Career Tips: Top Future Skills for a Human Resource Career

Human resources is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organisation, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills that the individuals command. The role of Human Resources has shifted from an administrative function into a more strategic one. Today, organisations expect HR professionals to lead them forward in these challenging times.

Aside from recruitment, onboarding, payroll and benefits management, HR practitioners’ contributions to business have evolved as they adapt to the requirement of modern human capital management. These include forecasting and managing skills demands, recruitment investing, and talent development, among others.

There has been a significant shift in what HR professionals see as the top skills necessary to keep up with their job demands.

Digitalisation has ushered in the rise of artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual/augmented reality, blockchain and the metaverse, alongside new HR specialisations such as people analytics and even cloud data management. All this is transforming the way HR works.

Here are the top skills that HR managers will need:

1. Future-Readiness & Organisation Capability Analysis

• Future readiness requires HR people to undergo training on facing uncertain times and ever-changing environments, also known as change management.
• For instance, HR managers who were seen as future-ready during the early months of the COVID pandemic were able to lead their teams from a work-from-home set-up seamlessly and with fewer disruptions than those who weren’t future-ready.
• With change management fast becoming a capability, some organisations are far better equipped to improve the implementation of remote work.
• Also, they should be able to coordinate complex organisational changes, suggest new structures, and ensure a smooth transition.

2. Leadership – Persuasion, Communication, Coaching & Advising Skills

• Leadership skills are the foundation of a successful HR practice.
• Elements of leadership include persuasion, communication, coaching, advising, adaptability, and organisational management, among others.
• They are invaluable in today’s working environment because they ensure collaboration even in challenging times.

3. Proficiency in People Analytics

• Experience in managing big data, streamlining large internal and external datasets for easier use will be useful. 
• People analytics, for example, can help identify the common causes of attrition, absenteeism, or overtime work.
• It measures the impact of HR metrics on business performance; helps HR identify, train, and retain exceptional talent; and allows leaders to make decisions based on data, not just on ‘gut feeling’ or intuition.

4. Training Facilitation & Employee Development

• Organisations can build, create, and share knowledge both internally and externally.
• When HR and Learning & Development (L&D) professionals partner to develop courses and facilitate learning across platforms and environments, organisations are able to enhance collaboration between stakeholders.
• This, in turn, encourages better decision-making, innovation, and growth.

5. Successful Digital Adaptation

• Digital adaptation is the ability to incorporate processes, techniques, tools, or technologies to help organisations make successful transitions during significant changes.
• Keeping up with the trends of virtual reality training and artificial intelligence, for example, will help organisations retain an edge over their competitors.
• To keep up with innovation, HR professionals must acquire knowledge of digital tools and platforms and incorporate them seamlessly into their everyday practice.