Human Resource Management professionals need to have a number of skills in their arsenal to do their work well. In this article, we provide you with an overview of the most sought-after skills in HR that you should look to develop, practice and demonstrate throughout your career.

Communication Skills

Communication skills are as essential in Human Resource Management as they are for any other job. In an organization, the HR professional is the critical link between the business and the employee, serving as advocate for employees and representative for management.

To successfully create and maintain this link, you require great communication skills because you will be communicating with different stakeholders, and at different levels of authority and influence. You are a source of information for employees & stakeholders and must be able to efficiently handle their suggestions, questions and complaints effectively.

The ability to communicate both formally and informally in different ways (such as verbal and written, both in-person and online) is essential for all human resource management professionals.

Coaching Skills

Every new hire or prospective employee whose CV you receive is capable of learning, growing, and bettering themselves. However, this journey to better themselves and the organizations in which they work hinges on one key component: coaching. In order for employees to be able to grow and develop, they need people with coaching skills to help them along the way.

In the workplace, the HR generalist fills this role. The coaching skills in reference here include aspects like inclusive leadership, emotional intelligence, active listening, among others. These skills will help employees to flex into different strengths and capabilities, develop self-awareness and self-efficacy.

Character Judgement

Being a great judge of character is an important skill for anyone who is looking to first of all take charge of which person has influence in their life as well as any HR practitioner looking to be a great recruiter and people manager. To build strong, lasting and valuable work and personal relationships in life, we need to evaluate the people around us.

Most of the time, we attribute this skill to intuition and we believe that some people are just naturally gifted at it and while that may be true, character judgement is a skill that can and should be trained and mastered—especially by HRs.

Who is your favorite human resource manager? Do you see these three skills in them? You definitely do. In addition to the technical capabilities like knowing how to manage projects, payroll and so on, these 3 skills will not only open doors for you but also keep you growing.

If you don’t quite feel you’ve mastered these skills enough to list them on your human resources resume, don’t be intimidated. This is the kind of knowledge and experience you’ll acquire as an HRMAU member through the numerous engagements we host with the industry’s best performers.

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