5 Soft Skills Required To Work In HR

My 14-year career includes various HR roles, up to the director. During this time, I received HR training on human resource processes; counseling employees, and practicing good management by applying laws, handbooks, policies, and procedures. It also focused on employee relations and management, applying laws and other technical aspects of the work.

HR professionals are expected to be neutral yet compassionate. We are to remain understanding while we are accused of being unfair. We are yelled at, told we don’t care, and that nobody trusts us.

The human resource profession is not for the faint of heart. We grapple with intimate family situations, difficult medical stories, and death. Therefore, we must have soft skills to manage conflicting situations, politics, employees at their worst, and negativity toward our role from multiple levels of the organization.

Many of us enter manpower planning hoping to provide a neutral yet caring environment where we can help people and the organization. However, remaining objective and professional becomes tricky as we try to support employees and management simultaneously.

As an HR specialist, you need to understand how your soft skills impact your professional interactions. You may even move ahead in your career by caring about and supporting others!

To begin, what are soft skills?

Soft skills for human resources are the combination of certain personality traits, behaviors, and social attitudes that make it easy to manage people and maintain interpersonal relationships. Soft skills are essential, non-technical, non-cognitive capabilities that dictate how you interact with colleagues, solve problems, and manage your responsibilities.

1. Organisation

Being organized is imperative to succeed in a human resource management role. On one hand, the HR team has to ensure the effective filing and management of documents such as employment agreements and personal data.

Whilst on the other, they also have to be fantastic at organizing their own calendars. In-between meetings with colleagues and executives, they have to squeeze in other important tasks, like setting up employee training courses and development and organizing company events. Good organizational skills help busy teams stay productive.

2. Time management

Time management plays heavily into the organizational skills required of HR specialists. Many Human Resource tasks are time-sensitive meaning that time management is incredibly important when it comes to meeting deadlines.

3. Communication

Talent acquisition is a people-focused function. Concerned with the management of an organization’s workforce, they have to be expert communicators. As HR managers are drawn upon to resolve conflict and uphold company standards, they need to be able to communicate clearly and effectively with their colleagues.

4. Confidentiality

Part of the role of HR personnel is to offer confidential, unbiased advice to an organization’s workforce as well as handle sensitive information professionally. Therefore, being able to maintain confidentiality is very important, especially when instilling your trustworthiness.

5. Adaptability

Another important skill is to be adaptable. Unpredictable circumstances e.g. an employee who quits can shake up an HR professional’s daily agenda. To adjust to or even predict changes, HR members need to be adaptable in their approach.

Final thoughts!

Suppose your employees are lacking in these skills, you might be wondering how they can learn and develop them. An HR skills training course would equip your professionals with negotiation and persuasion, critical listening, empathy, and conflict management.

You can also take part in a public speaking master class to speak to different colleagues across the business to get advice.