“During times of crisis, it is important to have a broad set of HR skills in order to add value on a wider basis. This is the time to be willing to take on more responsibilities, learn new skills and be flexible. ”
Lynnelle Long, CHRO, Total Safety
Turbulent Times
The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant and sometimes dramatic effect on organizations. There has been an effect on the short term, with employees fired or furloughed, locations or businesses closed temporarily or permanently, and a sudden shift in work location for many, with the change to working remotely, which for many meant, working from home. Although this crisis will pass, we may feel the effects for a little while. We have already seen a very deliberate and effective shift towards more digital models and solutions. We order online instead of going to a store, and we meet through Zoom or Hangouts instead of hopping on an airplane.
Although I believe that the pendulum will swing back a bit – I don’t think we will not ‘never fly again’, and meetings in person can’t completely be substituted by online meetings – the pandemic has for many of these changes acted as a catalyst, and drastically increased the speed of change. “The New Way of Working” will simply become “The Way we Work”.
The crisis also showed the importance for employees to be flexible, agile and easily deployed in various roles. Pure specialists can find themselves in a bit of a tight spot if they can’t assume other tasks and responsibilities. So, in this article we are going to discuss why it important to continue to broaden your knowledge and experience, and how to go about it.
Pro-active versus Passive
The current crisis brought to light that it is important to have broad skills and experience. We talked to Lynnelle Long, Chief HR Officer of Houston-based global safety solutions provider Total Safety about this topic.
“I specifically look for my team to be flexible and adaptable. The more comprehensive their skills set, the more value they can bring to multiple teams or projects. It’s a great time to learn and grow as an HR professional,” Lynnelle said about her efforts to continuously broaden her team’s skills and experiences.
The Changing Numbers in Practice
Let’s look at Human Resources teams. They typically house generalists and specialists. Generalists usually are client-facing business partners, with broad yet shallow knowledge. Specialists focus on a more limited area of expertise: think payroll, benefits, talent acquisition or systems. Deep knowledge, but narrow.
In case companies reduce their workforce, the HR team typically follows. Many companies use a ratio of the number of HR employees versus the number of total employees. If the total number drops, the economics change for the HR team as well.
Even though the numbers change, the scope of work that needs to be done doesn’t change dramatically. Even when fringe or highly specialized tasks and projects are paused, there is still a lot of HR basics and HR strategy that needs to be done. The now smaller HR workforce needs to be agile and flexible, but knowledgeable and experienced at the same time.
Expand Your Knowledge
For generalists and specialists, the background is different, but the outcome is the same. In order to be more employable, it is important to expand one’s knowledge. If you are a generalist HR Business Partner, and you also have in-depth knowledge of specialized, value-add HR instruments, you will be more effective than an HR Business Partner that mainly focuses on the standard HR instruments. Learn about pensions and 401(k), benefits and employee relations. For the specialists, it makes sense to expand knowledge in similar or adjacent fields. For benefits specialists, dive into the inner workings of the HR systems, payroll or analytics. A broader view makes you more employable.
How To Increase Your HR Value
Let’s take a look at how you can strengthen your personal, professional proposition by looking at 5 points you can think of to expand your HR profile.
1. Talk to your Manager
In order to ensure you work on the right skills for the company, talk to your manager. Explain your wish to broaden your skills and experience to be more effective in the team. Make sure you have thought of good reasons, and possibly a skill or two before you talk. Show that you have given it serious thought. You don’t just pull from your manager; you bring something as well. But ultimately, ask you manager about the skills he or she believes are important for the team. Technical or presentation skills, executive presence, labor law – discuss where soft spots are, and discuss how you would be able to help.
2. Learn a new skill
Take your manager’s comments to heart, and start building your skills. There are many ways to expand the experience you have. One of my favorite techniques is shadowing specialists in certain fields, but that is arguably more difficult now. But still, you can always schedule a call or a video chat, and discuss their role. Ask them what makes them successful in their eyes, what they think is important to know, and what you can do to increase your skills and knowledge.
In addition, there are certifications out there that you could obtain. SHRM has various certifications, as does HRCI. You can obtain specifications in certain benefits, project management techniques and lean methods. Many of these are not quick and require quite some investment of time, but they’re worth it in the end.
3. Build your brand and network
One of the critical factors of success is ensuring people know who you are. In HR, we call all those we serve our Clients. What better way to know what is important to your clients, than to interact with them?
So, talk to the managers you support. Interact with the teams. Again – at this moment, asking for a face-to-face or a coffee is not practical, but a call or a video chat is easy to set up. Make sure you ‘bring’ something – have an agenda, a specific question or something you can help them with. Just having a chat and a coffee may waste valuable time, so make sure it’s an effective use of resources. Inadvertently, that also builds your HR brand.
4. Learn more about the industry and the company you’re in.
Another critical factor for an outstanding HR expert is having a solid understanding of the industry you’re in. Yes, you’d be able to give standard advice and implement standard solutions. But your industry and your company are unique, and they require solutions, instruments and an approach that fit them. The culture of the organization drives what works and what doesn’t.
Ensure you have profound knowledge of what makes your organization tick, this helps with understanding what makes a solution effective, and it helps you understand and place comments you may hear from managers and employees.
5. Volunteer
I am going to skip over the fact that you may be very busy doing your current job. The situation changed, and working from home can truly be tough. You may have picked up tasks from colleagues that are no longer there. Still, I recommend you try and find the time to volunteer and do extra projects, and specifically, those outside of your normal list of tasks.
Focus on projects for specific tools and instruments, projects that require leadership, or skills that you don’t currently possess. It’s going to be tough, but being able to add the knowledge will be worth it. If not now, then for sure further down the line.
Good luck!
“It was clear very early on that employees that focused on expanding knowledge and experience by learning and adapting, were more effective in this crisis than those that didn’t. And because we don’t really know what’s next when it comes to the new type of working, being flexible and wide-ranging will help you be better.”
Lynnelle Long, CHRO, Total Safety
About Us
Soaring + Company helps organizations perform better through their employees, processes and systems. We believe that employee development is a critical factor in your organization’s success. Talk to us today to find out how we can help strengthen you and your team.
