Tips to be an Effective HR Professional.

Working as an HR Professional, there are various things one should keep in mind. You must always ensure that you are doing your job effectively. Here are few of my tips which will help you in managing Human resources more effectively and efficiently:

Recruitment & Retention:

Managing an HR unit has never been an easy task. If you are into HR management, you should be aware that the key to employing the right people for a company as well as retaining the useful and reliable people also relies on your ability of managing human resources well.To be an effective HR manager, you should focus more into hiring the best and most promising potential employees for the company as well as retaining the talent earlier hired. Being an HR professional your key to success will lie in how well you are able to balance the above two mentioned activites.

Treat everyone equally and with Respect :

One of the important element that must be kept in mind while taking the role of an HR Manager is the treatment you will be giving to your people. Your role restricts you to be biased towards a particular individual and also expects that you respect people’s feelings and emotions. Your treatment will be your stepping stone in taking the buyin of people at a later stage. Hence ensure that you treat your employees with due respect and equality.

Let your employees see you as a person and not their HR Manager:

The image of an HR Manager has changed drastically over the last decade. Their role is not restricted to a mere personnel function in an organization, but gained an important strategic dimension in all decision making activities. People expect alot more from their HR Managers in terms of their engagement, productivity, performance and recognition. It is important for us to understand that our employees wants us to be more than an HR Manager. They want us to be more personal with them and help them to fight or solve any problem whether related to their profession or not.The role today requires an HR Manager to be more close to their employees to sense their pulse and

Work as a Team:

Working with your fellow staff members as a Team is the key to success and your existence. Remember that people have capabilities which needs to be exploited so that they are more productive. As an HR Manager you need to identify these talents in your employees and align yourself to become a part of them. Team working hence holds a vital position in accomplishing any given task.

There’s no substitute for a good attitude:

“It is the attitude and not the aptitude That determines the altitude of a person”. That is what the fact remains. It always starts with a Big A, which makes the difference. While we get involved in our day-to-day affairs, we need to keep our Attitude as high as possible. There are various dimensions to the attitude. If we see in our professional and personal lives, we find people highly successful in managing their lives if they exhibit a right attitude. People, who tend to go towards negative situations, always get negative results in life.

Tough situations are an excellent time for learning:

Challenges are the real testers of ones preserverance and attitude. It is in these situations that you will learn and come out heroically. Your learning starts when you make mistakes. It is said that if you aren’t making mistakes you ain’t growing.

Take time for yourself. (and your family):

Your family has a very important role to play so that you can concentrate on your job. A good manager is one who knows how to keep a balance between his personal as well as professional life. He is responsible to the organization and has an equal important role to play at home.

10 Tips for an Efffective HR

Be Patient

People often approach HR Manager in the case of an emergency or if they would like to share their grievances. They want somebody to listen to them and help them solve their issues or problems. I completely agree that there are times when we don’t have solutions to every problem. However, as an HR professional our role becomes that of an agony aunt who lends her ears patiently and fully responds to their questions. This helps in building faith and confidence among people and eventually lead to winning their hearts.

Be Consistent Always.

One thing that people seem to value the most in their HR Managers is consistency & knowing where they stand. Employees specially don’t like HR Managers who are moody & unapproachable. Of course, if you’re going to be consistent, it would be better to be approachable all the time rather than prickly all the time.

Don’t have your favourites.

This is linked to Tip 2. Treat everyone the same, don’t have favourites. Or, more specifically, don’t be perceived as having favourites. Perception is reality, as they say. This is particularly true in management, when the people you manage may interpret your actions is ways which surprise you. You need to be particularly careful to be seen to be treating everyone equally. For example, when allocating work, allowing time off.

Don’t shout, swear, or have tantrums.

Just because you’re an HR Manager, it doesn’t mean you’re no longer a human being. You will still have frustrations and things will tax your patience. But you need to manage your emotions. When you’re an HR Manager, people are watching your behaviour. They expect you to be a role model in many ways ( see Tip 5 }. And they want you to behave consistently ( see Tip 2 ). One of the sacrifices you make when you’re an HR Manager is that you can’t just behave exactly as you want, you’ve got to think about the impression you’re making on other people.

Treat People Equally.

Be a role model for the behaviour you want from others. I’ve worked with two types of HR Managers. One type saw it as a responsibility, they were the ones who would turn up early and leave late when necessary, who would always be there when difficult things had to be done. They lead by example, they showed the behaviour they expected from others. The other type seemed to think that, now they were HR managers, they had ” made it “. In other words, they could pass on all the pressure ( and the unwanted tasks ) to other people. If you want the people who work for you to behave in a certain way, model that behaviour yourself.

Don’t join in Gossip.

Like it or not, if you’re an HR Manager, you represent the organisation you work for. You’re a leader, a role model ( as I mentioned above ). People don’t expect to see you joining in gossip ( and certainly not starting it ). If you hear other people gossiping, about the organisation or about the people in it, don’t join in and don’t encourage it. Be as open as you can with people, let them know what’s going on and what’s planned so there’s less space for gossip. But it will still happen, it’s pretty much human nature, just don’t be a part of it.

Similarly, don’t criticise other people publicly.

There are times, as an HR Manager, when you should keep your opinions to yourself. Never criticise someone who works for you in front of their colleagues. You may be tempted to let people know if you actually agree with their comments, but in the long run it tends to undermine your authority and respect.

Show Respect for others

Since I’ve mentioned respect, as a general approach, go for being respected rather than liked. Respect other people’s thoughts and opinions and in return you will gain their respect. Most people I’ve come across prefer to work for someone they respect. They don’t necessarily have to like their bosses but they do need to respect them in order for everyone to work together well. How do you get respect? By doing some of the things I’ve already mentioned - be consistent, treat people fairly and equally, show that you’re prepared to behave the way you want others to behave, etc.

Don’t try to be ” one of the gang “.

This is one of the hardest things for a new HR Manager to work out, how to walk that line between being ” friendly ” and being ” the boss “. As I’ve said, aim to be respected first. People are looking for a lead from you, they know you’re the HR Manager and not ” one of the gang “. They expect certain things from you. Of course you should be friendly and approachable but accept you’re not just one of the team, you’re a leader.

Don’t be too Emotional

One of the things that I have noticed often is that HR Managers tend to be emotional at the time of decision making. They sometimes keeps human concerns over the organizational goals. I don’t disagree that as an HR manager you should’nt be sympathetic towards your people however keep in mind that we work in an environment where proper balance needs to be maintained between the organizational objectives and people’s expectations. Tackling situations or issues emotionally might lead to wrong decision making.