to help everyone cope with the constant changes, and ultimately step beyond them. The culture needs to be one in which change is embraced and celebrated to ensure success.

Lynn Cook, learning and development manager at Lexxon Training in Vancouver says, “We are seeing a huge increase in HR managers wanting to participate in change management workshops. From small organizations to larger firms the need to embrace change and work through it is seen as a positive step forward for progressive HR managers.”

A Higher Standard
In our rapidly evolving times, it is clear that HR professionals are being understood in a very different light by more traditional leaders of industry. That HR holds the key to unlocking the potential of the human capital equation may well be attributed to the standards set by its practitioners and accolades of its champions.

Andrew Woods, MBA is a professional speaker, trainer and author of BOOM! engaging and inspiring employees across cultures.

(PeopleTalk Spring 2014)