How To Be a Business Savvy HR Professional

As a HR professional when you think about what new skills you might need, understanding business situations might come last or not come up at all.

Although skills like change management are required, some business acumen is in demand as well. You need to have a keen and agile ability to understand, interpret and deal with business situations.

HR professionals can very easily end up in leadership positions if they approach their careers from a HR Business partner lens. You can easily do this by becoming part of an active community of HR Professionals.

In addition to these you can take some personal steps and invest in your future. These are the three areas that HR Professionals can focus on to help improve their business sense.

1. Learning to understand the finances of your company

Financial literacy involves an understanding of accounting concepts such as profits, revenue and sales. You need to understand some financial metrics in order for you to take up any leadership roles. Then take that knowledge and apply it to dealing with a business situation in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome.

Ask yourself, can you talk about your company financially? Can you talk about the products and services? Talk about competitors. All of those things that are contributing to the success of the organisation. If you are not sure of your answers, joining a HR business partner mentorship of like minded individuals might just be the right step.

2. Awareness of the whole team

Building relationships within your organisation from a broad range of backgrounds with diverse responsibilities can also support your journey to a HR business partnership. Gaining an internal awareness of your organisation’s work environment and objectives, and how your teams work is crucial to leadership success.

3. Awareness of the politics of the organization

This basically means being able to understand organisational relationships, how to influence others and resist influence where necessary. My tip here is to involve yourself in a HRBP mentorship where you get to meet executives, who can help you understand how organisations politically gel together.

Finally,

There’s a challenge HR professionals have of getting a seat at the table. Much of the problem is centered on the lack of understanding how to contribute to the business’ bottom line. If you’re curious of how you can uplevel your career as a HR professional take the time to enroll for this HRBP Mentorship Training.