Are You an Average, Good or Great HR Manager?

This is a must-read for every HR manager. 

As you are recruiting and training for the team in your company, but, at the same time, do not forget to learn and develop yourself too. As HR managers, if we don’t constantly improve ourselves and strive to be great - soon enough, our roles can be easily taken over by tech or even outsourced teams.

In my past decade working with HR managers, from my point of view, I can tell you what makes a HR Manager average, good or great.

Here’s how it looks like:

Average HR Manager

An average HR manager is operational. You cover the basics in HR, where you plan, coordinate & direct administrative functions in your company. This fully operational role that might eventually be replaced by software and systems as technology continues to evolve.

Good HR Manager

A good HR manager is operational & strategic. You handle the basics in HR, and also strategize the growth of the business such as organizational design, succession  management planning, L&D and so on. Aside from making sure that payrolls and paperwork are all sorted out, you play a strategic role to ensure that the company continues to improve too.

Great HR Manager

A great HR Manager is operational, strategic & most importantly, good in people-building. On top of ensuring that the HR operations run smoothly and strategizing the growth of the company, you truly care for your employee/ team members. This includes caring, coaching, counselling & mentoring them. You care for people!

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At the end of the day, a great HR manager takes people in their heart. They don’t just care about what happens internally in the organization, but also what happens, externally. Sometimes, a great HR Manager may even need to be very strict on people to ensure they grow.

By nature, people like to deal with them and feel connected to them. They are able to see the big picture and also have a result-driven mindset.

One of the best HR managers I’ve personally met is a Regional HR leader for a multinational professional services firm.

From our several encounters and interactions, I could see that she’s really detail-oriented. At the same time, she’s also result-driven, giving really clear scope for recruitment and the type of talents she’s looking for.

Yet, throughout the conversations, she made me feel really comfortable in sharing the recruitment market insights and engaged during the conversation. 

To me, she’s a great HR manager because she definitely has the operational skills, she has strong strategic view planning for the whole southeast Asia, and she is a people connector who makes people feel comfortable.

A great HR manager has both the HR needed skills (operational & strategic) and most importantly, a true human-connector! 

Let’s take a moment to reflect, are you an average, good or great HR manager?