If you are planning to enter the field of human resources and choose to pursue your career in this industry there are several things that you might want to try and consider first. Questions such as how qualified you are for the position to what most employers are looking for in an HR these days is a good start at your end.
Before getting more into depth with the discussion, let me just say that being in the human resources department is a challenge already by itself and not something to be taken lightly. The funny part here if you would think about it is that while you are applying for a position in the HR department nervously crossing your fingers and hoping for the best when you are able to pave your way to the organization of your choice and managed to land the position you will be the one taking over and interviewing to receiving candidates at the other end. Something like the interviewee has become the interviewer scenario, an occurrence where the tables have finally turned or talk about seeing a reflection of yourself in the mirror before you had the opportunity to start your career in this department.
Don’t go ahead of yourself though, do take note that even if an HR is in charge of the recruitment and hiring process of an organization, that’s just one of the skills that are needed for you to get hired yourself and have an advantage over other candidates. It is not an exaggeration but a person in the HR department basically is the solid foundation of an organization. They are the ones who are responsible for keeping the company’s balance in place to maintaining peace and order in the working environment. Without the proper management and the impactful influence of an HR inside the industry, it can create an opening for conflicts, a series of unfortunate events, chaos, and disparities to foster inside the organization.
With the competitive business world out there, you would want to stand out from the rest of the crowd or pool of candidates applying for the same job as you. Here are 3 most demanded skills when applying for an HR position:
Employee Relations with a Strong Grasp on Teamwork and Collaboration
Organizations thrive and dream for all of their employees to get along well and conduct projects together in harmony. How employees work together can seriously impact the final result and the process of any assigned operations in the organization. Even though in the professional working environment there will be times that your workers may or may not get along that well in the team. We know for a fact that sometimes it is truly inevitable for people in the organization to have some conflicts, have their own set of opinions and sometimes there is the occasional clash of personalities within the team. The rampant growth and acceptance of diversity are to blame but not the problem at all, there is more to it than meets the eye. It is how you manage and create ways to unite these personalities that matter at the end. This where an HR’s role significance comes into play.
A skill that most organizations look for in an HR these days is the ability to handle personalities and has the caliber in hand in creating a working environment where these different personalities can excel where they are good at while maintaining a good working relationship with one another. As a person working in the human resources department, it is expected of you or I might say that it is your duty to act as the bridge for your people. You need to have the audacity to make sure that your people are able to work well together and establish an environment where collaboration within the team is encouraged or practiced fairly often. To be able to highlight this skill you need to think of a scenario where there are conflicts between two parties and how were you able to settle their differences in the most effective way possible. Indicate your reasons and what were the solutions that you used for the matter, how were you able to put their differences aside and how were you able to align their goals is a good idea.
“None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” – Mother Teresa
Onboarding or Knowledgeable in the Hiring and Recruitment Process
As previously mentioned earlier, one thing that is considered a very dire task and a demanded skill in the human resources industry is the ability for you to have a strong grip or mastery of talent acquisition, which is commonly known as the hiring and recruitment process. To elaborate, the competitive business world has become a battleground for recruiting the best talents for their organizations, it has been said before that employees are the ones that either make or break a company. Having the right guy to fill in the positions and the available vacancies in the organization can be a turning point to success or a stumbling block to productivity loss. What’s more is when the candidate is able to get the said position, you need to have a strong onboarding process to help the new employee get familiarized and have a better insight with what he or she is actually supposed to do in the company. How well they will be able to adjust to their new working environment will help lessen the risk of attrition and what is called the employee turnover.
The second demanded skill that employers are looking for in an HR is the ability to recruit great employees into their company and has a strong onboarding skill to easily help these new candidates feel and have a warm welcome. You will act as a gatekeeper that will guard the entrance to the doors of the organization, you are supposed to know the people which can be a valuable asset to the company and those that may be a threat or not a significant match to the vacancy being worked on. As an HR you are expected to see their qualifications, be it in the requirements given for the position of the personality that they try to portray.
“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people not on strategies.”–Lawrence Bossidy
Technological Aptitude
Technology, needlessly to say has taken over the human resources department by storm. Innovations have already paved its way in different industries not just in HR, it has made certain that technology has been incorporated or integrated into almost every aspect in the workplace or to put it more bluntly in the world. Companies have been emerging with the use of different technologies that they used to boost their productivity and accuracy in their work.
A demanded factor that an organization is looking for in an HR these days is the ability for you to properly use technology to the best of your advantage. As a person working in the HR department, you should not be late or outdated on the new tools being used to boost the workflow.
“We need constant change, technological innovation capability, and high productivity to survive in the fierce competitive environment.”-Joe Kaeser
