This article looks at the vital skills an HR Professional must possess and how they can significantly impact the completion of everyday HR tasks.‍

The HR team is the foundation of a business. Their work can help a business to thrive. By balancing business and employee needs, HR can ensure the hiring of the right people, build excellent workplace culture, and utilize analytics and intuition to deploy the right corporate strategies to improve performance. 

Due to their integral nature to business success, HR positions are in demand, with the Bureau of Labor estimating 6% job growth by 2029 within the field. Therefore, organizations need to find HR individuals with the proper skill set.

An HR professional requires a combination of soft and hard skills. Individuals with emotional intelligence can work and adapt to different team environments and find straightforward solutions to otherwise problematic situations, alongside the technical knowledge of processes that enable them to perform various activities. However, with HR's remit broadening means more roles and responsibilities on their shoulders.

The article, therefore, will look at the inherent skills that are necessary for a successful HR team and professional. In addition, we will explore how these skills can impact the daily functions of HR, thus helping them to fulfill their vital organizational role. We will look at the following skills:

1. Communication
2. Organization
3. Adaptability
4. Conflict Resolution
5. Compassion
6. Decision making
7. Farsightedness: Always looking to the future
   

The skills pivotal to a successful HR professional 

Clearness and clarity of message

An HR role requires a lot of talking. With many people-focused functions, communicating effectively, whether written or speaking, is crucial in handling daily HR tasks such as presentations, conflict resolution and negotiation.

When you communicate clearly, you can support and manage your employees. It is pivotal that what you say and do matches up in your interactions with the workforce. So, there are no mixed messages. 

Thus, employees receive communication that builds trust and confidence, resulting in their growing comfort to express to HR any concerns. In addition, good communication can create two-way channels where both sides are honest.

Furthermore, communicating the demands of a particular role or your company's standards can ensure candidates fully understand what the role entails when it comes to recruitment. So they know before they apply if they would make a good fit.

In addition, as HR is responsible for supporting employees to develop their skills through training, effective communication can help achieve their goals. By explaining to employees where they can improve and offering feedback and praise on the steps they've taken. Good communication can help to maximize performance, increase value and diversify skill sets.

Understanding communication in many forms

In addition, just as important as expressing yourself is understanding others. Active listening, picking up non-verbal cues, and body language can help you know employees better. And can be an accurate indicator of how someone may be feeling. Are they comfortable or in distress? A helpful tool, especially during interviews and one-on-meetings.

Organizational Octopus 

The HR's role encompasses many duties that span an organization, such as recruitment, training, performance appraisals, development strategies, and employee relations. HR must oversee all of these functions, systematically ensuring nothing is forgotten or left behind, especially if it is time-sensitive.

HR must handle multiple tasks simultaneously and adapt when new issues arise. As a conduit between employees, managers, and business leaders across various departments, answering questions or finding solutions is critical. Moreover, maintaining a record management system where employee information and documentation is easily retrievable.

Overseeing all of these functions, HR's must be capable of spinning multiple plates in the air. If they are, they can help the achievement of organizational goals.

Adapt to new situations

Working in HR, you can't predict one day from the next. With a range of responsibilities, HR can face many unexpected issues, and as a result, you need to be able to adapt.

An HR professional needs to be agile in adjusting to new situations and predict where the change is coming from. With the foresight of how internal or new industry-wide practices may affect the organization, HR must know when is the right time to adopt policies and guide employees through the change. So, performance isn't affected.

Conflict Resolution

A lot of HR's time is spent working with people. And often, HR must deal with complaints as a part of its people management. It may be about salary raises, work-life balance, and team difficulties. And HR is in the middle.

HR must help find a compromise and work with both sides to achieve a solution that benefits both employees and the company. It can be challenging to find a delicate middle ground. But it is crucial that HR show integrity in situations that may not be straightforward and understand people and their perspectives. 

By helping to resolve issues, you can help guide employees to a better place and show compassion for their needs. In addition, it can prevent employees from feeling that their problems were not adequately dealt with, causing them to feel undervalued or disrespected.

Supportive of the needs of the individual and company

On an average workday, HR may deal with a range of people and issues. Although they may have a lot on their plate, it is not HR's job to dismiss or tier issues. Instead, they must be all treated sensitively and appropriately. 

Even when faced with minor employee problems, HR must adequately handle their issue to ensure everyone receives fair and equal treatment.

An open door, a free space

HR must be both of these things for employees. Employees must know that they will be treated respectfully and can talk freely about any problems. In creating an inviting atmosphere, HR can become a trusted resource. 

Employee issues receive empathy, problems are discussed confidentially. The compassion shown to listen and understand the problem and advise on achieving a suitable resolution is crucial to give employees what they deserve.

Responsible for critical business decision making

HR plays a significant role in the strategic planning and decision making of a company. Their importance lies in how their responsibilities span the organization. With much knowledge of organizational performance and the different departments and employees, HR is crucial in providing the C-Suite with a broad and informed perspective on the nature of the business. 

Without HR individuals who can deal with these numerous moving parts, businesses' internal functions will suffer.

For example, as part of their role, HR is responsible for sourcing and hiring new employees. After selecting and interviewing their chosen candidates, they, alongside other decision-makers, must determine the applicant who is suitable for the role. It can be challenging to do, but with experience and intuition, the candidate HR chooses to improve the existing team and deliver growth.

Always learning and with an eye to the future

In a constantly evolving world, HR professionals need to have a mindset of continuous improvement. HR must be willing to learn and grow within these new circumstances and wish to enhance their knowledge at any point in their career. 

With technology becoming an increasingly integral part of business processes and the rise of analytics, HR must be willing to adopt these within their daily work to improve business efficiency. 

Through this, they can understand trends within the business, such as those that affect hiring or turnover. Then, when you know the issues, you can relay what you've learnt to a broader company audience. Finally, to ensure the organization follows the proper steps to modernize the working culture and improve the employee experience.

HR can support the company by taking responsibility for the future direction. With their big-picture thinking, HR can support critical organizational functions by their understanding of the world. They can detect potential causes for change and how they may affect the business. As a result, HR can future-proof the business and support the organization effectively.

 HR Professionals: the masters of many skills

With such a broad remit, it is vital HR professionals are equipped to deal with the role. And with such an essential role in critical organizational functions, ensuring your HR professionals have the requisite skills to complete their jobs to a high standard. 

Consequently, HR can support your company with the know-how and personal and technical skills to deliver success through this.