HR professionals play a significant role in taking any organization to greater heights. Being a people’s person is not an easy job to do, day in and day out. To be in constant touch with the workforce, listening to their woes and becoming the bridge between the employee and the employer, HR does it all! But what is it exactly to be an HR professional? What are the latest trends in the HR world? What can someone do to become HR? How to carry out the duties efficiently when the HR’s role is mainly on the job training? What are some of the hardships that the HR personnel face? There are many questions. Let’s just find out the answers to some of these in the article below!

So, let’s start with an easy one!

What are the duties of an HR professional?

The HR’s job description includes several roles that they need to perform depending on the needs and requirements of the firm. So, broadly outlining, some of them are:

• Analyzing the needs of the company and thus carry out the recruitment drive

• Interviewing and hiring the right candidates

• Formulate the compensation structure and process payrolls for the employees

• Conduct disciplinary actions for the employees and moderate their behaviour

• Update and keep a record of the policies of the organization

• Maintain employee records and the kind of work performed by them

• On boarding, training of employees

• Provides means for continuing an employee’s education

• Keeping workshops and helping employees to discuss their career growth

What are the skills required to become an HR professional?

Like every job role, the role of HR also demands a set of skills that needs to be mastered to succeed in this field. Some of these key skills are:

• Communication skills: This includes clear writing and speaking skills, which is required for being a good negotiator, a good and critical listener as is required for listening to the employees and an outstanding conflict management skill, which is the most important for resolving everyday conflicts in the workplace.

• Administrative or Organization skills: This includes skills like managing records of employee leaves, the employee in and out times, payroll, absence and many more. This comprises the major daily task force of HR, so mastering this skill is a must. This also includes the skill to maintain a proper calendar and have impeccable time management skills.

• Confidentiality skills: One of the most important skills of HR is to be as confidential as possible. Being the trustworthy ear to all the employees requires the skill of being discreet. They need to be trustworthy in the eyes of the workforce so that they can open up to HR. Having a strong sense of ethics is the key skill of any professional, and that goes without saying.

• Adaptability skills: As everyone says, change is the only constant! So, the ability to change old traditions to give way to new ones is kind of like HR’s job. The ability to see the big picture while predicting the number of employees required to be hired in the next recruitment skills requires strategic skills.

These are some of the soft and hard skills that any aspiring HR needs to master to have a fruitful career in the HR domain. Having great communication skills and analytical skills are a must to do the job well, and good convincing skills can help a candidate have a bright future as an HR.

How to be a successful HR professional?

• Having a strategic approach for every problem that you encounter, aligning the company’s goals with the current doings of the firm, the ability to make decisions upfront is what makes someone a great HR.

• Being the firm’s voice, using it effectively during new hires, in meetings, aiding in conflict resolution is what will help HR be a good professional.

• Adapting to the current tech trends in the industry, thereby becoming tech-savvy will help HR to go a long way.

• Being flexible in the way of approaching people, in the way of dealing with things. Rigidity never helped anyone reach anywhere. The ability to sense changes, adapt to them and learn from them is what makes a successful HR.

• Work closely with all the other departments, learn their needs and what do they expect from HR. Collaboration with all the departments will give insights regarding what can be done to meet their shortcomings and thus serve as a great bonding exercise and a strong team for any company.

• Take risks, inspire others, work smartly and put your 100% in whatever you do.

What are the hardships faced by HR?

Being an HR is not a cakewalk. Like every other task, it also has its share of hardships. Some of these are:

• Firing an employee: It is disheartening to take away someone’s source of livelihood, and in every firm, HRs are the messengers to do that. This is probably the toughest part of their job description.

• Recruiting the correct fit for the company: Not only is recruiting a time-consuming process, but even the cost of acquiring is huge, and thus no company wants to waste so many resources on a wrong hire. So, HR needs to make sure that the hired person is the right match for the company.

• Dealing with lawsuits: Sitting across the table from a lawyer dealing with costly settlements and negotiations, being a witness, a defender and an advocate, is a tiring job and no one other than HR needs to deal with it.

• Implementing new rules and values: Now and then the company needs to keep up with the evolving trends and change its rules. The formulation of rules is a part of HR’s job, and correct implementation and making sure that everyone follows the new rules is a tough job to do.

Why is HR predominantly full of women?

It is a well-known fact that HR is a domain that has been dominated by women. Now, women being naturally empathetic, having great communication skills and being a people’s person are reasons for the same, but there are other reasons for this as well. Men not being attracted to the HR domain can also be cited as the reason for this inequality. Women are more attracted to this field mainly due to the dominant use of the soft skills aspect of the job description.

History also has something to contribute to this issue. In the late 19th century, the job of welfare workers was assigned to women, and the current-day role of HR is thought of as akin to this job. Having better influencing skills and not being able to look at the results directly in HR makes fewer men want to take up the HR role and are more attracted to the job of sales or finance. So, this makes HR traditionally a field dominated by females.

What are some of the recommended HR books and websites to be followed?

Reading up and keeping oneself updated with the happenings in the HR world is a smart decision to make. So, some of the popular HR books to help one to polish the HR knowledge and get started with the basics of this domain are:

• Human Resource Management – Gary Dessler

• HR from the Outside In: Six Competencies for the future of Human Resources Dave Ulrich, Jon Younger, Wayne Brockbank, Mike Ulrich

• Work Rules! – Laszlo Bock

• First, Break All The Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently – Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman

• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t – Jim Collins

Some of the popular HR websites to be followed are:

• Genesis HR Solutions

• SHRM in the News

• HR.com

• HR Bartender

• TLNT

• Talent Culture

What are the current trends in the HR world?

In this ever-evolving world, new trends are coming into the market almost daily, and the HR domain is no exception. So, keeping up with these trends to be ahead in this race is what every firm must do. In the face of the pandemic, everything has seen a radical change to accommodate the remote working aspect. So, some of these new HR trends in the face of the pandemic are:

• WFH Policies: Creating new and customizable work from home policies (which is the need of the hour and we are sure is going to stay for a long time!) which are required by every firm.

• Employee experience: Reinventing ways of hiring, onboarding, training and even firing people in this remote working atmosphere, basically reinventing the entire employee experience.

• Tech dependency: Increased dependency on tech like zoom calls, google meets and many more to make the employees feel connected to each other and be a part of the team. Digitization and automation both are the need of the hour.

• Upskilling: Upskilling the HR teams, to become more proficient in data handling, decision making, digital integration and becoming analytical experts.

• HR being the drivers: In the face of uncertainty, companies look towards HRs to provide solutions, and in this massive shift in work atmosphere, HRs have been handling it like the front-line workers.

HR domain is filled with its version of thrills and excitement. HR professionals are the voice of any organization. They make sure that the workplace is a happy space for all the employees working there. So, if you are a people’s person, you can lend a listening ear, are proficient in managing time, records and people, so the HR department is just for you!