How Can HR Develop Their Competencies?

Spend time working in the business – HR managers need to be business managers too. One of the best ways for HR to build an understanding of the business is to take time out of their function to work in/alongside the business. This could be anything from organising a short ‘back to the floor’ work arrangement, to negotiating a more solid chunk of time to work full-time on a specific business project. Steve Cronin, the Executive Director of group resources at Xerox Europe, argues that HR should not be seen as a career for life, instead HR professionals need to develop their career in more diverse ways. There seems to be growing consensus that some of the best HR professionals are those who are able to straddle the boundary between business and their own profession. From a career perspective, those with experience outside HR are increasingly in demand because of their wider leadership skills and enhanced knowledge.

Table 2.2: Example of an in-company HR development programme

Day	Morning	Afternoon
1		Changing role of HR – key drivers for change What does a world-class HR look like? A vision of HR within this organisation Challenges HR needs to be prepared for Barriers to success Critical success factors for HR
2	The product development cycle Policy on HR Product Management HR Product Plans Behaviours needed to support HR Product Management	Simulation exercises Learning review
3	The vision for Service Delivery The importance of standardisation Streamlining HR processes Peoplesoft implementation Employee self-service – the visions and aims	Internal consultancy cycle and skills – Part 1 Self-assessment of own competencies
4	Internal consultancy cycle and skills – Part 2 Managing change	Talent management – Introduction, overview, workshop and simulation activities
5	Leveraging the HR network Contributing to virtual teams Personal action planning

• Check out the coach’s background and roles played. If the coach hasn’t worked directly in HR make sure that they understand the function.

• Find out their motivation for being a coach.

• Establish how well networked they are – the more contacts the coach has then the more potential resources that you can draw on.

• Establish whether or not they have a supervisor – or whether they have a coach themselves.

• Get the coach to share with you the range of tools that they use.