Recently I ran across an old article on “essential” HR skills. It was an interesting read, and I wanted to break it down and show how it’s true (and, in some ways, maybe not so much). Today we’ll tackle the first half of them. Here’s the original list:

1. Organization
2. Multitasking
3. Dealing with Gray
4. Negotiation
5. Communication
6. Discrete and Ethical
7. Dual Focus
8. Conflict Management and Problem Solving
9. Change Management

Source: HR.BLR

Now I’d like to break these down individually and give some perspective on which ones are critical for the role of the HR professional. I’m framing this through the lens of a generalist, because that’s what I (and most of us, if I had to guess) do on a daily basis.

Organization

This is one of my weakest areas, but it’s also truly important to being great in this role. You’re balancing 50 priorities in different focus areas, and that doesn’t come easily. How do you know what is more important between a pending lawsuit that needs a response, 401k nondiscrimination testing, and handling a discrimination investigation? Whew. Be organized or be gone.

Multitasking

This one is on every list you’ll ever see for a “critical skill.” However, I think it’s less about multitasking and more about being able to shift focus quickly. Multitasking sounds like you’re trying to do 5 things at once. And in the end, that will just leave you with 5 things done in a so-so manner. Shifting focus at a moment’s notice to be able to handle a fast-moving priority IS an important skill. Multitasking can drop your IQ further than smoking marijuana, in case you were curious.

Dealing with Gray

Everything is not black and white, even in the world of policy creation and enforcement. You won’t think of everything, and that requires some level of discernment and backbone to make your job possible. If you are only interested in creating policies, adding amendments, and closing loopholes instead of using your brain, then this probably isn’t the profession for you. We have to work in the muddy areas frequently in this field, and it’s just part of the job description.

Negotiation

From handling compensation discussions to recruiting great candidates to working out your budget for the year, negotiation is something you need to work on if you plan to be successful in the HR field. In fact, I’d say the better you are at negotiating, the higher up the ladder of the profession you will go. The best and brightest HR pros I’ve run into over the years were not only unafraid of negotiating with vendors and management, they actually enjoyed the challenge! So put your negotiator hat on, because you have some work ahead of you…

Part 2: communication, discrete and ethical, dual focus, conflict management and problem solving, and change management

That’s all for today. We’ll cover the last half later this week!

I’m pretty sure that passion isn’t one of the HR job qualifications that people look for, otherwise we wouldn’t have need for the other posts in this series. If you missed them, we talked about:

• how to get an entry level HR job
• set up to fail: how we are sabotaging the next generation

So what are HR job qualifications and how can you get them?

I think there are three big “must haves” to set someone up for success, whether in HR or not.

The three key HR job qualifications

• Developing solid work habits around your strengths
• Establishing credibility through solid, dependable performance
• Taking control of your own personal and professional development

Think about the best leaders, managers, and employees you’ve ever met. Chances are they fulfilled at least one, if not all three, of these items. Again, they aren’t solely HR job qualifications, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important.

Let’s look at each and how they can feed into your career success.

Developing work habits

Thousands of articles are created every single day focusing on topics like leadership and how to lead others. Yet so many of us are lacking the critical skills and knowledge to lead ourselves. Taking the time to learn your own strengths and weaknesses and how to leverage them into career success should be the very first step in a long, but very rewarding, journey.

Learn what you do well and make it your goal to do as much of that as possible.

Establishing credibility

Once you have a foundation of skills that you can use, it’s time to “get credible.” I personally measure credibility in a few ways, but the key one for me is how often people come to me for advice or information on a topic. Everyone can be a credible expert in their topic given enough time, but most of us need a measure of credibility today, not in weeks/months/years.

I believe it’s possible to develop credibility rapidly and with relatively little effort if you harness the strengths you have and find high-value opportunities to apply them regularly.

Professional development

You can stop learning when you’re dead. Until then, every day is an opportunity to learn, grow, and do new things. If you’re fighting for a new job or a promotion, and you have very similar qualifications to the other candidate, then a strong slate of professional development activities can help to set you apart from the crowd.

Every day is a learning opportunity, and if you don’t seek out ways to continuously improve yourself, you’ll be left behind.

So, what do you think of these HR job qualifications? Would these characteristics make someone more appealing for an HR role? As someone who works with a lot of young (and new) HR pros, I think so.

Digging deeper

I have developed a video course to help entry level HR pros find and get their first job and then knock it out of the park. If you are an entry level HR pro or someone looking to get their first HR job, I highly encourage you to check it out!

The course is made up of over an hour of video content, several bonus eBooks, and weekly articles and assignments to help the training “stick” for the long term. These skills will carry you through your entire career; you just need to take the time to learn them!