In this think tank we will report the findings of the 2012 HR Competency Study.  Participants will leave this think tank with insights on what it takes to be an effective HR professional and how to become a more effective HR professional.

Since its inception in 1987 the Human Resource Competency Study (HRCS) has documented the emerging requirements of HR professionals.  This research has focused on five primary research questions, each of which will be covered in the workshop.

• What are the primary competency categories or domains (factors) of HR professionals?
• How well do HR professionals perform in each competency domain?
• Which competencies have the greatest impact on individual performance of HR professionals as perceived by their line and HR associates?
• Which competencies have the greatest impact in differentiating HR professional in high performing firms from those in low performing firms?
• What should an HR department focus on to help business success?

The 2012 iteration of the study builds on the methodology that we have previously applied including collaboration with many leading HR professional associations and universities.  This round of research includes the active participation of HR colleagues in Australia (AHRI), Latin America (IAE), China (51Job), India (NHRD), Middle East (ASHRM), Northern Europe (HR Norge), and South Africa (IPM).  These are in addition to the active involvement of contacts from the RBL Institute and the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan. 

The 2012 or sixth round of the HRCS identifies six fundamental competency domains that HR professionals must demonstrate to impact business performance. These factors address a number of themes facing global business today:

• Outside/in: HR must turn outside business trends and stakeholder expectations into internal actions that drive performance;
• Business/people: HR must focus on both business results and human capital improvement;
• Individual/organizational: HR should target both individual ability and organization capabilities;
• Event/sustainability over time: HR is not about an isolated activity (a training, communication, staffing, or compensation program) but sustainable and integrated solutions.
• Past/future: HR should respect the heritage of organizations, but also shape the future
• Administrative/strategic: HR must attend to both day-to-day administrative processes and long-term strategic practices; it’s not one another, but both.

The six competency domains are:

- Strategic Positioner. High performing HR professionals think and act from the outside/in. They are deeply knowledgeable of and translate external business trends into internal decisions and actions. They understand the general business conditions (e.g., social, technological, economic, political, environmental, and demographic trends) that affect their industry and geography. They target and serve key customers of their organization by identifying customer segments, knowing customer expectations, and aligning organization actions to meet customer needs. They also co-create their organizations’ strategic responses to business conditions and customer expectations by helping frame and make strategic and organization choices.

- Credible Activist. Effective HR professionals are credible activists. Credibility comes when HR professionals do what they promise, build personal relationships of trust, and can be relied on to meet commitments. Being a trusted advisor starts with deep business knowledge and acumen. As an activist, HR professionals have a point of view, not only about HR activities, but about business demands. As activists, HR professionals learn how to influence others in a positive way through clear, consistent, and high impact communications. Some call this HR with an attitude. HR professionals who are credible but not activists are admired, but have little impact. Those who are activists but not credible may have good ideas, but not much attention will be given them. To be credible activists, HR professionals need to be self-aware and committed to building their professionalism.

- Capability Builder. An effective HR professional melds individual abilities into an effective and strong organization by helping to define and build critical organization capabilities. Organization is not just structure or process; it starts with capability which is what the organization is good at and known for. HR professionals should be able to audit and invest in the creation of organizational capabilities. These capabilities outlast the behavior or performance of any individual person or system. Capabilities have been referred to as a company’s culture, process, or identity. HR professionals should facilitate capability audits to determine the identity of the organizations. Such capabilities include customer service, speed, quality, efficiency, innovation, and collaboration. One such emerging capability of successful organizations is to create an organization where employees find meaning and purpose at work. HR professionals can help line managers create meaning so that the capability of the organization reflects the deeper values of the employees.

- Change Champion. As change champions, HR professionals ensure that organization actions are integrated and sustained through disciplined change processes. Strong HR professionals make an organization’s internal capacity for change match or lead the external pace of change. As change champions, HR Professionals help make change happen at institutional (changing patterns), initiative (making things happen), and individual (enabling personal change) levels. To make change happen at these three levels, HR professionals play two critical roles. First, they initiate change which means they build a case for why change matters, overcome resistance to change, engage key stakeholders in the process of change, and articulate the decisions to start change. Second, they sustain change by institutionalizing change through organizational resources, organization structure, communication, and continual learning. As change champions, HR professionals partner to create organizations that are agile, flexible, responsive, and make transformation happen in ways that create sustainable value.

-Human Resource Innovator and Integrator. Effective HR professionals innovate and integrate HR practices into unified solutions that solve business problems. They must know latest insights on key HR practice areas related to human capital (talent sourcing, talent development), performance accountability (appraisal, rewards), organization design (teamwork, organization development), and communication. They must also be able to turn these unique HR practice areas into integrated solutions, generally around an organization’s leadership brand. These innovative and integrated HR practices impact business results by ensuring that HR practices maintain their focus over the long run and do not become seduced by HR fads or irrelevant “best practices”.

- Technology Proponent. In recent years, technology has changed the way HR people think and do their administrative and strategic work. At a basic level, HR professionals need to use technology to more efficiently deliver HR administrative systems like benefits, payroll processing, healthcare costs, and other administrative services. In addition, HR professionals need to use technology to keep people connected with each other. Technology plays an increasingly important role in improving communications, doing administrative work more efficiently, and connecting employees to customers. An emerging technology trend is using technology as a relationship building tool through social media. Leveraging social media enables the business to position itself for future growth. HR professionals who understand technology will create improved organizational identity outside the company and improve social relationships inside the company. As technology exponents HR professionals have to access, advocate, analyze and align technology for information, efficiency, and relationships.

Because the six domains of HR competence address the external trends identified above, they have an impact on both the perceived effectiveness of the HR professional and the performance of the business supported by the HR professional.

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