7 Skills You Need to Succeed in Human Resources

With technology, globalisation and workplace expectations dramatically changing, there’s never been a more exciting and opportunistic time to be in human resources.

However, success will heavily depend on a new set of competencies, mindsets, and behaviours – a message that has been reflected in the Singapore government’s newly launched Industry Manpower Plan.

Whether you work for a large multinational company or a local SME, here are the top 7 skills that you need to be cultivating.

1. Recruitment & Selection

As global competition continues to intensify, there will be increased pressure to discover the best talents efficiently. While digital technologies will play a crucial role in managing the hiring process, traditional soft skills won’t be going out of fashion. Interviewing, for example, will still be critical as the best paper applicants are not necessarily the best people for the job!

Recommended Course: Implement Recruitment and Selection Methods

Designed for anyone involved in recruitment and selection, this course empowers HR professionals to select and improve recruitment and selection methods that comply with regulations.

2. Learning & Development

Successful organisations don’t just hire the right people – they invest in them too! While Learning and Development (L&D) programmes have been around for years, their delivery has evolved. Organisations are increasingly on focusses developing teams in addition to individuals, and technology has opened up new possibilities through gamification, virtual reality, mobile learning and micro-learning (short 90 to 120-second videos).

Recommended Course: CIPD Level 3 – Diploma in Learning and Development

Having set the benchmark for excellence in people and organisation development for over 100 years, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) helps HRs stand out from the crowd with a firm foundation and professional recognition in the field of learning and development.

3. Coaching

Coaching is one of the fastest growing industries as more people and organisations seek to maximise their potential. Given that coaching utilises an array of soft skills such as listening, questioning, feedback, rapport-building and one-on-one planning, experienced employees are particularly suited for applying them in the workplace and helping to establish a coaching culture.

Recommended Course: HR as an Organisational Coach-Mentor

This 2 day training course empowers HR & L&D professionals to coach executives and managers to become the best leaders they can be while developing effective coaching environments.

4. Change Management

There are more freelancers and temp workers than ever before, work permit requirements are constantly changing and SMEs are finding it difficult to attract top talent. While these changes could be seen as threats, they have also given rise to new opportunities such as freelancer fairs, online foreign worker quota calculators and services like P-Max, which pairs job-seeking PMETs with vacancies at SMEs. The best HRs will know how to respond to these changes and influence their organisations to move with them.

Recommended Course: The Influential HR and Stakeholder Management

This 2 day course teaches HRs how to build successful partnerships within their organisation so that they can shape their company’s agendas. A Certificate of Attendance is offered by the CIPD upon completion.

5. Analytics

How will you know if your current recruitment strategy is working? How will you know if your learning development programmes are actually helping people to grow? The answer is analytics. While there are many different types of software packages that can do everything from track time (e.g. Harvest) to manage leave and performance evaluations (e.g. TribeHR), the key is knowing how to draw the right insights to inspire informed HR decisions.

Recommended Course: HR Strategic Analytics and Reporting

This 3 day course provides a thorough overview of HR analytics and how to use commonly available data software and tools.

6. Holistic Thinking

Although human resources is often seen as a function in its own right, it does not operate in a vacuum. Rather, it works in relation to all other departments. Consequently, successful HRs take a holistic approach so that HR can be used as a strategic tool to reach an organisation’s short and long-term goals.

Recommended Course: HR Business Savvy Skills

This 2 day workshop teaches HR professionals how to address problems and challenges through HR, how to be more entrepreneurial in HR and how to evaluate the value of HR to an organisation.

7. Termination & Re-employment

Whether it is due to poor work performance or disciplinary action, everyone who works in HR has to deal with termination at some point. While this is often seen as the ugly side of the business, understanding best practices as well as the latest labour policies and legislation will help to smoothen out the process for all parties involved.

Recommended Course: Managing Termination Dismissal and Re-Employment

This 1 day course ensures that HR professionals know how to implement termination and re-employment processes that are aligned with both their organisation’s needs and Singapore’s employment laws.

The organisation of the future will depend on the power of their people. Develop your HR skills and expand your career prospects by putting your SkillsFuture Credit to use today.