What are the right competencies and skills in Human Resource management?

Why is it so important to have specific skills in human resources management? 

As in many others, we deal and relate directly with people in this sector. And as you well know, each person is different. 

In order to be able to approach all types of people and be a better professional, in this post, we leave you with a series of tips for you to learn how to develop the right skills and competencies in HR management. 

Skills in human resource management: defining the term

The first thing we must analyze is what we understand as a skill to then be able to apply the term to human resources.

In this sense, according to the Cambridge dictionary, the correct definition would be the following:

A skill is an ability to do an activity or job well, mainly because you have practiced it.

As you can see, behind this definition lies a fact: a skill must be practiced to be helpful, something that can be perfectly applied to the human resources sector and its professionals. 

Quite simply, the ultimate goal is to optimize the talent of the workforces of the companies in which these professionals work to turn it into a differential value compared to the competitors. 

Some of the competencies required to be part of a human resources team are oriented to improve and develop human capital.

How?

By boosting the well-being, productivity, or experience of workers. This will require developing a demanding program that optimizes the competencies and skills of each section of the company. 

Types of human resource competencies for business management

In addition to the well-known interpersonal skills (which we have already discussed in our blog), other skills can help Human Resources professionals in their day-to-day work.

For human resources professionals, it is essential to have several skills related to human skill management which lead to resolving conflicts and negotiating, offering alternatives, or even saying ‘no’ to specific requests. These are oriented toward social activities and include empathy, communication skills, and leadership skills. They can be classified as soft skills.

But other skills can also be oriented to technical activities such as handling payroll programs, knowledge of labor law, etc. These can be classified as hard skills.

Soft skills

Soft skills are related to the emotional intelligence and personality of HR professionals. These competencies will allow them to have the ability to resolve conflicts and have active listening, proactivity, or teamwork skills.

Hard skills

As mentioned before, hard skills are technical skills that HR professionals acquire during their training that allow them to develop their activity professionally. An example of HR skills is related to personnel management software, Excel templates, knowledge of labor laws, and so on.

In any case, both soft and hard are necessary and complement each other.

Skills and qualifications for human resources: 8 skills that will make you a better professional

In a Human Resources department, different professional profiles depend on the skills of a human resources person and depending on the tasks they perform.

But, in any case, there are a series of important skills that work (and are recommended) for all of them. In this post, we have listed some of them.

1.) Tech skills

2.) Data Analytics

3.) Negotiating skills

4.) Active listening

5.) Organizational competencies

6.) Team and talent management

7.) Learning capability

8.) Knowledge of the company’s industry

Tech skills

Among the most relevant skills that an HR team of a company should have are those that allow for optimizing time and digitizing the department through the use of collaborative tools such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management), NPS (Net Promoter Score) or Google Suite (docs, spreadsheet, etc.).

Data Analytics

Also related to technology, data analytics is a key skill that allows HR departments to collect a massive amount of data and facilitate its interpretation to obtain patterns. Professionals are needed who can 

interpret this data and draw conclusions that allow the company to make decisions on a scientific basis.

Negotiating skills

The ability to resolve conflicts and negotiate is a must for an HR professional. The key is understanding the person in front of us and finding the best solution for both parties. On a day-to-day basis, it is necessary to negotiate such things as salary increases, annual leaves, or contract renewals.

Active listening

Active listening is a skill that can be developed and is closely linked to empathy since it is a process that begins with a willingness and contributes to work on emotional intelligence. It is a way of communicating in which words are consciously analyzed, while other complementary aspects, such as gestures and posture, are valued. 

Organizational competencies

The main task of organizational competencies and capabilities is to help everything fall into place as estimated. Without them, projects would easily lose their direction, and tasks would be left to improvisation and lack of planning.

Team and talent management

Human talent management consists of identifying the professional competencies, attitudes, aptitudes, and gaps that personnel needs to have to perform each job position correctly. 

In some cases, this will be used to hire the person best suited to the organization’s work or to develop a specific strategy that will enable employees already part of the workforce to exploit their skills.

Learning capability

It is intrinsic to the HR professional and consists of the ability to develop new knowledge and skills, the interest in continuous training, and the curiosity to expand capabilities, both technical and behavioral competencies.

It is about acquiring these skills and putting them into practice to exercise and internalize them.

Knowledge of the company’s industry

The last and most essential skill is that the HR professional must be very familiar with the company’s industry and the position within it. Only in this way will you be able to make the best decisions for your company. 

SMOWL is the gateway to remote learning of new skills

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, many of the skills in human resource management can be acquired through training and assessment processes.

Nowadays, the easiest way is to develop these processes remotely so that HR professionals can do it when and where it is most convenient. 

To make these processes as transparent and secure as possible, we recommend you use one of the SMOWL tools we have at your disposal.

Would you like to try any of them without obligation? Contact us, and we will provide you with a free trial, so you can judge for yourself.