Human Resources (HR) is one of the most important and challenging positions in an organization. It is the job of HR to ensure that a company operates ethically and adheres to the basic rules and regulations laid out by the government. It also helps keep employees focused and motivated, ensures that everyone has a fair chance at advancement, and ensures that all employees are treated equally in all aspects of the workplace. To succeed in the HR role, you must possess specific HR job skills and qualities which will make you stand out from other prospects and be chosen as the right person for the job.
The team at Resumeble sees a lot of resumes and CVs, and the team is well on board with what employers are looking for in their potential HR staff. Here are nine human resource job skills that modern employers are seeking the most.
1. Clear Communication
This goes for every facet of communication, from knowing the difference between “your” and “you’re” on your texts and being able to speak without using the words basically” or “erm.” A human resources job requires far more interpersonal communication than you may first realize, and clear communication is key to success in the modern HR field.
2. Good Personal Hygiene
Really? Is personal hygiene a top priority? Have things changed that much? Well, yes, they have. There is this air, especially with degree holders, that they should be able to look, act, and “smell” they please and that any deviation from this is a breach of their rights. As a result, they are getting more and more people with bad breath and bad body hygiene. Is keeping clean a skill? If it were not against discrimination trends to say so, most HR ads would specify a level of hygiene in their candidates. Be it a skill or not, you may still like to add it to your resume.
3. Administrative Expertise
This comes with practice, but if you are completely new to the field, you need to quickly learn how to work within an administrative environment. Keeping things moving, addressing problems with staff, and recruiting are all part of the job.
4. Reporting Skills
Don’t worry too much about this one because you will learn the reporting procedures when you start the job, and it gets easier the more you do it. Simply put, there is a lot of recording of activity and admin when you work in HR, and each department has its own way of keeping records.
5. Woke Awareness
Companies now set policies to determine what is acceptable in the current western culture. They expect you to know what words are not allowed to be said. Remember that speech is not free, and people shouldn’t be saying what they want, especially when they are at work.
6. Coaching, Training, and Onboarding
You have to be somewhat of a teacher when you work in HR. You may be doing anything from teaching people the basics of their job to showing them how the new tech updates will affect their role.
7. IT Skills
This one probably goes without saying. The days of written resumes and paper applications are almost gone. Everything is digital. Resumes are copied and pasted into emails and are sent in the hundreds per hour. Good IT job skills are pretty much essential. Luckily, even technophobes have a fairly good grasp of modern technology.
8. Fast and Diligent Work
There comes a time when there is simply too much to do, and the team wants you to do it as quickly as possible. They don’t want a rush job, they don’t want mistakes, but they do want the job done fast. With that in mind, if you can show and demonstrate that you are a fast and diligent worker, it will go a long way in proving that you are the right candidate for the job.
9. The Absence or Integration of Buzzwords
There are some weird corporate cultures out there. Some boardrooms are full of people watching their pronouns, to the point of referring to fish as “They” (true story), and there are boardrooms where people slap each other on the back, rip on each other, and compete to see who can be the biggest jerk. There are some HR cultures where buzzwords like “Active listening,” “Proactivity,” and “Wellbeing Evangelism” are either revered or reviled. Part of your skill set should be the office politics wherewithal to know of the dullards are impressed by fancy words or are repulsed by them.
