From spreadsheets to automated workflows, from reams of resumes to intelligent ATS’, HR has witnessed a sea change in the last few years. It’s time HR professionals update their skillsets to stay ahead of the curve. Here are the top 5 HR competencies for the 21st century people management professional.
21st-century organizations must think out the box and constantly innovate. In this climate, a clearly thought out HR strategy and a highly skilled team are vital for success. What this means is that in an extremely competitive global marketplace, equipping your HR leads with skills, capabilities, and competencies will help your business reach new levels of productivity and delivery excellence. Competency, here, is a critical watchword. In many ways, it lays the foundation for a robust talent management process, making all strategic elements actionable and meaningful.
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For HR, there are 5 impact areas that must be developed in order to ensure organizational success.
#1 An atmosphere of reason and innovation, driven by data
Today, data is an incredible driving force for companies across the board. From traditional HR tech applications such as HRIS or ATS to payroll and benefits digitalization or LMS, vast volumes of data continue to pour in every day. Further, there’s also data coming in from an employee’s email, their social networking footprint, professional networks, and other online channels.
“HR leaders face a particular challenge with data, because there’s a ripple effect for every decision. Whether they are filling a need or identifying opportunities for growth, the holistic health of an organization often rests on the decisions made by HR – those decisions made better by the savvy use of data,†says Rich Cober CHRO at MicroStrategy. Read his four recommendations to HR leaders for becoming data-driven, hereOpens a new window .
HR leaders must operate as ‘data scientists’, mastering analytics, evaluating all this information, and gleaning advanced insights and action points. Further, HR teams must also define workforce intelligence, using predictive models to enhance workforce planning, regularly updating this plan with changes in the ecosystem.
Over time, assessing metrics on a granular or basic level will be automated by self-service analytics platforms and algorithms. Instead, HR leaders will need to focus on long-term strategies, looking at new areas of expansion, sourcing talent from new geographies, and doubling down on engagement efforts.
#2 A business-first mindset
Not just technology, an HR leader must also understand the inner working of the business — its short and long-term outcomes. As a result, they will match any HR KPI with enterprise goals, boosting employee productivity and business profitability.
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#3 Design Thinking in HR
Design Thinking is revolutionizing how people interact with technology, creating user-focused, simpler and more intuitive solutions. Businesses will also be impacted by Design Thinking, transforming decisions and shifting organizational culture towards a more tech-focused, yet human and analytics-driven approach. In other words, HR leaders will have to acquire new skills and reimagine organizational design and workforce planning.
Further, it will transform employee engagement by creating a continuous connect and shaping an enriched narrative, based on impactful stories and used to genuinely enthuse the modern worker. Take inspiration from Education Design LabOpens a new window , a nonprofit that applies design thinking to create new pathways from education to employment. Models such as these could be applied to internal HR as well, leading to improved career progression and succession planning.
#4 Cross-cultural and technical capabilities
As companies explore new areas of business, HR teams must also be abreast of all that’s happening around them. This means quickly adapting to new subject areas and lines of business
As talent and data pour in from various channels and people from diverse backgrounds bring their unique perspectives to the table, HR leaders must create sensitive and prejudice-free workplace environments that can nurture all these forces.
And finally, as technology takes over every day, iterative tasks, new roles, designations, and job descriptions must be created for a new era of workers. As Zoe Harte of Upwork mentioned in an interview Opens a new window with HR Technologist, “HR is not being left out of the digital party. As the business world increasingly leverages new technologies to automate and streamline processes, HR will go through its own digital transformation, allowing professionals to play a more strategic role in navigating the future of work.†Clearly, HR will have to leverage the right tools and their domain knowledge, to offer strategic assignments/tests to tomorrow’s business leaders.
#5 Understanding new media
HR leaders will have to work with their teams and other internal/external stakeholders through a wide array of new media. From wearables and VR headsets to AR and simulation-driven training and interviews, from virtual assistants to recruiting automation, technology will constantly offer new choices — breaking through communication barriers and changing how we talk to each other.
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HR leaders must be able to assess all these tools and create content leveraging these disruptive platforms, meant for every individual across the communication channel. Further, workforce intelligence experts will use these tools to refine predictive modeling and workforce planning. Instead of gathering data from several disparate sources and working with legacy systems, HR leaders can now use powerful software to architect the workplace of the future.
These are some of the most popular HR competencies for the 21st century, that businesses must work towards achieving and implementing. It will help align HR outcomes to business results, even as employees are more enthused to contribute to the company while driving individual growth and development.
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