I am often asked – “What does it take to be a good HR practitioner?”
A successful HR practitioner is one who aligns their tasks with business strategies, is service oriented but time efficient in doing so, can add real value by being proactive to a situation at-hand, and provide open and frank advice on issues that affect the company culture or staff morale.
Now, some might suggest that being described as a people person or warm and fuzzy, makes for a good HR practitioner. The days of warm and fuzzy are gone. In today’s fast-paced and highly competitive economy, Human Resources must focus on delivering financial value. This requires that an HR practitioner must throw-off the shackles of “warm and fuzzy” and exhibit an ability to work in line with the business and be an integral part of the business strategic plan. By understanding the overall objectives of the business, and HR practitioner can avoid becoming overly bureaucratic, and focus on doing what’s ultimately right for the business and the unit.
Truth-be-told, not many people would want to work in HR. Go ahead, ask any employee, be they from marketing, sales, accounting, or customer service. The answer, time-and-time again is simple: no way. Why is this? Because HR practitioners must make difficult decisions, decisions that must balance the human element and corporate strategies of cost-effectiveness and profitability.
Generally speaking a good HR practitioner must:
- Understand problems assigned
- Stay competent and professional through self-directed study and research
- Maintain high standards of personal honesty and integrity (avoid gossip and excessive personal interaction with others – this will hinder one’s ability to make decisions)
- Consider the personal interests, welfare, and dignity of all employees affected by recommendations and actions – and, first and foremost, from a legal perspective
- Ensure organizations maintain high regard for public interest and personal interests and dignity of employees
- Prove through effective measurements how HR is contributing to the organization
Further a good HR practitioner must be equipped with following skills:
- Staffing (HR planning, recruitment and selection)
- Human resource development (Capacity development of all staff members)
- Award judiciously compensation and benefits to employees according to organizational rules and regulations
- Can take care of safety and health of employees
- Maintain a “professional” relationship with employees, and not a “personal” one
- Work with managers to care of employees’ professional growth
- Properly maintain the records of employees and his routine official matters
- Conduct HR research (providing a HR information base, designing and implementing employee communication system).
- Understand the interrelationship of HR functions
Following are skills required of a good HR practitioner:
- Effective written communication skill
- Effective verbal communication skill
- Effective presentation skill
- Good time management (keep meetings short and to the point; set aside for the administrivia as well as the strategic)
- Conflict management skill
- Team building
- Stress Management
- Rationale decision making (remove emotions from your decisions)
- Gender awareness
- Strong motivation and initiative skill; be self-directed; have a passion for your profession
- Coordination with other departments and organizations
I am reminded of an HR person who resigned and left a company. As she did so, and during her going-away party, it was clear that this person was popular. One manager even remarked, “I’m jealous as to how popular she was.” That’s fine; that’s very nice. But was she effective in her job? Can she name one thing, one major contribution she made where she put her stamp on the organization, where she successfully took initiative on a grand scale? Or, was she a great person to talk to, to share things with, so when you walked away you felt good? And, was she an HR person who wore a mask? In other words, did she treat employees one way to their face but another way behind their back? And, when it came time to make decisions, which mask did she wear? You see, there's a big difference between a strategic person and a “player.”
As I observed the going-away party, watching as many laughed with her I couldn’t help but think – did these people really know how she felt about them? No, of course not. At the going-away party she was wearing the appropriate mask. Always – the player.
The road to HR greatness is littered with the bodies of “mask wearers,” those who hearken back to HR’s roots, when the factory owner placed a secretary in charge of putting a picnic table outside so the workers had a nice place to eat lunch, or coordinating a birthday party for an employee. Yes, it was a simple time then, and yes, these were contributions – but not of historical grandeur. Such contributions pale in comparison to the contributions of the accountant, the marketer, or the sales representative. The “mask wearer” does not understand what HR is all about and sets the profession back hundreds of years.
As the person left her going-away party, there were some however, those who have an idea about what HR is truly about, those who get it - and these individuals did not feel a sense that the company was suffering a loss. One person even said, “I’m going to miss the gossip.” A senior executive said, “Nice person but can’t remember anything she did of any significance.”
When it's all-said-and-done, a good HR practitioner is in it for one thing, and one thing only – to contribute to organizational effectiveness. For those that cannot – please - just get out of the way.
