What makes a great HR professional?

“There has never been a time of greater promise, or greater peril.” said Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, last month as political and business leaders from around the world gathered in Davos this year.  They were largely focusing their attention on two dimensions – technology and people – and what each mean to the other with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

As a talent led organization of over 370,000 people globally, people and technology are profoundly important topics for us in Accenture.  Each year we make big investments in growing and developing our people and we are constantly bringing innovations to life so our people can take time away to learn and are learning all the time.

While focusing on our primary asset - our people - is incredibly important, so is the need to develop those whose job is to develop people.  Human Resources professionals are at the centre of an incredible interplay of technology and humans.  Digital is transforming how our people work and live, and Talent professionals need to invent new solutions to enable people to build new skills and craft careers in a landscape changing rapidly with automation, in an environment where entire industries are being disrupted.

What makes a great HR professional in era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

I believe HR professionals of the future need to have three key capabilities.  The first are foundational capabilities, the entry ticket if you will.  The second are essential capabilities, or key skills to function as credible practitioners and experts.  Finally, the “X Factor”, that undefinable something that makes up the exceptional.

Foundational capabilities

In the new world, HR professionals will need to be strong problem solvers, manage complex programs, and have trusted relationships with their stakeholders to help them navigate in an environment of rapid change.  A new skill for HR professionals is design thinking – creating desired outcomes for the benefit of their customers (in this case people in the organization) by drawing upon analytical thinking, imagination and empathy.  HR practices of the future are (finally!) getting centred on the humans they are meant to serve.

Essential capabilities

There are three essential skill sets that HR professionals must actively cultivate.  Functional skills (e.g. talent acquisition, talent development, total rewards), complimented by industry skills (knowledge of the industry within which the organization operates) and business acumen (understanding of the economic drivers of the business) are key ingredients for a functioning talent professional.  These capabilities are called forth several times a day as we interact with employees, leaders, recruits, suppliers, and with each other.  We often identify ourselves by these capabilities, e.g. “I am a Total Rewards professional with experience in the consumer goods industry.”

The “X Factor”

So what makes a HR professional truly exceptional?  I believe there are two unique attributes.

The first is learning agility, or an unrelenting intellectual curiosity.  The urge to explore new realms and the thrill of constantly learning something new.  This is what keeps us on our toes and at the edge of our profession.  Learning agility is manifested in several forms … exploring of diverse fields of human endeavor from performing arts to the sciences, delving deep and researching a domain, staying current on the latest advancements, and conducting ongoing experiments, are markers of people with high learning agility.

The second, and perhaps the most critical attribute of all, is an abiding passion for people - feeling a deep sense of gratification in seeing people grow and develop.  Passion is what elevates work to a calling.  It gives us purpose.  It keeps us afloat in the face of unprecedented challenges.  Passion guides us to make the right decision for our people over an expedient one taken from the cold cell of an excel spreadsheet.

I recognise that a formal qualification in HR is conspicuous by its absence in my narrative.  I don't mean to play down it's importance (I have one), and believe it provides for a solid grounding in functional, people and business skills.  However, it is not a prerequisite for success.  HR teams with people from varied backgrounds, cultures and mindsets  are most likely to create exceptional next gen practices.

It is indeed a time of great promise ... a time to truly impact the way our people work and live.  

Twitter account: @rahulvarma123