The HR profession is a very dynamic one and keeps changing to adapt to changes in the workplace and people management. To succeed as a 21 century HR professional irrespective of your specialty, you need to be an allrounder in these technical #hrskills. I compiled this list with reference and input from LinkedIn and Indeed data. Let’s get into it.
1. HR software:
This is rightfully top of the list, because virtually every HR function has been digitized with software to help make processes easy and integrated. Whether you are in recruitment, payroll, benefits administration, learning and development, talent management, there is a software that makes your work easy and used by professionals in your field. Let us break down some of the most common;
a. Human Resources Information Software:
This is an integrated program that often manages all aspects of the HR function in one place. It automates tasks and greatly reduces manual error. Some of the most commons ones are;
Paycom Software; This is cloud based and facilitates tasks such as labor management, HR management, etc. Reports can easily be generated, and data stored safely on the cloud.
Oracle PeopleSoft: This is often used by large organizations and is designed to solve complex HR business problems like managing employee data for multiple regions or different business units. What makes it different is its fantastic user interface that has changed how businesses use HR software.
There is also Zenefits, TimeForge, and more. You should aim to familiarize yourself with these. Go on Youtube and watch videos of how these programs work, what they are used for, read their documentation.
But, ensure you subscribe to the HR membership for just N2,999 for a year, so you can access premium HR content to help you start and build your HR career, like Top HR qualifications in Nigeria and how to choose, and a beginner’s guide to the HR profession in Nigeria, and many more content. Best N3k investment you will make this year.
b. Talent Acquisition Software (ATS):
The almighty ATS that is feared by job candidates, lol. Fear not, unless you are a candidate. But seriously, you cannot be an HR professional and not know how to use one of these, especially if you’re in recruitment and talent acquisition. There are even ones that have social media integration that enables you to post jobs on multiple job boards and social media platforms. These things have made recruitment integrated and seamless. Some of the major ones are Oracle Taleo Cloud Service, Greenhouse Software, SAP SuccessFactors and the one that most recruiters favour, SmartRecruiters. You should seriously aspire how to use these things if you don’t. You can’t be applying to work as a recruiter in a company and not research and find out what ATS suite they utilize.
c. Talent Management Software:
This helps talent managers track data about employee performance reviews, feedback and skills, to help them retain and identify great talent. You should be able to work with talent management dashboards. This dashboard helps recruiters and hiring managers create an effective selection and treatment of talent. An example is the talent 9 box grid, which accesses potential and performance.
Seriously, you should subscribe to access all the premium HR content here for just 3K a year. C’mon, stop playing and subscribe now! Best N3k investment you will make this year. Moving on.
2. HR Data analysis.
You left Economics to study Sociology because of calculations, now they have followed you to HR too, I know right, there is no escaping them. Just kidding, but HR data analysis is a must-have skill for any serious HR professional.
HR data analysis also known as HR analytics also known as people analytics also known as workforce analytics helps HR professionals to make data-driven decisions to attract, manage and retain the best employees, which further helps their companies make more money and add more value, and so on.
Using data points like employee surveys, attendance records, employee databases, employee work history, demographics data and so on, they can analyse and make better business decisions. For instance, when you post a job ad as a recruiter on your company’s site, you could use Google Analytics to look at your site career page and analyse which jobs were visited the most, by who, how long they spent, etc.
Some of the major tools used in HR analytics are Workday, Google Analytics like I’ve mentioned earlier, and R. R is a statistical and data analysis tool. Your boss calls you up Sunday morning and ask you why your top talents are leaving and requests a report on his desk first thing Monday morning, R is your guy. You can plot their employment history and come up with a predictive analysis, employee churn analysis, etc. I heard someone mention Python, oh well, you can do anything with Python, so yes, that too.
3. Gamification:
This works both in recruitment and learning and development. I remember applying to PWC UK a couple of years back and I was asked to download and play a game on my mobile phone as part of the recruitment. Wait, a game? Yes, a game, but it wasn’t candy crush. You seriously need to stop playing candy crush. It so happens that the game was a scenario game that was meant to test my thinking and tendencies, in addition to giving me a fun and engaging assessment. At the end of the game, I got my result which analysed how I played the game. But it is not only computer games, board and other games too are now used in recruitment processes.
In addition, I recently reviewed the CV of a learning and development professional, and guess what some of her major achievements were? Introducing several games and activities that foster learning and interaction among employees. Visit new workplaces now and you find that they have games equipment installed in their offices, tennis boards, PS4s, board games, basketball hoops, etc. Those are not only for decorative purposes, they are to make the employees feel connected with their team, so they are more absorbed and motivated at the workplace.
So, you should learn how this affects your job as a recruiter, L & D person, talent manager, etc.
4. Budgeting:
Did I hear someone say, here we go again with the numbers? It’s a numbers profession dear. You are expected to know how to draw up budgets, manage them and report on them. Recruitment budgets, training budgets, compensation budgets, payroll, etc. Management expects you to be on top of this and you should. This requires strategic planning considering that money and people are involved. Typical interview question for a recruitment job – recruiter to you, “how have you managed recruitment budgets in the past, and what is the highest budget you have managed?”. You should outline the process from forecasting in budget preparation, to monitoring, to reporting. This is related to the next point.
5. Finance & Accounting:
Here we go again, for the last time. Medium and small sized companies merge HR and finance function, HR and Accounting functions, yes, this happens. You are expected to be the mother and father of the business as an HR professional, you are expected to know everything about every part of the business. Anything that goes wrong, HR is always the first point of call. So, yes, both finance and accounting are also your business and you should concern yourself with these. I know you have seen job ads like HR & Finance Manager before, that’s why you should know basic finance and accounting. Bookkeeping, cashflow, financial reporting, dealing with banks and financial stakeholders, and all the other things finance, and accounting people do. This just makes you more indispensable to the business.
There are more generic technical skills that you are expected to posses, so I won’t spend time talking about these ones, like; recruitment, onboarding, scheduling, compensation and benefits management, employee relations.