Persuasiveness, leading change and credibility also important in Canadian HR
Effective communication and strategic thinking are the most important competencies for high-level HR professionals, according to a study from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in the United States.
More than 2,000 HR professionals from the U.S., Canada, India and the Middle East/North Africa ranked 18 competencies including flexibility, organizational knowledge, technological savvy, results orientation and coaching others.
“The top two competencies are ones that HR professionals realize are very important,” said Cheryl Lamerson, professional standards manager at the Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations. “You have to think strategically and have the big picture of the situation and you have to be able to communicate that situation well.”
The report, What Senior HR Leaders Need to Know, focused on the top five competencies for each of the four regions. While the top two remained stable across the board, there was some variety in the remaining three skills. Along with communication and strategy, Canada chose persuasiveness/influencing others, leading change and credibility to complete the list.
“HR leaders in Canada are steadily moving forward on the continuum from transactional to strategic support,” said Ann Marie Heffernan, manager of HR business support for liquid pipelines at Enbridge in Edmonton. “They are truly operating as a strategic partner on business leadership teams.”
Comparatively, the U.S. chose HR knowledge, integrity and ethical behaviour to round out its list. This is “likely influenced by numerous recent, well-publicized corporate scandals,” said the study.
Ethics and integrity are the “price of admission” and leaders around the world are already rated high in those competencies, said Kim Ruyle, who is on the organization development expert panel at SHRM.
“The ability to drive change is absolutely essential,” he said. “HR professionals need to not only embrace change and tolerate the ambiguity but step to the front, manage the vision and purpose of the change and get people on board.”
India chose business knowledge as its third most important competency. North American companies could learn from India’s choice, said Ken Moore, a professor at the University at Albany in Albany, NY, and HR consultant.
“The problem is we have created these silos of expertise, like HR, who have no concept of the silo next to them, like finance,” he said. “HR leaders need to be fluent in the language of the business, which is finance, and they have to understand the financial position of the company and the environment in which they compete.”
Innovation was the one major aspect missing from the report, he said. HR leaders need to think about how they can create a culture that is going to promote innovation and keep their company cutting-edge.
“They have to look at the talent, tools and processes required to drive innovation,” said Moore. “This is going to be a big focus and companies need to spend time to figure this out.”
For HR leaders in global organizations, effective communication, strategic thinking, global mindset and cross-cultural intelligence rated in the top five for each of the four regions.
The focus on global mindset and cross-cultural intelligence is likely a reflection of the increasing importance of doing business internationally. Cultural awareness is important in any international dealings, including being sensitive to the similarities and differences, said Moore.
These specific competencies are especially crucial for companies with global branches and virtual teams, said Ruyle.
“There are different time zones, different expertise and different strengths all working on a project together. It’s a very different experience working with teams in Sidney, Shanghai and Sao Paulo,” he said. “You have to have the knowledge to properly manage and accommodate each of them.”
Respondents were also asked which competency would increase in importance over the next five years. Strategic thinking and effective communication were consistent throughout the regions. In Canada, more than three-quarters of HR professionals who said leading change was of the utmost importance thought it would be even more significant five years from now.
This indicated HR professionals predict a shift that will “have a significant impact on how business is conducted in Canada and, subsequently, on HR’s role in navigating organizations through periods of change,” said the SHRM study.
These findings allow HR professionals to identify which skills require more attention, according to What Senior HR Leaders Need to Know. While some leadership skills are considered more innate than others, those that are important for HR leaders “have some measure of development and enhancement capacity,” it said.
It would be a good idea to take a critical look at how your HR leaders stack up on the top competencies, said Lamerson. Organizations should determine where they might need more training and development, and consider ways to pass the information along to the rest of the organization.
“An HR professional should be really ahead of the wave and should think about what they need to change and how they can put it in place,” she said. “You need to have the tools in your tool box before you can do anything to help with the repairs.”
