Which competency is an HR professional said to have?

Before now HR has been a traditionally practiced such as recruitment and selection, performance management, compensation and benefit, Learning and development etc. and they mostly practice by HR generalist. However, organizations are looking for HR who will also drive the interest of the business and that is where we have HRBP. HRBP (Human Resource Business Partners) These individuals are HR professionals whose job is to partner closely with a company's senior leadership to develop an effective HR agenda. The agenda should support the organization's overall strategic objective.

Research shows that 60% of employees believe that their current skill set will become obsolete in the next three to five years. This poses a challenge for Human Resource. Not only will their existing skills become obsolete, but they will also need to develop new HR competencies to perform well according to ALHR Digital.

 According to KPMG survey, 70% of organizations have introduced at least one new technology to increase employee capacity in 2019 – a number that would have increased significantly as a result of the pandemic.

According to Dave Ulrich, a renowned HR scholar and author said:

“Human resources (HR) has traditionally been seen as a support function, working invisibly in the background to make sure the organizational gears are tuned up and working smoothly. Dave Ulrich, a renowned HR scholar and author of seminal works like "The Why of Work, The Leadership Code" and "The HR Value Proposition", firmly believes that HR must adopt an outside-in orientation: that instead of a singular focus on employees, HR needs to be focused on delivering value to stakeholders outside the firm”.

Traditionally, many HR professionals developed general academic skills in university before developing functional experience in their respective roles. Over the past six decades, HR professional highlighted certain skills that every HR professional needs to be effective in their role.

In 2019 / 2020 a global pandemic called Covid-19 came and revolution of HR change. In Nigeria many HR professional began to readjust their thinking cap and some adapted to the change while some are yet to accord to the change.

The future of HR is about Agility. How Agile are you to be an agent of change and or Business Partner. The role of HR is very significant in drive the interest of business through people and Technology. The future HR is to create value starting from the inside and to the outside perspective and this is portrayed from employee happiness to the giveaway impression /attitude given to customer. 

The future of HR is becoming more digital and data driven.

 By 2025, HR will be driven by employee experience, will be more people centric and will be more agile and seamless. In order words, HR will be more concern about people who will work with team who are agile and exhibit the four importance dimension of HR competencies to drive business through people and technology. HR leaders are pursuing transformation to be in line with the era of reality and significances.

Today’s HR professionals are facing a growing skills gap. A recent survey found that 60% of employees believe that their current skill set will become outdated in the next three to five years. This poses a challenge for HR. Not only will their existing skills become obsolete, but they will also need to develop new HR competencies to perform well. .The HR world is becoming more data driven and more usage of advanced technology for best practices and digital age are running the pace compare to 6 decade ago of the analog era or manual ways of practicing HR-According to ALHR Digital

KEY FINDINGS ON HR PROFESSIONALS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF STANDARD.

1. HR Professional are acquiring analytics Skill.

2.Workplace culture are embracing digital transformation.

3.Workplace culture is more task-oriented rather than innovative or experimental.

4.HR professional will lose their relevant if they are not pursuing digital transformation 

5.  HR Professional are obtaining data Analytical certifications and knowledge to speed up business insights and enhanced decision-making.

6.HR leaders said they have a digital workplan in place at the enterprise or HR level.

 HR Competencies for Future Standard:

The four important Dimension of HR competency model:

1.   Data driven: This are skill set with the ability to read, apply, create, and communicate data into valuable information for decision-making. The two(2) Data driven approach are

a.   Data literacy: Data literacy implicates reading and applying data and communicate data metrics, and KPIs. Tools for communicating this data are power query, pivot table, Scrum, power bi for data visualization, SQL etc. N.B data literacy scoring required proficiency level.

b.   Analytics translation is about turning people analytics insights into actions.

2.      Business acumen or business insight also referred as business savvy or business sense, is the ability to interpret the organization’s purpose, mission, goals, and business context into strategy, positioning HR policies and activities to best serve the organization’s interests.  Business Acumen individual must possess the following.

a.   Must understanding the global context of work and the internal organizational dynamics.

b.   Must understand the end- customer and align HR policies to optimize adding value

c.   Must practices strategic HR and co-creation business strategy.

3 .Digital integration is the ability to influence technology in order to increase efficiency and Productivity to drive the HR best practice and adding value to the business.

4. People’s advocate is a must have skill to build a strong internal culture the produce externally business branding, in order word below are the attribute expected.

1.  Get The Best Out Of People,

2.  Support Employee with the Skill of Leadership.

3.Developing these HR core competencies will require dedicated effort to learn and upskill. Examples include formal training, project groups, mentoring, peer coaching, leadership development plan, and other interventions. 

THE HR COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK FOR 2025

Under the the framework of HR competencies. I will emphases more on the T-Shape Skill and why it is expected of every Human Resource professional to exhibit .

What is T-SHAPE?

T-shaped skills refer to a special type of qualities that make an employee valuable. A T-shaped individual possesses excellent knowledge of and skills in specific areas and is good at working with others in a collaborative way. T-shaped are excellent knowledge of and skills in specific areas and is good at working with others in a collaborative way. T-shape also exhibit qualities that make an employee valuable; they possess excellent knowledge of and skills in specific areas and are good at working with others in a collaborative way.

 I-shaped skills is an individual who is knowledgeable/skilled in a certain area but hasn’t mastered the ability to collaborate.

X-shaped skills is an individual is a good managerial duties only.

However, The most desirable type of employee is often a T-Shape.

A T-shaped individual is a metaphor; it is used heavily by job recruiters or companies looking to hire strong employees. It is a reference to applicants possessing the most desirable skills. The vertical bar on the T-shaped person is representative of an individual’s unique abilities and skills and how deep their knowledge is related to those abilities and skills. The horizontal bar represents the person’s ability to use said skills and abilities to collaborate with others in different areas of expertise.

This diagram explain the framework of HR Competencies.

T-shaped skills or a T-shaped person helps build the very best interdisciplinary teams within a company. The four dimension of HR Competencies for 2025 are expected. And they function at the vertical ,which is the Cross-discipline Expertise. While the Horizontal which is the Deep Discipline expertise. Who basically are the functional Competencies. This are HR professional who become specialist and generalist in the four important dimension of HR Competencies in2025. A T-shaped professional must pose a deep understanding of their specialization irrespective of the job functions.

Critical Strategies to Prepare for the Future of HR in 2025

1.   Embrace Technology and Analytics.

2.   Understand How the Company Succeeds.

3.   Stay Focused on People.

4.   Be Certified (or Update Your Skill Set)

  Soft skills you should posses

1. Business knowledge

2. Leadership

3. Mentoring and Coaching

4. Creativity and innovation

5. Diversity and inclusion 

In Conclusion

The HR of 2025 will focus on having a hyper-personalized performance review system. This includes scrapping out the traditional yearly-reviews for real-time performance reports and personalized coaching. Further, employees will become the focus of attention and their 'uniqueness' will have to be recognized.

The future of HR becoming analytical and Digital. HR professional are expected to possess business acumen to drive the organization interest through people and technology.HR professional need to be a specialist in at least one functional competency and a generalist in the four (4) dimensions of HR competencies. Agility is the key to HR competencies in the future.

HR of the future : HR needs to reinvent itself and move from the traditional ways of working into Agile ways of working especially in this volatile business environment we are facing.

“The future of HR is transforming into the Agile approach. Agility is the future practice for HR”. Uzoma Ekwemuka.

The major challenges HR professional will face if they don't adhere to the new era

       1. The traditional way of HR will gradually face out because the future is looking for HR professional. Who will handle the role of a generalist and also have the business interest , the people and be proficient in technology.

Uzoma Ekwemuka