The 6th Overlooked Skill

Hello Everyone!

It's been a long time since my last post, what with the end of the world planned for December 21, 2012, Christmas, New Years, and then goal setting in January. I thought I would make my first post of 2013 about a great article I read this morning by Heather Huhman on Blogging4jobs.com. This article was called "5 Overlooked Skills HR Professionals Need" and I completely agree with the 5 skills listed below and I thought I would add one more as the 6th overlooked skill.

Tact


HR professionals are often faced with some prickly situations between employees, confidentiality, job openings, new hires, and policies. HR professionals are dealing with peoples careers, so to handle these situations effectively, tact is essential.

Business-savvy

Whether business executives admit this or not, HR is an essential operation in any and every business. The decisions you do and do not make have an effect on how the business runs. Being business-minded in some of your decisions will make you a better and more strategic HR professional.

Adaptability

Policies and procedures are constantly changing, not to mention current staff and job descriptions. The ability to think on your feet and adapt to new situations, ideas, and procedures will serve you well and help impact how you handle new situations.

Sense of humor

This is true for any position, but HR professionals must have a sense of humor about themselves and the situations they’re sometimes put in! Having a sense of humor AND tact can also help you navigate tense situations.

Enthusiasm

When I say enthusiasm, I mean the kick in the butt that gets you out of bed in the morning. Some might call this passion, too. Either way, having enthusiasm in your work will create a better work environment for you and your employees. You’ll become more tuned to the needs of your business’s employees, being able to provide better initiatives for their needs while getting rid of old programs or procedures that just aren’t working anymore.

Acceptance

This is an interesting term to use because when I was going to post secondary, all my classmates wanted to be in HR "To help people". After being in HR for a little over a year, I came to realise that you often have to make tough decisions or handle tough situations that may not neccessarily help people. The term "Acceptance" is used because in HR you need to accept the decisions you make, learn from them and you need to move on. If you let those tough call weigh you down, you may lose your enthusiam, your tact, or even your sense of humor.

Do you agree with these overlooked skills? Do you have any that you would like to add? Let me know.