Expert insights: HR skills for the future—pandemic or not

At a time of a crisis, what are the most urgent skills you should be building right now?

The coronavirus has challenged everyone in the workforce—but HR professionals especially have it difficult.

In many companies, HR practitioners are expected to juggle a myriad of tasks: from recruitment and onboarding to ensuring every employee’s wellbeing. As if accomplishing all of these tasks isn’t daunting enough, there is now a new set of challenges: adjusting the entire company operation to cater to the new normal.

We spoke with practicing HR professionals and experts from HR Shouts and Whispers (HRSW). In this article, they talk about the top HR strategies to beat any crisis, as well as the best HR skills you should be building right now—whether the pandemic ends soon or not.

1. Critical thinking

With the HR industry forced to solve multiple issues, learning how to prioritize is essential. Cristina Reclamado, HR generalist and the founder of HRSW, tells us why you should start building your critical thinking skill: “You have to be able to diagnose to be able to plan, so that you can come up with a solution that is affordable to the company.”

Learning and organizational development practitioner Henry John Nueva agrees to this. “The best thing that an LNOD particularly needs to do is to check and diagnose: Which are the necessary programs that we need to promote during the times of crisis?”

Meanwhile, HR administrator Donna Culala-Verzo shares that “every movement should be made with calculated risks.” She cites an example of how she learned to care for her employees during the pandemic.

“I familiarized myself with all the health conditions of our employees—who had asthma? Who had allergies? Who had weak lungs? Knowing these help tailor-fit some guidelines when guidelines have to be made.”

(Also read: Protecting your employees: New workplace health and safety guidelines against COVID-19) 

2. Sensitivity to current events

Outside the office, HR practitioners must continue their learning. Talent acquisition and HR supervisor Joy Alosbaños highlights the importance of being aware of global issues. While the coronavirus was in its early stages, she was faced with the decision to allow a company to have an outing.

“No, I don’t think so,” she firmly told the client. “There’s COVID-19 going on and I’m not going to be responsible for every single mistake here.”

If not for her being on top of the situation, she would have been thrown off the loop if something bad happened to the company. “I’m accountable to the management,” she states. “Even up to this present, I keep them updated with what is going on.”

3. Communication

“Because you can’t see who you’re talking to in person, you just can’t rely on nuances. You just can’t assume what the other person means,” operations manager Pyke Conde suggests.

“Communication has to be more explicit this time,” he adds simply. In other words, HR practitioners should have the skill to convey clear messages.

While observing e-mail exchanges, conversational hypnotherapist Ken Somera has noticed that most instructions coming from HR practitioners lack clarity.

“If we’re going to talk about communication, it’s very important that they give clear instructions,” Ken advises. “Clear guidelines can raise confusion for a lot of employees.”

4. Negotiation

Deeper into the communication skill, Cristina points out that HR practitioners must particularly learn the art of negotiation.

With industries suffering great financial loss from the crisis, HR practitioners will have to “convince or persuade a lot of union groups.” This is especially crucial for labor-intensive industries like manufacturing and real estate.

“You would have to also sway [union groups] to accept the reduced workweek schemes and other arrangements that would affect their take home pay,” Cristina says.

5. Organizational agility

During a crisis, an HR practitioner will have to talk to a lot of people: bosses, stakeholders, business partners, government agencies, and labor workers, among others. However, many HR practitioners are challenged by this role. Cristina notes that this is probably because HR is a profession bounded by restrictions.

“For example, confidentiality. You can’t just ask employees about confidential information, like pay. You’ll still need to get access to that. These kinds of restrictions became the problem when the crisis arose and all people started asking HR for help,” she says.

With that, building organizational agility is a must for HR practitioners who want to survive a crisis. A good HR practitioner can think and process things quickly; or as Cristina puts it, one must learn to “tailor-fit the message to his or her audience.” He or she sees change as manageable; therefore, knowing which rules to relax or bend when a situation asks for it.

Organizational agility also means having awareness of who to talk to and who to collaborate with. Someone with the skill can navigate the organizational culture to get things done immediately, in a rapidly changing condition.

6. Flexibility

Without a doubt, these trying times have shown the world how essential HR practitioners are. In fact, if you are an HR practitioner, you are in the forefront of your company.

Lorenz Aimee, a seasoned recruiter, believes that flexibility is the top HR skill to build right now. “In my case, when this pandemic happened, we were not only doing recruitment. We’re also conducting exit interviews; we’re doing marketing research.”

Aside from this, HR practitioners also have to look out for the mental wellbeing of their employees. Match Magboo, an HR business partner for a multinational company, says: “We need to be innovative in how to assist them⁠—not just in doing their job roles, but also in the aspect of mental health.”

While the future of the industry seems overwhelming, Lorenz thinks that HR practitioners should see this as a growth opportunity: “HR will really learn something new from the situation.”

7. Resilience

Resilience is definitely an essential skill to build—regardless of the industry you are in. As Cristina says, “When we go back [to normal], the focus will be on recovery. Both SMEs and big corporations suffered losses.”

“All of us were caught off guard by this COVID-19 pandemic,” Pyke adds. “We tend to be more reactive than proactive. Part of what we should’ve learned from this pandemic is to be prepared, because this may not be the only one to come our way. There might be other things that may affect the operations of a company.”

After doing assessments, HR practitioners can move forward towards new practices. For example, SMEs may start hiring freelancers to sustain their businesses financially. Struggling companies can be more prudent in providing benefits.

Moreover, HR practitioners could also consider providing programs that promote clarity of mind. “One of the most important things we can do is help people who are going through anxiety, depression, and stress,” Ken says. “HR professionals can learn how to handle these things—even gaining basic knowledge about it.”

At a time like this, a lot can be demanded from HR practitioners. As Cristina puts it, “You would need a superhuman to handle the complexities of the job.” It’s either that or a team of HR professionals, she says.

However, most companies don’t have the luxury to employ several HR practitioners. In fact, Cristina sheds light on what a typical Filipino company looks like: “There are only two HR practitioners. They do payroll, administration, conflict resolution, recruitment, etcetera.”

Meanwhile, multinational companies have a more effective set-up: “A team of admin is typically divided into several sections. There’s purchasing, IT, HR, and then we have general facilities management.

“If only our typical HR set-up can divide the functions of the admin, then we’d have an easier time. But, most of us weren’t prepared to address our current concerns. Especially when people had to migrate to a work-from-home arrangement.”

As a solution, Cristina suggests that it’s high-time for HR specialists to turn into generalists. But how does one develop the skills from home? HRSW and JobStreet Philippines came up with a list of suggestions.

1. Seek mentorship from other HR practitioners

Ken encourages HR practitioners to ask questions. “From what we see, HR professionals mostly handle things on their own. Or, they depend on their own knowledge and means,” he says.

Now that HR practitioners need to step up, Ken finds that seeking mentorship is helpful. “There are a lot of specialists out there who give answers—us included,” Ken continues. HRSW provides answers to common HR questions through articles in JobStreet.

If your network feels limited because of the lack of personal interaction, remember that mentorship can come through various means. You can explore the internet for inspiration pages that produce articles with professional advice from industry experts.

2. Learn from virtual classes

“Most companies now are transitioning to doing virtual interviews. Aside from that, they have also deployed the use of video assessments, as well. Even onboarding, even the contract signing, they do online,” Lorenz tells us.

(Also read: Digital recruitment is the ‘new normal’ – here’s what employers should know) 

If you think you aren’t equipped yet with knowledge on how to use certain online tools, seek help from virtual classes. “I’ve seen some people sharing webinars on how to use online tools,” Ken shares.

Nowadays, there are several virtual classes that are shared through various platforms. So whether you need to upgrade your negotiation skills, understand more about the labor code, or just learn how to use Zoom, virtual classes are your best friend.

3. Monitor free online resources

Equip yourself with online resources that are particularly for employers. Dive into JobStreet’s Laws of Attraction portal to learn more about the drivers that motivate employees.

Aside from showing insights through a comprehensive study of more than 18,000 Filipino candidates across 25 industries, Laws of Attraction also frequently releases inspiring articles for employers.

At this time, we are seeing huge opportunities for HR practitioners. As Joy puts it: “The pandemic looks at how companies manage people. How will HR react to the whole thing? How will HR help—not just the management, but employees—in their time of need?”

Finally, she wraps up the very role of an HR practitioner during a time of crisis: “While we can’t help everyone, we have to try our best to make it easier for everybody to transition from the normal to the new normal—and beyond that.”

All quotes were directly translated into English. This article is created in partnership with HR Shouts and Whispers. 

HR Shouts and Whispers is a Facebook Community set up in 2018 for both HR and non-HR professionals to appreciate and understand people management and concepts. The group produces content and is a medium that encourages discussion of pressing HR issues, mental health concerns, and other phenomena that impact the lifestyles of professionals.